A millionaire Premier League ace who dumped his childhood sweetheart when she was pregnant is paying just £1,280- a-month maintenance.
The footballer, who played in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, earns nearly £1million a year from his club – which means the payments for his child work out at just over half of what he earns in a single day. But he initially denied he was the dad and only started paying after a DNA test proved the baby was his. And while his penniless ex was struggling to make ends meet, he was pictured on glamorous holidays partying with other women.
The pair began dating as teenagers, but things have now turned so sour between them, she has taken out a non-molestation court order against him. It states the player must “not use or threaten violence” against her or encourage anyone else to do so.
A friend of the footballer’s ex said: “It’s been terrible for her. At first he denied the baby was his and then he ditched her while she was pregnant. He tried to get her to have an abortion and then, when she wouldn’t, he left her. She was skint for months. At the same time he was seeing at least one other woman. He only started paying for his child when a DNA test proved he was the dad. By then the baby was eight months old.”
The pal said the player has only seen his child once during an arranged visit. It is also claimed he deliberately frustrated efforts by the Department for Work and Pensions to establish his paternity, which prompted his ex to get her local MP involved.
A letter from the politician to the DWP stated the player had “initially denied paternity” and then “delayed DNA testing”. It added he supplied “confusing name information” to the DNA testers and had not been “co-operative in supplying his true income figure”. But the player’s salary was revealed during the court process, when it also emerged he had bought himself a house and was giving his parents £10,000 a month.
The court ordered him to make the £1,280 payments. But the pal said: “It’s a paltry sum , isn’t it? He earns that in a day. It doesn’t even cover childcare. “She now relies on friends and family to help her out so she can return to her job. All while he’s living it up.”
