It has been revealed how Super Eagles striker, Obafemi Martins, extranvagantly squandered about N3.1 trillions while a player of Newcastle.MartinsadvertisementHis former management company, NVA Management Limited who has dragged the player to court over breach of contarct, told the jury how the player’s account almost went red because of his lifestyle.Obafemi Martins was paid £75,000, but allegedly squandered the earnings on an extravagant lifestyleA former Premiership footballer routinely blew his £75,000 a week wages in a matter of days and was constantly overdrawn, a court was told yesterday.Obafemi, ex-Newcastle striker 25, was paid the handsome salary after he joined the club for a £10million fee in August 2006.But despite his extraordinary earnings, his former management team yesterday claimed they repeatedly bailed him out after his bank account continually slipped into the red.The High Court heard that the Nigerian international player would withdraw £40,000 in cash from his bank account at the end of the week.But that would only last him two days, the court heard, as he topped up with a further £25,000 on the Monday morning.He was always overdrawn and repeatedly relied upon NVA Management Limited to ‘manage his life’, the High Court was told.Martins, who owned several fast cars including a top of the range Porsche 4X4, spent the money funding an extravagant lifestyle of luxurious penthouse homes and fine dining.He is now being sued by his former management company which claims that he still owes them 300,000 for sorting out his finances.He told the court that Martins would withdraw £40,000 for the weekend, followed by another £25,000 on the Monday.‘Despite earning these vast sums of money he was constantly overdrawn,’ added Mr Tennink.He said the firm, which looks after the affairs of several footballers, film and music stars, said that Martins had agreed to pay them for simply managing his life.It was under their stewardship that Martins agreed a £2million image rights deal ‘simply for being Mr Martins’.It’s claimed Martins was constantly overdrawn despite earning £75,000-a-weekHe also had lucrative sponsorship deals with various companies including Pepsi and Nike but had not been paid.When the company stepped in to run his affairs they sorted the unpaid contracts, bringing in thousands of pounds.They also organised visas when he travelled to Italy, where he once played for Inter Milan, and sorted out his passport, his mortgage and property valuations.They even arranged critical illness cover and were constantly running up and down the motorway from their London offices to Newcastle in a bid to do all that he required.‘But surely these were things a secretary could do?’ asked Judge Richard Seymour QC, referring to the size of fees charged.‘It was a Jeeves-type of role that they performed.’Mr Tennink protested that managing every aspect of his life was just part of what they did, and asked the judge to bear in mind the sort of figures these players earned.He said Martins had come to them in July 2007 and had agreed a fee of around £300,000 plus 20 per cent of any sponsorship monies they managed to acquire on his behalf.“He asked for these services to be carried out,” Mr Tennink told the court.Before they managed his affairs, Martins had not been paid a penny for his image rights for the use of his name on Newcastle shirts and mugs and had received nothing from his sponsorship deals.He could not even find the contracts he had originally signed, Mr Tennink added.Martins paid the company £67,500 in January last year and another £25,000 in April last year.But the question for the court to decide, said Mr Tennink, was whether there was a ‘binding obligation’ for him to pay the outstanding bill of over £300,000.After Newcastle were relegated from the Premiership last summer Martins was sold for £9million to German Bundesliga Champions Wolfsburg.Martins, who once owned a penthouse apartment overlooking Newcastle’s exclusive Quayside, is fighting the claim.The hearing is scheduled to last for three days.Read more…
Dear Readers,
Many things happen to us in life that is beyond us, or should we call it fate? Our writer today has disappointed her parents and she needs your advice in order to make things right. Read and advise her. Thanks.
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Dear Readers,
Please, help me. I don’t know how to clear this mess I got myself into. I hate to cause my parents pains, but what I have done, or should I say what I did, is causing them more than pains. It has become a serious heartache.
I love my parents dearly, and they love me too, they have done too much for me. I have no option but to be a good child. Please, help me. If I say I am like the proverbial child born and raised with a silver spoon, I would not be wrong.
My parents have just two of us, my senior sister and I, after they had waited on the Lord for the fruit of the womb for 10 years. My sister came at a time my father's family had given up on mummy and they had encouraged him to take another wife.
Instead of taking another wife, daddy stood by his wife and directed all his energy into making his business work; that was why he had enough to give us the best when we came.
My sister and I had the best any child could ask for. When I was born, I learnt, dad was away from the country on a business trip and his best friend, Uncle Macaus, who we all call Unce Mac, came to the hospital to take mummy and I home. In fact, mum told us that during my christening, he stood by her and did not allow her to miss daddy too much.
Uncle Mac and dad are childhood friends, people who really did not know where they were coming from thought they were related and, most of the time, neither of them bordered to correct the impression. Uncle Mac and his wife, Aunty Tina, did not wait on the Lord like our parents did, their kids came faster than we did and they are blessed with two kids too, a boy and a girl. Their children were like our big brother and sister.
Unfortunately, Aunty Tina, who had also become mummy’s good friend, died about seven years ago and Uncle Mac refused to take another wife. Because of the relationship Uncle Mac and dad had, he was always in our house and sometimes, he would take my sister and I out when we were growing up. By then his own children were away in the boarding school and later, they went to high school.
