The former Arsenal and Galatasaray player opened up in a podcast, revealing that despite the millions he earned from football, he is now broke and can no longer see his children.

“When the opportunity to join Sunderland arose, I was in Turkey. My contract with Galatasaray had expired and the club did not wish to renew it. So I stayed there, training on my own, while friends tried to find me a club.”

Then Sunderland contacted me. When the opportunity arose, I was thrilled. I had a trial and it went well. The manager, Sam, even apologized and said, "Eboué, I want to sign you for two years." I replied, "Perfect, thank you." At that time, I was with my ex-wife and everything seemed to be going well. But right after I signed, the problems started," Eboué recounts.

“My agents, who hadn’t done anything for me, asked me for a million euros. I told them I’d rather quit football than give them that money. ‘You haven’t done anything for me and now you want me to pay you?’ I snapped at them. They took the case to FIFA and I was suspended for a year. I couldn’t play or even train with any team.”

“So I decided to stop. I’d had a lot of trouble finding a club, and just when everything seemed to be finally sorted out with Sunderland, another problem arose. From that moment on, my career started to decline. When I left everything behind, that’s when the real problems began. My ex-wife was doing things I wasn’t even aware of. I was living between England and Turkey, and when Sunderland terminated my contract, I went back to Turkey. I stayed there, hiding, because I didn’t want people to know I was without a club. I was hiding… and that’s where the divorce proceedings started,” he concluded.