FORMER Socceroos star Zeljko Kalac has gone to the wall over a half-million-dollar gambling splurge on horse races and soccer matches.
The towering SBS TV commentator and former goalkeeper for Italian glamour club AC Milan, who was declared bankrupt in August, leaves a string of corporate bookmakers $530,000 in the lurch.
Jilted creditors include Centrebet, which once featured weekly betting tips from the 218cm Kalac on its website, but is now owed $113,000.
While it is believed Kalac keeps a six-figure salary as goalkeeping coach with Sydney FC - who play the Brisbane Roar this Friday at Suncorp Stadium - his bookies have been told they will almost certainly be repaid nothing.
"The bottom line is that barring a miracle, you are not likely to receive any monies at all from this debtor," a law firm wrote to one creditor.
"After three years he will be discharged from bankruptcy and all debts will have been wiped."
Kalac has not a cent to his name, according to documents filed with Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia.
His bank accounts are empty and he holds no property, company shares or vehicles.
An Audi Q5 on which he owed $60,000 was repossessed.
Kalac, a regular at Brisbane racetracks Doomben and Eagle Farm when his downward spiral began last year, sold off his own interests in horse flesh as his debtors closed in.
"If he'd come and said, 'I'm doing it tough, I'll give you $300 a week', we would've copped that because it's better than nothing," one creditor said.
Kalac owes Sporting Bet $100,000, Bet Star $22,000, Luxbet $30,000 and the Commonwealth Bank $50,000 for a personal loan.
He owned four horses with Socceroo mates Craig Moore, Scott Chipperfield and Tony Popovic, including the well-regarded Buffering, a canny $22,000 investment which earned $340,000 in prizemoney from its first five races.
A source said Kalac began his gambling binge by settling his betting accounts weekly while savouring the odd big win.
But as his losses mounted, Kalac began stringing bookies along with promises of windfalls, including from the sale of his $2 million Sydney mansion.
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Edit: always provide the link thanks mate, cheers
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/ex-socceroo-kalac-blows-fortune-on-gambling-splurge/story-e6frg6n6-1226514292593Edited by Joffa: 11/11/2012 12:13:50 AM