Former Super Eagles star reveals how his father saved him from bankruptcy at 27

Former Super Eagles star Daniel Amokachi has revealed how his father's financial foresight saved him from complete ruin after he went bankrupt at the age of 27.

The Nigerian football legend became one of Nigeria's biggest football stars during the 1990s, enjoying success with the national team and in European football.

But behind the glamorous lifestyle was a young player who admits he struggled to understand how to manage the wealth that came with becoming a football star.

Amokachi was just 17 when football brought him enormous fame and financial rewards.

The former striker admitted that he did not always handle his newfound status responsibly.

"If I tell you that I was grounded, I'm lying. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to life in football. I've gone bankrupt in my life," Amokachi told Premium Times.

Amokachi recalled just how quickly his life changed after breaking into professional football.

"This is a boy who came off the street. He was living a life. At the age of 17, he was driving a Porsche. At that age, I was modelling and meeting all the superstars in the world. I don't even know them, but at that age, it's life. It's just life that you see," he recalled.

Amokachi's modelling career became another notable part of his public image and even played a role in his personal life, as he met his wife, Nadia, during a modelling show in Paris.

But the wealth and glamour eventually came crashing down. By the age of 27, Amokachi had gone bankrupt.

Amokachi believes he survived the financial crisis because his father had done something he himself had failed to do, think about the future.

Rather than allowing all of his son's earnings to disappear into a lavish lifestyle, his father invested part of the money in property.

Amokachi explained that those investments eventually became his financial lifeline.

"Why I stayed afloat is because of the investment my dad made for me, not me. And when that happened, now you have a property that will sell for N500 million. You have this that will sell for [an amount of] money," he recalled.

Those assets provided Amokachi with something to fall back on when his finances collapsed.

"That's what kept me back. You understand? That's the grace that I was talking about. Things that I didn't do, but my dad did," he added.