Gabby Agbonlahor Net Worth
He spent his entire career playing for his hometown club, represented his country and, on retirement, started his own business and moved into the media. What though is Gabby Agbonlahor’s net worth?
What is Gabby Agbonlahor’s net worth?
With a career spent largely in the top flight of English football, it is perhaps unsurprising that Gabby Agbonlahor’s net worth sits at a rather tidy £3.5m. There is, however, much more than what meets the eye where Agbonlahor is concerned.
Family life
Agbonlahor was born to parents Samson and Tina Burgess in October 1986. He was born in England’s second city and spent practically his entire life in Birmingham where he was raised almost single handedly by his father; his mother walked out on the family when Agbonlahor was just two years old and the former Villa front man had no contact with her until well into his twenties.
As for his dad, Agbonlahor has cited him of being a strict father where he ensured the focus of his children was on two education and general good behaviour. This included Agbonlahor being confined to his garden or, if lucky, his local park for footballing activities. Agbonlahor, who is one of four siblings, was fortunate in many ways to have a couple of football loving brothers in Michael and Charisma. The three of them together spent their weekends and school holidays relentlessly kicking a ball about. The fourth sibling is an older sister.
As for the general home life, Agbonlahor grew up in a very modest three bedroom house. His father had one bedroom, his sister another and Gabby and his two brothers were forced to share the third with Agbonlahor recalling the conditions as ‘tight’. In the house there was no dossing about with television and game consoles. That was due to the tight ship ran by Agbonlahor’s ‘strict Nigerian dad’.
Back on the subject of his mother, her absence has clearly left a mark on Agbonlahor. On one hand he says he’s never known any different; that’s understandable given she left when he was a baby. On the other, her appeals to reconnect through the national press were nothing more than a play for some of Agbonlahor’s wealth; she made no effort to reach out to any of his siblings.
Starting out in football
Long before turning pro, Agbonlahor had his first taste of competitive football. He joined Great Barr Falcons, who played in Kingstanding – a 10 minute car ride from the family home in Stockland Green. Regardless of the level, it gave Agbonlahor the bug of football. It showed in his performances as he started hitting the net with great regularity – even if he was still a child.
Fast forward to his early teenage years and Agbonlahor was at St Edmund Campion School. By this time, he already had an abundance of pace in his legs and his speed allowed him to run rampant against his those his age; it saw him earn a call into the district football team. That would prove a pivotal moment in Agbonlahor’s life. Whilst playing for the district side, scouts caught a glimpse of the explosive Agbonlahor for the very first time. In fact, two professional clubs in the area wanted to cast a closer eye over him.
One of those teams was Aston Villa. The youngster, now 13, spent a week on trial with the Villa academy with the seven day spell culminating in a friendly game with Crewe. Agbonlahor scored a hat-trick and, perhaps unsurprisingly, was offered a full time place in the academy set up. Needless to say, Agbonlahor – a childhood Villa fan – but their hand off to join the academy. By doing so though he did have to rebuff an offer from the Wolves academy and turn his back on a fledgling athletics career.
A successful youth and catching a break
During his time in the Villa youth set up Agbonlahor set about making a name for himself. His grades at school plummeted as he put his all into football but he was flying in claret and blue. He was following in the footsteps of some big name Villans and put his name into the youth team history books as he broke a goalscoring record set by Darius Vassell for the number of goals scored in a season.
Despite that, Agbonlahor was way down the pecking order at the first team level. In fact, with big names like Milan Baros and Juan Pablo Angel at Villa Park, Gabby wasn’t even a regular in training with the first team. A couple of unspectacular loan moves followed with Agbonlahor failing to score in spells with Watford and Sheffield Wednesday. His career in football didn’t look so secure after all.
Soon though, Agbonlahor had Lady Luck smile upon him. He was back in the Villa reserve side when an injury crisis hit the first team. Agbonlahor was set for a debut. Everton won the game 4-1 but Agbonlahor has bagged the Villa goal to announce himself and, as “one of their own”, it was a turning point; until that moment he’d been playing water boy to the first team and scrubbing boots. Now he was amongst them on a regular basis.
Goal scoring, wage growing and record breaking
As Agbonlahor settled into the new surroundings, the goals became a regular thing for him. He hit 10 and 11 in his first full seasons for the club; in 2008 he was rewarded with a four year contract extension worth £15,000 per week. His output continued to impress as he scored a combined 29 goals across the next two campaigns. Another contract extension followed as Agbonlahor’s wage rocketed to £40,000 per week.
His goal scoring form dipped off after that with just one of the next eight seasons seeing him hit double figures. That was more to do with Agbonlahor, who was facing competition from Darren Bent, being used in a wide role rather than as an out and out striker though. He remained a key player for the club though and in 2014 another long term contract was handed his way; Agbonlahor saw his wage reach a career peak of £70k per week.
That new four year deal proved to be the last of Agbonlahor’s career. He hanged up his boots having spent the entirety of his career – bar a couple of loan spells – with his boyhood club. In doing so, he’d donned the skipper’s armband – where he was named captain ahead of Micah Richards – and become the club’s Premier League all time top scorer.
Representing England
Alongside Agbonlahor’s glittering Aston Villa career he also featured on the international scene. Owing to his parents, he could have represented Nigeria – and was named in a squad at one point – however, he opted for England. Shortly after bursting on the scene for Villa, he earned under 21 honours. His first senior call up arrived in February 2008 whilst he also made the squad three months later; neither time saw him capped. In November of that year his debut came. He started a friendly match against Germany with John Terry lavishing praise on him for his display. A further friendly cap came against Spain before a competitive cap arrived in a qualifier against Belarus. He started each of those three games but never scored.
On the subject of his international career, Agbonlahor recently ignited a debate with Phil Neville on Twitter. Agbonlahor was speaking on TalkSport where he spoke of big divides in the England camp with David Beckham one name in particular to receive pelters. Neville accused Agbonlahor of telling lies.
Life after football
Agbonlahor called time on his career early. He had offers on the table from lower league clubs but at 32-years-old felt the time was right. He wasn’t ready to put his feet up though. The key thing Agbonlahor will be known for is his regular appearances on much loved radio station TalkSport. He has also worked as a pundit on Sky Sports and written football focussed columns for several media companies.
A lesser known venture for Agbonlahor was in the fashion business. He launched “Six Figure” in 2018 but the company was dissolved a couple of years later. The best accounts record shows assists worth north of £70k and a cash position of £16k. In the scheme of his career earnings, that’s not massive but it can’t be ignored when considering Gabby Agbonlahor’s net worth, which stands at a healthy £3.5m.