There is an unfortunate irony behind the bankruptcy proceedings brought against Ugo Monye following the forced closure of a company he had called ‘Show Me The Monye’.

After being wound up just over a year ago amid the reported non-payment of nearly £200,000 in tax and National Insurance, it seems Monye’s firm failed to live up to the memorable line from the sports movie from which it took its name.

But he is far from alone in that regard after becoming the latest former sports star to face financial ruin as part of what Telegraph Sport can reveal has been a major increase in bankruptcy petitions lodged by HM Revenue & Customs against individuals since the coronavirus crisis.

Data provided by HMRC shows that between 2021 and last year, the number of such petitions it filed in England and Wales grew from 130 to 694 – albeit still short of the 914 recorded the year before the first national lockdown. HMRC said it did not collate data by profession but it seems highly unlikely the number of former sportspeople targeted would not have followed a similar trajectory.

The figures only tell part of the story, of course, amid what appears to be a dearth of similar data about the root causes behind them. When it comes to Monye, his failure to respond to requests for comment about his own plight makes it impossible to know exactly how it all came to this for the former international rugby wing and A Question of Sport captain. That is unless the truth emerges during a hearing on March 25 to determine if he will be declared bankrupt or handed a reprieve. That has also tended to be the case for those whose fates have already been determined, many of whom fall into one or more of four categories: spendthrifts, addicts, failed entrepreneurs, and innocent victims.

They include the most infamous sporting bankrupt of the lot, Boris Becker, who ended up in prison for breaching restrictions placed on him by a court after blowing an estimated £100 million fortune. The three-time Wimbledon champion was jailed for two-and-a-half years in 2022 for hiding loans and assets amounting to £2.5 million – including a luxury villa in his native Germany – from creditors after he was declared bankrupt in 2017 for an unpaid £3 million debt. He was freed after serving eight months of his sentence and deported to his homeland.

Fevered speculation surrounded his bankruptcy amid reports he may have engaged in questionable investments in the Nigerian oil industry, as well as lavishing money on a jet-set lifestyle. Becker told the Telegraph following his release: “Did I make mistakes? Lots of them. Was I always advised in the most professional way? Probably not. Did I always surround myself with the right people? No. But was there ever a book written about how you’re meant to live your life if you win Wimbledon at 17 and make your first million? No, there is no handbook.”

As recently chronicled by Telegraph Sport, Sir Bradley Wiggins has gone from the face of Britain’s greatest sporting summer to one of its best-known bankrupts after amassing and losing an estimated £13 million fortune. Wiggins was declared insolvent last summer, four years after entering into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) to settle debts that included more than £300,000 to HMRC. In November, it emerged that his bankruptcy had been followed by a doubling of the claims against his estate to almost £2 million.

Bankrupts are ordinarily discharged after one year but it could be another year and a half before the affairs of Wiggins’ estate are in order. Wiggins told Cycling Weekly in 2023 that his financial difficulties were “a very historical matter that involves professional negligence from [others] that has left a s---pile with my name at the front of it to deal with”. He added: “[It] happens to a lot of sportsmen while they’re doing the grafting and on that there’ll be a number of legal claims from my lawyers left, right and centre as a result.”

Like former England and British & Irish Lions player Monye, Wiggins became subject of bankruptcy proceedings by HMRC over debts incurred by his company, Wiggins Rights Limited.

That has proven a common theme, with Rugby World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio having only narrowly averted being declared bankrupt in 2023 over the non-payment of taxes by Lawrence Dallaglio Limited. A report into the liquidated company for the year ending October 2024 stated he was still being chased for hundreds of thousands of pounds loaned to the firm.

Others take matters into their own hands, including Dallaglio’s World Cup-winning team-mate Phil Vickery, whose request to be made bankrupt was granted in February last year after reportedly racking up debts to HMRC and others totalling six figures.

Even former Premier League and international footballers have not been immune from bankruptcy proceedings. In 2023, former Liverpool and England star John Barnes avoided being made bankrupt after settling a personal tax bill of more than £200,000. But he was then banned from being a director for three-and-a-half years in April after investigations by the Insolvency Service revealed that, between 2018 and 2020, John Barnes Media Limited failed to pay more than £190,000 in corporation tax and VAT. In 2023 Wes Brown and Craig Bellamy were also declared bankrupt. Both have since spoken publicly about their plight.

Former Manchester United defender Brown, said to have paid the price for bad property deals, overpaying on a farm and trying to keep up with his team-mates’ lavish lifestyles, told the Ben Heath podcast (listen below): “I think the main thing is when you are making a lot of money, you need the right people, don’t you? And I would say that’s one of the things I didn’t have.”

Ex-Liverpool striker Bellamy told the Daily Mail: “I know some people will probably think I have squandered all my money on drinking or gambling or drugs. I haven’t. I can go quiet where you won’t hear from me but I won’t be down the pub. I have never touched drugs since I was a young kid. I don’t gamble – I have never gambled. It doesn’t make any sense to me. But I have gambled on people, unfortunately.”

Last year Emile Heskey became the latest big name former player to be declared bankrupt, having previously been placed on a list of “deliberate tax defaulters”. That followed the kind of lengthy battle with HMRC now facing Monye.