The Rock Has A Warning For PSL Stars
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It has become a recurring issue in local football that legends of the game and former PSL stars lose all of their hard-earned money within a few years of retirement. This can happen for many reasons including such as a lack of financial education and unnecessary luxury purchases, but sometimes PSL stars make the right investments and plan for life after football. One such case is former Kaizer Chiefs captain Howard “The Rock” Freese, who got his PhD after retiring from football and has continued working outside of soccer. Speaking on The Big Interview, Freese discussed how he always worried about life after retirement and gives a stern warning to current PSL stars.
“We had a saying at Kaizer Chiefs, that if you played for Chiefs, we’d say ‘Welcome to America’ because the lifestyle as a Chiefs player was very different from one of the smaller teams at the time. And so suddenly you’re taken through this whirlwind of fame, and very few people are able to handle it. So what happens is, when you do play for a team like Chiefs, you forget that there’s a life outside this bubble that you put yourselves in. You get so swept away with all the supporters, the winning of the trophies, the finances that come with it and suddenly you forget what’s happening, that is where the whole problem starts to arise.”
“Almost on a weekly basis, when you pick up the newspapers, whether it can be Sunday Sun or the Sunday World, you’ll read about how our soccer players’ careers have come to an end and they’re unable to cope. If you look at it, the research is telling us that the economic lifespan of a soccer player is only two years after [they retire]. That is bad, really bad because you’re only 30, 35 when your career comes to an end, so what do you do between 35 and say 50 or 60? You’ve got a whole 30 years to live, and then how do you cope with all that?”
“We had a saying at Kaizer Chiefs, that if you played for Chiefs, we’d say ‘Welcome to America’ because the lifestyle as a Chiefs player was very different from one of the smaller teams at the time. And so suddenly you’re taken through this whirlwind of fame, and very few people are able to handle it. So what happens is, when you do play for a team like Chiefs, you forget that there’s a life outside this bubble that you put yourselves in. You get so swept away with all the supporters, the winning of the trophies, the finances that come with it and suddenly you forget what’s happening, that is where the whole problem starts to arise.”
“Almost on a weekly basis, when you pick up the newspapers, whether it can be Sunday Sun or the Sunday World, you’ll read about how our soccer players’ careers have come to an end and they’re unable to cope. If you look at it, the research is telling us that the economic lifespan of a soccer player is only two years after [they retire]. That is bad, really bad because you’re only 30, 35 when your career comes to an end, so what do you do between 35 and say 50 or 60? You’ve got a whole 30 years to live, and then how do you cope with all that?”
