The most controversial footballer of all retired: he abused alcohol and gambling

He appeared in the Arsenal of England first team in the 2005/2006 season, when many pointed to him as the disciple of Thierry Henry. After being loaned to Birmingham for a year, he returned to London with the Gunners and began to be called up regularly for the Denmark National Team, with which he played the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the Eurocup in Poland and Ukraine in 2012. He won Serie A with Juventus when he was loaned out and added two titles with German Wolfsburg. Nicklas Bendtner's career fell apart and his particular lifestyle had a lot to do with it. At just 33 years old, he decided to retire.

After a long time looking for a club (he waited for a millionaire proposal from China that never materialized), the Dane who was last passing through Nottinham Forest (2016/2017) and Rosenborg from Norway, with whom he celebrated the title at the end of 2018, hung up booties and will no longer inflate nets. At the time he came to declare that he would one day play for Barcelona or Real Madrid but he never kept his promise.

Nicklas Bendtner is addicted to alcohol and gambling

Some time ago he gave a preview of his autobiography in which he recounted how he squandered a fortune when he was 23 years old and already a well-known Arsenal figure. “I'm too drunk to sit at a table. In roulette it's just about going red or black, so I thought ... It won't be that difficult. I have lost 400,000 pounds (USD 519,000) in 90 minutes, money that I don't have, I have exposed my account. I'm bankrupt if my luck does not change. I manage, staggering, to reach the bathrooms, pour water on my face. I am looking for an ATM and I get 50,000 euros more to recover part of what was lost ”, related Lord Bendtner which was one of his worst excursions to a casino on a summer morning.

On his evident addiction to the game, he elaborated: “When I was injured and could not feel the absolute emotion of living on the edge on the field, the game gave me adrenaline. Obviously, the higher the risk, the higher the adrenaline. So you go for high stakes. I've never been a guy who cares about money as a way to show off. At first it was more about fun. "

In his autobiography called Both Sides (Both Sides) he also made reference to his predilection for prostitutes and offered his arguments: “There are nightlife gold diggers who are there to have sex, then take a picture of you while you sleep and demand things so that they keep his mouth shut. One of the girls I was with said she was pregnant. She said there was a price if she didn't want him to do something about it. "What does it mean?" I asked him. And she replied that she had to pay for a new pair of breasts. So I ended up paying for her visit to the plastic surgeon".