Former Watford striker Troy Deeney is no longer a key factor in Premier League relegation odds.
Instead, Deeney represents his hometown club Birmingham City in the Championship, but it has not been the usual journey to the elite level.
Off-field issues blighted the early years of Deeney’s professional career, scuppering a chance at Aston Villa’s academy and even leading to a prison sentence in 2012.
He worked his way through non-league football with Chelmsley Town to earn a shot with Walsall before joining Watford in 2006.
Ultimately becoming a talismanic figure for the Hornets, Deeney was integral as the club returned to the topflight, and he was again an important member of the squad when they bounced back after relegation in 2020-21.
It might surprise some who bet on football that Deeney remains uncapped. He was touted for an England call-up on numerous occasions, but that opportunity never arrived, and he turned down a couple of approaches to play for Jamaica.
Let’s learn a bit more about Deeney, starting with his net worth.
Net Worth
Estimations of Troy Deeney net worth vary greatly.
While never featuring for the teams at the top of Premier League predictions, the target man was still rewarded with a hefty salary during his time in the Premier League with Watford.
Some sites claim Deeney has a net worth of over £15 million, while others come in around the £3 million mark.
In truth, it’s impossible to get an exact figure, and there’s a limited amount known about how Deeney has spent his cash over the years.
Salary
Troy Deeney’s salary was over £3,000,000 per year towards the end of his Watford stint, working out at north of £60,000 per week.
This might be a small figure compared to some Premier League wages, but Deeney was still pocketing more per week than the average annual salary in the UK.
Since swapping the yellow of Watford for the blue of Birmingham, salary information is harder to come by.
Sliding to a Championship team meant a pay cut, of course, and it was a sizeable decrease in wages according to Deeney’s former manager, Lee Bowyer.
Soon after Deeney signed at St. Andrew’s, Bowyer said, “The player deserves a lot of credit because he has taken a big wage cut to come here, and people won’t realise. He wants to play for this club, and improve it.
"Craig, and the chairman, with his backing, have done exceptionally well to bring in someone of his stature. As the head coach, I am grateful to all of them.”
A column for The Sun and appearances on TalkSport are bound to have supplemented Deeney’s wage in recent times.
Like many players, he has begun to take on media work even before calling it a day on the pitch, and it seems like we can expect to hear a lot more from the ex-Watford man once he hangs up his boots.
Goal vs Leicester
The Playoffs are notoriously dramatic, but no one has stunned Championship predictions quite like Troy Deeney against Leicester in 2013. It is the stuff of legend in Watford and beyond.
The score was 2-2 on aggregate, with Watford 2-1 up on the day. Leicester had a penalty in the dying seconds, seemingly set to secure their place in the playoff final. Not so fast.
Anthony Knockaert took a stinker of a penalty against Manuel Almunia. The former Arsenal goalkeeper saved with his legs before rejecting Knockaert’s effort from the rebound.
After a scramble from the Hornets to clear their lines, the ball ended up with Fernando Forestieri on the right flank.
Next up, Jonathan Hogg knocked the ball into the box, which ultimately fell to Deeney. Coming off 19 goals in the league that term, he thundered the ball past a helpless Kasper Schmeichel, sending Watford, and a packed crowd, into pandemonium.
Fans swarmed onto the pitch, and the commentary will live long in the memory for fans around the country.
Johnny Phillips, trying to convey the drama on Sky Sports News to an audience who couldn’t see the mayhem, lost it live on air. Bill Leslie was slightly calmer, albeit without the pressure of having to actually explain what was going on.
Leslie nailed the accompanying audio for such a spectacular moment.
"Knockaert takes, Almunia saves. Knockaert follows in, Almunia saves again. Absolutely astonishing!
"Now here come Watford. Forestieri, here’s Hogg... DDDDEEEEEENNNNNEEEEEEEEYYYYY!!!!
"Do not scratch your eyes, you are really seeing the most extraordinary end to a football match!"
Deeney spoke about what that goal means to him back in 2020.
"For me, remember, that was the year I came out of jail. While it was a good year in terms of football, it was also a bad year in terms of my home life. So it just always reminds me of that.
"It’s kind of my [Sergio] Aguero moment, but I have to learn to live with it. That’s the one that everyone remembers.
"When I see it, I do appreciate it for what it is, but it’s just the psychological backdrop of me going ‘ah, that’s not kind of what I wanted to be my defining moment."
Documentary
Troy Deeney released a documentary in May 2022 entitled ‘Where’s My History?’.
The documentary looks at the teaching (or lack of) of the experiences and history of black, Asian and ethnic minorities.
Deeney spoke to the BBC about teachers being wary of talking about racism, and noted how the curriculum has developed in other areas.
"That is where the world has moved to, where coding is part of schooling, yet we're still so far behind in our narrative of how black and Asian people are represented in the schooling curriculum.”
Deeney also discussed his own experiences at school, and how limited the teaching of history is.
"When we're in school, and we are maybe one or two of the black kids... and you're watching Roots, and everyone in that class turns round and looks at you, like 'Is that you? Is that your uncle? Is that your dad?'
"Like you're expected to understand that, and it's really difficult to understand if you've never been in that situation but... you're taught that that's all you can become.
"That's the best you can see. Unless you do music, because we'll teach you about Bob Marley, unless you do football, because we'll show you about Ian Wright, unless you do athletics, because we'll show you about Linford Christie, other than that you don't see anything that is about empowering.
"You don't see anything about young black women in science for example. I've got two daughters and we don't see anything about women in the time period."
The documentary is available to watch on All 4.
