Meet David 'Calamity' James: Ex-England goalie, Armani model, & now Kerala coach

David James once ate a Kerala sadhya with Sachin Tendulkar on a banana leaf. But a few months before that, he slipped on the banana skin of bankruptcy.

The former England goalkeeper is a familiar face for Indian football lovers. He is the coach of the Kerala team in the Indian Super League. And recently, he appeared in millions of homes as a World Cup expert. James, closing in on 48, seems on steadier ground now, thanks to coaching assignments and media work. But in 2014, he filed for bankruptcy. He sold off many of his possessions — which included football memorabilia and a rich athlete’s toys such as a turntable and around 1,800 vinyl records.

Calamity James to Mr Dependable
Preceding his astonishing financial plunge, James earned almost 20 million pounds from football and its attendant opportunities. He played 53 times for England. In club football, he had lucrative tenures at Liverpool, Manchester City and Portsmouth, among other sides. And along the way he modelled for Armani and H&M.

At the start of his career, James’s performance did not always match up to his potential. He was a part of a group of Liverpool players labelled Spice Boys for their party lifestyle. He was also given a title for himself — Calamity James — because he made a lot of errors. James blamed his lapses of concentration on his habit of playing too many computer games. Introspection and the study of sports psychology helped James grow into one of England’s respected goalkeepers. For a time, he held the record for the most number of clean sheets in the Premier League — 169. He played a vital role for Portsmouth when they won the FA Cup in 2008. Two years later, he was in goal for England at the World Cup in South Africa.

Divorce and extravagance
It seemed unconceivable that such a player would be crushed under debt just a few years on. A large part of his fortune is believed to have been consumed by a costly divorce and lavish spending.

Stan Collymore, James’s controversial teammate at Liverpool, wrote in his autobiography, “If he [James] had a new car and he pranged it, he would just go and buy a new car — so there were five cars parked in the drive. If he bought a new pair of shoes and he scuffed them, he wouldn’t clean them. He would just chuck them in the spare room and buy a new pair. Too much disposable income, I suppose. Too easy just to bin stuff. Too easy to spend money like you are going to be earning that kind of money for the rest of your life.”


Picking up the pieces
James has not said much about his bankruptcy. What is beyond doubt is that he busied himself in the task of rebuilding his life. He took on coaching and television analysis work. James’s reputation of being down to earth and sensitive to causes meant that whatever his bank balance, his goodwill was intact. James has done charity work in Malawi and donated his earnings as a columnist to causes. He also auctioned one of his better known paintings for the Bobby Moore cancer research fund, in the memory of England’s 1966 World Cup winning captain. It showed Moore receiving the World Cup trophy from the queen. “I’m not claiming to be Picasso but I am extremely fond of this painting because it captures the biggest moment in English football’s history,” James said about his work.

It is possible that Kerala, Kane or his experience of penury will be his inspirations for forthcoming projects.