Hammers striker Carew declared bankrupt

The striker, who earned £40,000-a-week at his former club Aston Villa as recently as last year, was slapped with the order at the High Court in London.

Carew is believed to owe a six-figure tax sum and the HM Revenue and Customs first filed a petition on January 16 for 32-year-old to be made bankrupt.

However, his agent Per Flod insisted the player has "lots more money" and blamed the issue on a misunderstanding with the French tax authorities.

"It’s a tax bill from France. He needs to pay some tax and it’s being discussed," Flod told the Mirror.

"It’s all because the French government is refusing to communicate through his UK address.

"They have been sending all the correspondence to his address in France, but he no longer lives there.

"He has not refused to pay it. Then they declared him bankrupt and John didn’t even know about it. Now it’s going to be paid

"He has lots more money than this. This is not a big thing."

Carew has been capped 91 times by Norway and played for big European clubs like Valencia, Roma and Lyon before moving to England to join Villa in 2007.

He joined West Ham last summer but has struggled this season scoring just two goals in a injury-plagued season.