Former Sunderland, Manchester United and England star Wes Brown declared bankrupt

The London Gazette confirms the ex-defender had a bankruptcy petition filed against him by HMRC on February 27 this year. The High Court approved the petition on April 12.

Brown, 43, made his name at Manchester United, where he played for 15 years winning a string of major honours, as well as 23 England caps.

He was signed by Sunderland manager Steve Bruce in 2011. He made 87 appearances in five seasons at the club, including the 2014 League Cup final at Wembley. SAFC were in the Premier League for the duration of his spell at the club.

Press reports claim he earned £50,000 per week during his United days and over £1million a year during his time at the Stadium of Light.

He later played briefly for Blackburn Rovers in the Championship, before ending his playing career at Kerala Blasters of the Indian Super League in the 2017-18 season.

Brown’s current address is given as being in Cheshire. In 2022 it was widely reported that he had separated from his wife Leanne, with whom he has three children.

In 2014, while he was a Sunderland player, Leanne revealed the couple had collected tokens to save money on a family trip to Legoland.

She tweeted at the time: “We made sure we stopped off at Tesco and bought three boxes of cereal to get the buy-one-get-one-free offer at Legoland, saving £138!”