‘Keeping up with the Motsepes’: Matthew Booth tells soccer players how to spend their money

For many soccer players, finances are a touchy subject. This is due to the flashy nature of the lifestyle they live at the height of their careers and how they fail to maintain that living standard as they get older and and eventually retire.

South African football legend Matthew Booth has managed to keep himself and his family living comfortably after his retirement from the beautiful game.

Speaking to 702’s Bruce Whitfield recently, he attributed this “comfortability” to the financial decisions he made early on in his professional football career.

Chief among these decisions is the decision to free himself from the pressure of “keeping up with the Motsepes”.

“I went through a stage when I tried to keep up with the Motsepes… there were one or two cars I could’ve skipped… you get sucked in, but I’m grateful I realised it sooner rather than later.”

Booth, who now works as a SuperSport pundit, also touched on the other ways he makes money now, and how grateful he was for how things turned out for the PSL under lockdown.

Since retiring from playing football six years ago, he has gotten involved in the artificial grass industry, sits on a couple of disciplinary committee panels and runs a trust with his wife, Sonia, that facilitates football clinics and book clubs for those in need.

When speaking about money and the culture fostered in both local and international soccer, Booth shared his belief that the content of locker room talk needs to shift.

“We’ve got to change the fashionable talk in the changing room from which car they bought and how many girls they took home last night to what startups and what businesses they’re interested in and what they’re studying, what books they’re reading…”

“It is changing slowly but surely but not quick enough for my liking.”

Booth also reflected on being in a position to save money from the minute he signed his first professional contract while contrasting this with the ‘black tax’ some of his teammates had to contend with.

He advised players to be very wary of their entourage and whoever else they keep around them, as well as the life partner they choose, and at what stage they get into a relationship with this person, because this could impact their spending and financial outlook.

The former Bafana Bafana defender credits meeting his financial advisor early in his career as one of his best decisions.

“The best thing I did was when my wife and myself sat down with our financial advisor, probably about 15 years ago, just to get our ducks in a row, just for clarity of mind you know.

“From a mental point of view, it was such a relief having that meeting and finding out what we can and cannot spend, what we’ve put away etc.”

He encouraged other players to do the same.

Investing in property is another thing he counts among his best financial decisions. The downside to this, however, was his decision to manage the properties on his own. It eventually became too much work and he ended up selling some of the properties.

Listen to the full interview below:

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