I’m pleased I didn’t make it to Manchester City because I abandoned football and now I’m worth 83 million pounds

“I have already thrown away a profession that was at a high level and wealthy. It was said that I have a great deal of talent and that I was ‘x, y, and z’. It was a failure, and I am aware of how it felt; but, I will not allow it to happen again. “I am grateful that those circumstances were able to occur to me.”

In the world of football, he is hardly the first potential young player who has failed to live up to the promise. There are a lot of players who complete their training at a prestigious academy, and some of them even make their debut. However, they do not make the cut and end up playing their entire career in inferior levels.

Some of them even make it back to the top, and even if they don’t, Manchester City are just as proud of the players who come out of their academy and go on to have lengthy careers in the Football League as they are of the guys who make it to the first team permanently.

In the event that the career paths of all City academy players were divided into several categories according to the level they achieved or their future careers, there would be one big outlier: The multi-millionaire Reece Wabara, who is 32 years old and has never looked back, made the decision to switch from playing football to fashion.

Wabara made his debut with the Blues on the final day of the 2010/11 season, having arrived at the club at the age of 14 and having worked his way up through the City ranks. After that, he went on loan to Ipswich and Oldham, where he scored the game-winning goal for Latics in a truly unforgettable FA Cup upset against a formidable Liverpool team in 2013. This occurred in 2013, when City great Paul Dickov was in charge of the team. After that, he went on to have loan stints with Blackpool and Doncaster Football Club until being released by City in 2014.

After that, Dickov and I found ourselves back together for good at Doncaster, and then we went on to play for Barnsley and Wigan. He was bouncing around between League One and the Championship, but off the field, something else was taking off that would ultimately change the course of his life.

“It’s my fault, I was complacent, I didn’t go hard enough,” Wabara said in December 2022 on his football career. “I have to take responsibility for my failures.” I had an easy time of it up until the age of 18, when everyone started to catch up to me. I was the most talented player. Because you are a child, you do not have that level of comprehension. You don’t push yourself too hard when it’s easy, as you don’t realize it’s easy until you look back on it.

“I was told by everyone that I was going to be tremendously talented, that I would play for England, and that I would be the next right-back for Manchester City. And because I was not good enough, everyone caught up to me eventually. I took out a few loans, but I didn’t have any success; you should know that your time is up. Due to the fact that it only takes a year to be finished, I am really paranoid. If you make a major error, you will be eliminated from the competition.

Maniere de Voir was established at the same time as Wabara’s career with City came to an end and he began his pursuit of a comeback to the top flight of the sport. Wabara was progressively expanding the company on the side while he was playing football. He saw fellow players and friends in those circles react positively to his designs, which encouraged him to put his passion for fashion into practice. Lewis Morgan, a school buddy and co-founder of Gymshark, was the one who encouraged Wabara to put his passion for fashion into practice.

“I was playing for Wigan, we got promoted and I was in the team of the year,” he explained to reporters. One of the members of management remarked that I had been doing an excellent job, but they felt that I was concentrating too much on the company. It was at that precise time, when I began to get the switch, that I realized I was engaging in a game of politics. I thought to myself, “I can’t let my future be in the hands of another person.” At that same time, I was thinking to myself, “You know what, I’m done.” I had the business, and that standing was me taking that stance.

“I was perceived by others as being flashy, not devoted, and focused on the company alone. People told me that I merely wanted to have a brand from the beginning when I started the apparel business. The fact that all of those things were simply me as a human being was not something that they noticed. I was able to run into former bosses and coaches, and they claimed that they had seen it in me and that I had been misinterpreted.

Due to the fact that I already had a reputation, it was too late for me to begin proving myself. Simply said, you have to be great from the very beginning, because it is quite difficult to fall down and then get back up again. Everything is the same in football. You don’t come across people who are referred to as the next best thing, then fall to a lower position, and then rise to become the finest thing.

Following his release from Wigan, Wabara withdrew from the sport for a period of one year until making his comeback with Bolton in February of 2017. Following his return to match fitness, the former England under-20 international had a successful season, which resulted in the Trotters being promoted to the next level of competition. However, by that time, his business was beginning to flourish, and his enthusiasm for football was beginning to wane.

According to what he said with the high-performance podcast, “I made the decision to completely stop because the business was doing really well and there is importance in focusing.” When I was either 25 or 26, I had to make a decision: which option would be more beneficial in the long run? In what ways might I rise to the top of the pack? And sadly, at the time, I had the opportunity to play in the Premier League; yet, the ratio of footballers who won the Champions League or the World Cup was low. I had no choice but to make the decision that was most rational, which was to keep the firm going and raise it to the highest possible level.

Since then, Wabara has not stopped, and he has led Maniere de Voir to generate millions of dollars in revenue. In the previous year, he was included on the Young Rich List published by the Sunday Times. His estimated wealth was £83 million, which placed him ahead of individuals like as Marcus Rashford and Stormzy. Wabara is a prolific user of social media, and he uses it to share images of his purchases, offer advise to others, and communicate aspirational messages. The company, which has its headquarters in Manchester, has recently launched a flagship store on Oxford Street in London.

He maintains that he does not have any regrets regarding his football career, and considering his success in business, who could blame him? However, he does confess that if he had the opportunity to do things differently, he would have preferred to have done them differently.

“I have already thrown away a profession that was at a high level and wealthy. According to what he shared with the CEOCAST, “I was a lot of talent and was touted to be x, y, and z.” I am aware of how it felt to fail, and I am determined that it will not happen again that I fail. The fact that those circumstances occurred to me is a source of happiness because it has taught me that if I am able to do “x, y, and z,” I should not allow myself to be the cause of that failure.

“I was at Man City and around really high performing people playing at the top of their game, watching how they operated on a daily basis,” he revealed on High Performance. “I was able to observe how they operated.” It is possible for me to get knowledge from them and realize that this is what I need to do. It doesn’t matter how successful they are; regardless of whether it’s Aguero or David Silva, they maintain the same routine every single day.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that the individual in question was so consistent and never altered their output or contribution to their craft. I wish I had learned those talents sooner or had the knowledge to analyze and observe it. In the beginning, I was a little too ignorant to recognize those signs. On the other hand, it was unquestionably beneficial to my business.

“I’m pleased I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity while Manchester City, England, was receiving very good ratings. The simple line is that I was too complacent about the situation. I always put in a lot of effort, but I could have accomplished more. It’s not anything I regret because if I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t be here right now. But if I had the opportunity to live my life over again, I would be competing in the Premier League or the Champions League right now.

Wabara was categorical in his response when asked if he would have been playing at the highest level of football if he had started his career in the sport with the mindset that he has now. “100 per cent, without a shadow of a doubt,” he stated confidently. On the other hand, I didn’t, so it’s one of those occasions. On the other hand, I would not have been able to accomplish what I have come to accomplish now if I hadn’t experienced that failure or that trace of regret.

The previous year, after being included on the Young Rich List, he gave an interview to the Times in which he stated, “I honestly don’t feel that I’ve achieved that much.” Sincerely, I have the impression that I am just getting started.

Many people would wager against him.