The agent of former Manchester United and Aston Villa midfielder Eric Djemba-Djemba has revealed the amazing spending the Cameroon international went through in his time in England.

With his client allegedly running a fleet of 10 4x4 vehicles and juggling cash between an astonishing 30 different bank accounts, agent Christopher Mongay paints a sorry tale of an African footballer drowning in a sea of unsustainable credit.

Mongay told the Daily Mail: "Eric is on a different planet. He simply has no notion of money. At one point, he had 30 different bank accounts. He was juggling between credits.

"There was a time when he owned 10 4x4-drive cars - 10! I kept telling him all the time to watch out. When he arrived at Manchester United, I decided to take over the running of his accounts. It used to take me four hours a day! At United he was earning about £75,000 basic per month.

"But every penny was going straight to loan repayments. He was having to live on bonuses and extras. He started to ask United for advances and, at a club like that, something like that doesn't go down well."

Years later - following a £1.5m transfer to David O'Leary's Aston Villa in January 2005 - things had not changed. A Villa source said: "Eric was a nice guy. But he wasn't in the team and every time I saw him he just looked bored. He drove one of the biggest cars at the club, like a Hummer. People expected one of the club's really big stars to get out of it. But it was Eric. He would wear designer clothes and look flash, even though underneath he was not."

Declared bankrupt at a Birmingham court last September, Cameroon midfielder Djemba-Djemba is currently earning a relatively modest £15,000 a month playing for the Qatar SC club in the Middle East.