When I finished my secondary school, just like my sister, I went to the US for my university education, where I read Economics. My sister finished before me and came back to Nigeria for her youth service and started working. It wasn’t a strange thing for my uncle to stop over and check on me whenever he came to the US and he happened to be close to me.
Aunty Taiwo, I don’t know, how or when or what brought it up, but I discovered that Uncle Mac and I became attracted to each other. Initially, I felt it was a childhood fantasy, of course, I was no longer a child, I was in my late teens, but how else can I describe what I felt for the man who could more or less be called my father?
I tried all I could to fight this feeling, but all the while I was trying, I never knew Uncle Mac felt the same way. As I stated earlier, I really cannot remember who made the first move or how we started, but I started to date my father’s best friend or should I say my father’s brother.
In fact, he deflowered me, and because of this singular action, he loved me very much. Having an affair with him when I was in the US was very easy, because my parents were not there and everyone who saw us together never gave it much thought, as no one would think being with my uncle all the time was a big deal.
Just like mummy asked me a few weeks ago, “why did you do this to us, what can Mac give you that we can’t give you, even more?” I did not go into the relationship with Uncle Mac for financial gains or whatever he would give me. My parents are comfortable enough to give me the best of every thing, but something, call it fate, call it anything, brings us to do things for which others or rather people will look us you and think we have actually gone crazy.
When our affair started, Uncle Mac became a frequent visitor to the US. The first person who guessed that there was more to our relationship was my sister, when she came over for holiday. We stayed together in dad’s house. She asked me some questions but I lied to her.
I really did not know why I lied to her, because we were so close and we did tell each other everything; but I kept this to myself. Maybe, if I had told her, she would have opened up to me, she would have told me Uncle Mac had made a pass at her too, but she refused to fall for him.
That is another angle to my tale of woe. I finished my course and came back to the country for my youth service. Initially, I didn’t want to come home but daddy insisted. I wanted to stay back and start my Masters Degree immediately, but dad refused to bend the rules. When I came home, I was not lucky in Port Harcourt, and I am not so sure that my parents did not have a hand in that.
Well, after orientation, I started my NYSC and seeing Uncle Mac became a little difficult. Guess you know what it is like when you love someone with your whole heart, but you have to keep your feelings to yourself as your little secret. Uncle Mac and I started travelling out of town to see each other. Sometimes, I would leave work to meet him out of town.
I could remember a particular day that I almost missed my flight back to Port Harcourt when I came to Lagos with Uncle Mac. I did not tell my parents I was travelling, I wondered what would have happened if I had missed my flight that day.
Do not let me bore you with these little details, but I loved Uncle Mac. I really do not know how my parents got to know, but on a day after I returned from the office, mum called me and spoke with me about this issue. I denied, of course, I couldn’t have admitted or confided in her.
She told me in strong language that she and dad would be very disappointed in me if they discovered it was true. Mum went further to tell me that Uncle Mac was a womanizser and that young girls were his speciality, but to my ears, she sounded funny because I had never met any other lady with Uncle Mac, I felt she said this to paint him black before me.
I honestly do not know who fed my parents with stories of my movement with Uncle Mac; the second time they spoke with me about him, dad even told me the name of the hotel where I went to with him, but, of course, I denied that, too.
My parents were to travel to Lagos for a cousin’s wedding. Infact, we were supposed to travel together, but I told them I would stay back. Uncle Mac had travelled to Abuja on a business trip and I knew he would come to town that week-end.
As soon as my parents left, Uncle Mac and I spoke on phone and he told me he had made arrangement for hotel accommodation for us for the two days my parents would be away. I checked into the hotel without delay.
He came straight to meet me. The unthinkable happened that night when a knock at the door ushered my parents into the hotel room. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. Uncle Mac was as shocked as I was. How did my parents know I was there with Uncle Mac? Were they not supposed to be in Lagos? What happened? Daddy has not said a word to me since three weeks ago. The only thing he said to Uncle Mac was:
Why, Mac? Why did you do this to me? You know I loved you like a brother and I would not have done this to you? His words to Uncle Mac almost broke my heart. Dad was almost sheding tears.
I would have made a case for myself, before him and everybody if I had not later learnt that Uncle Mac had asked my sister out once and that he had actually slept with and even impregnated our house maid, Aunt, Julie.
I was not too young when it happened. Auntie Julie had an abortion which almost claimed her life. I thought he loved me. He had even asked me several times to be his wife. When I raised the issue of age difference, he would always tell me it didn’t matter as love is no respecter of age.
Uncle Mac has disillusioned me, I am really hurt about his deceit. I would have been dwelling on that now, if I did not have to contend with my daddy. Although mum is equally angry with me, she let out her anger by giving me a piece of her mind.
But dad’s silence is killing me. I really think he is dissappointed in me, I have always been his favourite. Please, advise me on what to do.
Maryan.
originally written by Monica Taiwo and culled from the The TribuneRead more…
