How Sansom drank his fortune away

LONDON. — Former Arsenal idol Kenny Sansom’s fall from grace started in 2013 when he was discovered to be a homeless wino who sleeps on a PARK BENCH.The skint former Arsenal hero revealed in a shocking interview with The Sun how he loves drinking.Sansom (54) kept scaring his family in 2013 by disappearing to live rough and told The Sun of his hell as he briefly sought refuge at his sister’s home.

Sansom, who in his 1980s heyday earned £1 200 a week and lived in a £1million mansion, confessed at the time: “I’ve been living homeless for 10 days. That’s because I’ve got no money, I’m a drunk, I’m feeling not very well and I’m a gambler. I’ve been living on the street.”

With just a pay-as-you-go phone, a travel card and a paltry £20 cash to his name plus the T-shirt and shorts he was wearing he added: “It’s not good living on a bench.”

Hours later he went AWOL again sending his shattered older sister Mary (61) into a fresh panic. Mary said of the legendary defender: “He’s breaking my heart. I wish he would just tell us where he is.”

Divorced Sansom who was getting through SEVEN bottles of Mateus Rose a day told how the Professional Footballers’ Association had repeatedly tried in vain to help him. But the former player who played for England at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups admitted after blowing a fortune on gambling and booze: “I’m just a drunk. I drink as much as I can get.

“I’m in a bad way. Arsenal are trying to help me, but I’ve got to try and help myself.” The fallen star, who has been in and out of rehab for years, told how his behaviour has led to a run-in with cops, which had left him “p****d off”.

But he stressed: “I haven’t been arrested. They said, ‘Where do you want to go?’ They just took me to somewhere, but I can’t remember.”

While he did get a pension of £1 200 a month tiny compared to today’s Premier League players he said half goes to his ex-wife Elaine.

Sansom’s worried sister Mary said: “He has lost everything. He used to live in a £1million house and now he doesn’t even have a chair to sit on. He just gambled and drank it all away.”

She told how her brother had nearly sold most of his caps — and was so desperate for cash he pawned a platinum ring worth £900 for just £60. — The Sun.