Hurray for King Football; but what will be the aftermath?

After the Italian national team beat the Spanish team on penalties in a gripping soccer thriller, England followed the Italians into the European Championship final on Wednesday evening. England’s Harry Kane, who is employed full-time by Tottenham Hotspur and earns an estimated salary of around 12 million euros, scored the decisive goal in the 104th minute. That is certainly more than enough money to be able to lead a carefree life - from a financial point of view - even after the end of his career. Therefore, it is not surprising that the prejudice prevails that footballers would achieve such a high income during their active time, through which they are financially provided for until old age and can afford a luxurious life-style permanently.

However, the reality is often different, because the example of Harry Kane is by no means representative of the majority of professional athletes. On the contrary, cases of poverty in old age are not uncommon among former top athletes. It is often ignored that an active career lasts only ten, or at most 15 years, after which the income stream threatens to stop abruptly. In addition, there is the constant risk of injuries, which in the worst case can end in disability and premature termination of the career. 

Based on figures from the DFL and the German Football Association, we have analyzed the salary level in German professional soccer and have concluded that most professional footballers are by no means in the comfortable situation of being automatically provided for in the long term simply by their currently very high income. However, the appropriate financial planning is challenging due to the asymmetric asset accumulation. In the classic customer case, assets are assumed to grow steadily with age. In the case of professional athletes, this is usually the opposite, which is why the question arises as to how the private financial situation can be ideally structured in these special cases.