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Sergei Fedorov’s money troubles continue

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Former Detroit Red Wings legend - and one of the first Russian hockey players to make an impact in the NHL - Sergei Fedorov made a lot of money in his storied NHL career. Unfortunately, it seems that he may have trusted the wrong people because he finds himself in serious financial trouble. In fact, he’s still planning on playing in the KHL at the age of 40 and beyond ... out of necessity as much as anything else.

MLive.com’s George Malik shares some sad details about the former Hart Trophy winning center.

Former Red Wings forward Sergei Fedorov is owed $43 million by his former business partner, Joseph Zada, but as Zada either can not or will not repay Fedorov, the former Wing sued the Hyman Lippitt law firm--which represented both Zada and Fedorov at one point--in an attempt to actually receive the $60 million pay-off Zada had originally promised to pay Fedorov to settle their differences.

Subsequently, Fedorov’s lack of finances yielded three bank foreclosures on two homes in Metro Detroit and one in Florida, and, according to LifeSports.ru, Fedorov received worse news today--and it’s news that means that the nearly 41-year-old Fedorov, who played this past season for Metallurg Magnitogorsk, might have to continue his playing career to simply keep paying the bills.

Apparently Fedorov attempted to sue the law firm Hyman Lippitt in hopes of retrieving that $60 million sum but a district court in Michigan dismissed the case. Here’s more from the Lifesports.ru story that Malik helped to translate.

Due to the fact that he was the guarantor of Zada’s bank loans, collectors are pursuing Fedorov. At the end of last year, they tried to steal the hockey player’s luxury Maybach Mercedes Benz, his Maserati, and Ferrari, but the court overturned the decision regarding repossession. Moreover, the forward finds himself in the role of an accused party--an American company recently filed a lawsuit against the player for failing to pay $1 million for two houses in the suburbs of Detroit.

In general, Sergei either needs to find eternal youth in hockey, or better lawyers.

It’s a sad story but the worst part is that it isn’t that rare in sports. Just look at the cases of $100 million athletes such as Antoine Walker, whose bad moves and excessive generosity resulted in seemingly improbable bankruptcy. Professional athletes are just as susceptible to trusting the wrong people, losing big in gambling (Jaromir Jagr, Charles Barkley) and bad investments.

Hopefully Fedorov will get some kind of relief from his money problems. He was a great player who (to my knowledge) never really had any off-ice issues (aside from dating Anna Kournikova maybe?) and proved that Russian players were worth the risk after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

(If you want to read more about the subject, check out Malik’s article.)