Footballers’ cars: How top players prefer financing to buying cars

They may earn a lot of money, but footballers are financially savy thanks to financial advisors and prefer to lease their motors instead of buying them outright. The top footballers and the Premier League’s elite are often spied zooming around town in Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Ferraris and any other motor that can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.  However, most of these savvy stars aren’t buying them outright. In fact, they’re craftily getting themselves the best deals for their supercars by financing them. SunSport spoke with Darren Selig, CEO for luxury car finance specialists JBR Capital, who gave us an insight into how much footballers want to pay.

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He revealed why footballers choose to finance cars over buying them outright on short-term deals. Selig said footballers prefer to pay minimal deposits on their expensive leases.”Footballers favour financing cars because they still see cars as a monthly cash-flow purchase rather than a capital item,” Selig revealed.

“They may well be earning a lot of money, but all that money is invested for them through their financial advisors and agents. At the end, they are left with pocket money, so to speak, and they’re left with a monthly budget to run their lives. Cars are just one of those items they like to spend their money on and enjoy.”

Selig pointed out the deals footballers look for, include 48-month leases that allow them more flexibility. The prices are completely dependent on how much they are putting in, and they’re not different to any other wealthy customers. Footballers can pay a ten per cent deposit to secure the car, like a brand new Lamborghini Aventador that costs £350,000.

Then with monthly payments of, for example, £3,717 they can drive around in an amazing supercar without paying anywhere near the full amount. But most footballers change their cars well within that time span. Darren said: “They tend to keep them sometimes for five minutes.” “It’s not a question of earning £180,000 a week determining their monthly payments and interest rates.

“And it’s not specific to another footballer or another individual. You also get a category of people who have a lot of money, but choose to finance their cars because they understand cars are depreciating assets. Everyone has their own personal reason why they finance their car. Some even may look to buy bigger assets and would rather do than buy a car.” Footballers like Raheem Sterling, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney have been seen in fleets of cars worth hundreds and thousands. “They do change their cars and swap them quite regularly, because they can get bored of it easily.