The story of Manchester City’s richest academy graduate: Reece Wabara who retired at 24

Manchester City’s academy has produced some of most valuable players. Phil Foden spent his entire career at the Etihad, becoming a treble-winner and one of England’s finest. Cole Palmer left for Chelsea in 2023 but for a massive fee of £40 million.

Jadon Sancho went on to earn a mega-money move to Dortmund and beyond. By conventional measures, these are the academy’s greatest success stories but none of them is technically the richest graduate the club has ever produced.

That distinction belongs to Reece Wabara. Not a name you’d find in any Manchester City XI, nor a player with a Transfermarkt valuation to speak of. This is the story of a City graduate who retired at 24, yet makes over £35 million a year.

From £15,000 to a £35 million turnover: How Reece Wabara’s Maniere De Voir took off

Reece Wabara started his own fashion brand, Maniere De Voir, with a straightforward idea: premium streetwear that bridges high fashion and the high street. It was a £15,000 seed investment, roughly five weeks’ wages at the time, back in 2013.

The early strategy was simple but effective: get the clothes on footballers he knew, let word spread organically, and build from there. Lewis Morgan, the Gymshark co-founder who knew Wabara from school, encouraged the move into fashion and took a small stake in the business.

That partnership proved short-lived, Wabara bought Morgan out in 2024 for around £9.4 million, leaving him with full ownership of the brand he’d grown from a direct-to-consumer online operation into a global retailer with four stores, including an Oxford Street flagship.

The numbers tell their own story. MDV hit £1 million in revenue in its first year. It then grew from £10 million to £35 million in turnover across a three-year stretch, posting £6.6 million in profits. Customers have included Anthony Joshua and Raheem Sterling.

What happened to Reece Wabara’s Premier League career and footballing journey?

While Wabara has made the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and the Sunday Times Young Rich List with an estimated net worth of £83 million, question is, what went wrong with his football career?

Wabara arrived at Manchester City from Walsall, captaining at youth level before a solitary Premier League appearance in May 2011. 3 years and four loan spells followed: Ipswich Town, Oldham, where he famously scored against Liverpool in the FA Cup, Blackpool, and Doncaster.

He eventually signed with the Doncaster Rovers, permanently, in 2014. Stints at Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers came next, but after a single appearance for the latter, Wabara called time on his playing days entirely.

The decision wasn’t impulsive. Speaking to The Times in 2021, he admitted he always knew the odds of becoming a Champions League or England footballer were heavily stacked against him, and that his father had drilled into him the importance of having a plan B.