Darren Bent Net Worth
He’s bagged goals galore across a somewhat nomadic career and now chats peoples ears off on TalkSport alongside Andy Goldstein but what has that all meant for Darren Bent’s net worth?
What is Darren Bent’s net worth?
With a career littered with goals and spent largely in the Premier League it’s perhaps not all that much of a surprise that Darren Bent’s net worth sits in the region of £2m. The money has come off the back of quite a journey though. Here we look at each step of that!
Early life
Bent was born to parents Mervyn and Shirley in London back in February 1984. His family, however, are originally from Jamaica. The first decade of Bent’s life was spent in England’s capital and had set his young eyes on a prize of getting into Surrey Schools footballing setup; that never materialised for him though with Wade Small, who enjoyed a lower league career most notably with MK Dons and Sheffield Wednesday, getting the nod ahead of Bent – and numerous others.
That didn’t stop Bent’s drive for success though. At 10, Bent’s parents separated. The young striker waved goodbye to the bright lights of London and instead headed for the much more rural Cambridgeshire. Despite feeling “crushed” and “horrible” he still had football. His dad, who flirted with professional football without quite making the grade, continued to taxi him to training and games. His mum meanwhile badgered him to keep on top of his schoolwork.
Bent clearly had a talent for football but that wasn’t all. He was a highly talented long jumper too. In fact, he represented England at school level; it wasn’t him though. Bent wanted football. By this point, Bent was playing his footy with a local club – Godmanchester Rovers. His most prolific season with Rovers came when Bent was just 13-years-old. He bagged 99 goals. That put him on the radar of Ipswich Town and the Tractor Boys wasted no time in snapping him up.
In the Town academy Bent saw his game developing well but his school work had fallen away. Thankfully, on the same day his mock exam results had come in, Bent earned a two-year YTS deal at Portman Road. It would have been worth around £40 per week!
Ripping it up as a young pro
Bent quickly made the transition from youth scholar to first team fringe player at Portman Road, which was no mean feat. He was breaking through at a time when Ipswich were in the top flight penning a deal in 2001. The Tractor Boys, inspired by Marcus Stewart, had finished the previous season fifth in the Premier League and, as such, Bent was lucky enough to make his first team bow in the UEFA Cup. He was just 17-years-old when his debut came against Helsingborg in the November. Before the month was out he grabbed his first goal in professional football too. It was a drab season for the club on the whole though as they dropped into the Championship. For Bent though, that would present a real opportunity. He starred in the Championship becoming a key player for Town.
All told, Bent spent three season with Ipswich in the second tier and comfortably hit double figures in each of those campaigns. The first year he scored 18 in all competitions, which saw him rewarded with a new, much more lucrative contract before scoring 16 and then 20 goals in the next two campaigns as Ipswich battled – but ultimately failed to win promotion. Bent, however, was Premiership bound. A deal worth, in total, £3m saw Bent move to Charlton. He was banking around £15k per week courtesy of his new contract.
Bent delivers in the capital
Despite doing the business with consummate ease for Ipswich, Bent was largely unproven in the Premier League. That didn’t faze the player though as he bagged a brace in the first game of the season. It was a sign of things to come as no English player scored more goals in 2005/06. He penned a new deal in the summer of 2006 believed to be in the region of £20k per week. The next season, Charlton slumped to relegation but, again, with Bent bagging plenty of goals. There was simply no way he’d play in the Championship.
Stepping up to the Prem
Bent showed he wasn’t all about the money though when he penned a £35k per week deal with Tottenham after the North London club – and rivals to the club Bent supports, Arsenal – offered up £16.5, for his signature. In signing for Spurs, he knocked back an offer from West Ham worth £70k per week. Bent’s first campaign in white saw him net just eight goals in all competitions; it was the first time in six years that he’d not reached double figures. That record saw Bent come in for major criticism, which he openly admits ‘affected him a lot’.
The next season saw Bent tear things up for Spurs though as he top scored for the club with 17 goals. Despite that, the campaign is perhaps best remembered for Harry Redknapp lambasting Bent in a post match interview where he claimed his ‘missus could have scored that’. A £10m offer from Sunderland arrived and spelled the end of Bent’s Tottenham career.
Moving further afield
Bent saw his wages climb further with his move up north as the Black Cats offered him near on £40k per week. That was significant money at the time but Bent justified the funds almost immediately. His first season with Sunderland saw him bag 25 goals across all competition with all but one of them coming in the league; one of those goals was the famous beach ball goal.
Bent’s rip roaring form continued across the start of the 2010/11 season. By January Bent already stood on double figures for the campaign. Then the boat was rocked. Aston Villa tested the water with a transfer offer, which was rebuffed. Bent handed in a formal transfer request though and a £24m bid saw him wave goodbye to the Stadium of Light. The striker was paid handsomely at Villa Park with his basic wage sitting at £65k but with an upper end of £80k once bonuses were factored in. Bent, whose arrival saw Gabby Agbonlahor shifted wide, hit the ground running as he scored nine goals in claret before the season was out.
Another season of double figures followed in 2011/12 but things were starting to sour for Bent; one positive note though did see him join the Premier League 100 club alongside the likes of Alan Shearer, Cristiano Ronaldo and fellow former Villa man Dion Dublin. In 2012/13 Bent scored just six goals with injuries and rumours of managerial disagreements. Despite not leaving Villa permanently until 2015, they’d be the last goals he’d score for the club. From 2013/14 onwards, Bent saw his career peter out. Loan moves to Fulham, Brighton and Derby saw him to the end at Aston Villa. The Rams then signed him permanently before he joined Burton for a season. He retired in July 2019.
An England career
Bent wasn’t a stranger to the England system having been involved at various youth levels, however, he felt somewhat overlooked at senior level. Bent was regularly the top scoring Englishman in the Premier League during his career but “only” earned 13 England caps. He bagged four goals – three of which came in tournament qualification in that time but, notably, never made the cut for a major tournament.
Post playing career
Bent remains close to football in his retirement from the game. First out of the game, Bent went down the coaching route but he found it wasn’t really for him. Instead he’s moved into the media side of things. He now spends a lot of his time chatting sport on the well known radio station TalkSport. He’s also provided commentary snippets for Sky Sports, featured on the famed Soccer Saturday panel and appeared on Premier League TV; ex-England midfielder and fellow Ipswich alumni labelled him as “very good”. On top of that, Bent has also appeared on TV quiz show Mastermind but had a mare scoring just three points. His journey to this point has been an interesting one with more chapters likely to be written. Even so, at this point it sees Darren Bent’s net worth stand at somewhere in the region of £2m.