Doncaster Rovers star who quit football for fashion on Rich List with £88m fortune

Reece Wabara, who played for Rovers a decade ago and hung up his boots in 2017 to launch his own fashion label, features on the annual Sunday Times Rich List.

The company is now estimated to be worth £100 million and Reece pockets 83 per cent of the shares.

After his contract with Man City ended by mutual consent in 2014, Wabara jumped into entrepreneurship with both feet.

Following former school mate Lewis Morgan, who co-founded Gym Shark, the then 22-year-old launched and invested £15,000 into Maniere De Voir.

He told previously said: "I kept asking, where can I maximise my potential to be great.

“I always had a way of dressing that was different and Lewis (Morgan, co-founder of Gymshark) said to me, ‘You should do something in fashion'."

Despite a rocky start, profits today have doubled to £6.6 million from last year and Oxford Street, London will soon welcome Wabara's first store.

Sport icons including Anthony Joshua and Raheem Sterling have donned apparel from the brand,

And Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards is also reportedly a supporter.

"The transition from footballer to fashion owner was a gradual one and only when the numbers and politics in football started to eat away at me did I need to make a choice," he told Sports On Screen.

"My football wasn’t progressing in the way I intended it to.

"The business was progressing at an alarming rate and I had to choose one or the other because focus is important."

In a genius business plan move, the young entrepreneur designed and produced more women's clothing in Maniere De Voir.

"Men are very simple by nature," he said.

"There's only so much you can do with those silhouettes.

"Whereas women are more experimental - and they shop a lot more, typically."

Much of the range is designed by Reece himself, including £30 T-shirts and more expensive £90 tracksuits.

His spot on the Sunday Times Young Rich List saw him land above footballer Marcus Rashford and level with rapper Stormzy's net worth.

Yet Wabara, now 31, still told The Times he often feels like a “failure” because his dreams of becoming a successful footballer were shattered so quickly.

He said: “I honestly don’t feel I’ve achieved that much.

“I honestly feel like I’m just getting started.”

He joined Rovers on a loan deal in August 2013 when they were in the Championship.

Following his release by Manchester City, Wabara rejoined Rovers on a permanent deal in 2014, scored his first goal, in a 2–1 win over Bradford City in November 2014.

He established himself in the first team as a right-back, making forty-three appearances for the club before being released by then manager Paul Dickov after telling the club that he wished to seek our new challenges – which proved to be his foray into fashion.