Stars that had it hard: Chelsea new boy Yuri Zhirkov is the latest Premier League footballer who had a tough start in life...

By Tom Bellwood for MailOnline

Yuri Zhirkov will join the ranks of football's super-rich this week as the Barclays Premier League season gets underway.

But it hasn't always been fast cars and huge mansions for the Russian winger. In fact, Zhirkov's childhood is a million miles away from what he will experience in London.

Carlo Ancelotti's biggest signing of the summer grew up in the Russian city of Tambov - 350 miles south of Moscow - with a family so poor, he would often have to miss training to help his family grow vegetables to see them through the winter.

Zhirkov lived in a tiny flat with his parents, two brothers and his sister, had to sleep on a fold-out camp bed and was too poor to even pay for his own kit and football boots.

He joins Chelsea's millionaire stars down the Kings Road, but he certainly isn't the first footballer to hit the heights against all the odds.

Sportsmail takes a look at some of the players who made it despite a tough start to life...

Luka Modric

Luka Modric

Ouch: Let's hope Luka Modric has some better shin pads these days

Modric had a very difficult upbringing as his childhood coincided with the Croatian War of Independence.

During the conflict, at the age of six, Modric was forced to flee the town of Zaton where he lived with his family, he lost his grandfather in the war and his father was also in the army.

The Spurs winger began to play football after his father returned from the war and the family used the little money it had to enroll him in the local sporting academy.

Modric has said of this time: 'My father didn't have money for shinpads. One of my coaches said at the time said my father made my shinpads out of oak wood.' 

Alexander Hleb

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the fall of the Iron Curtain were the backdrop to Hleb's childhood with his father demolishing radiation-ridden houses and his mother a builder, both working long hours just to make ends meet.

Hleb played football almost exclusively on concrete pitches. He couldn't replace his worn out boots because his father worked as a volunteer, demolishing houses that were uninhabitable due to the high levels of radiation they had received after the Chernobyl leak, and couldn't afford to replace them.

Former Arsenal star Hleb's family spent much time queuing up for basics such as bread and milk but his big break came when he was spotted playing for Bate Borisov, a tractor factory team just north of Minsk, by scouts from Stuttgart. 

Alexander Hleb

Tractor boy: Alexander Hleb was spotted playing for a factory team

Carlos Tevez

Poverty: Carlos Tevez was raised in crime-ridden Buenos Aires

Carlos Tevez

Tevez was born in Fuerte Apache, a small neighbourhood in Buenos Aires.

The scars you see on his face are not the result of a deprived childhood but of an accident as a child with boiling water.

Tevez describes his hard childhood as tough and he got into a lot of trouble in his early years.

Apache was a town where violence, drugs, poverty and a high crime rate made it one of the most dangerous places to live in Argentina.

The Manchester City striker's teeth were broken and crooked as a result of a street fight he got into when he was growing up - he has since had them fixed.

He said: 'There were tough times when I was growing up. When it was dark and you looked out of the window, what you saw would scare anyone. After a certain hour you couldn't go into the street.'


Born on the slum streets of Sao Vicente, Robinho always had plenty to do if he wanted to make it as a footballer.

The Brazilian striker grew up in a town blighted by drugs, crime and violence but his dream of playing football came true after Pele insisted that he moved to live at the Santos club residence as the Brazilian legend wanted to make sure he was eating three square meals a day.

Robinho's background came beck to haunt him in 2004 when his mother was kidnapped at gunpoint and only released after a ransom was paid. 

Robinho with his mother, Marina de Souza, at their home in Santos in 1999

Kidnapped: future Manchester City striker Robinho with his mother, Marina de Souza, who was later abducted, at their home in Santos in 1999

Nil Lamptey

Lamptey had an awful childhood. Born into abject poverty in Ghana, his parents abused and neglected him.

His father was an alcoholic who often beat and lashed him and sometimes burnt his body with cigarettes.

Some nights he would sleep under a car or in a shop window, to avoid going home.

When Lamptey was eight, his parents divorced, and his stepfather threw him out of the household.

Soon, he began to excel at football, despite his alcoholic father heckling him and hurling verbal abuse from the sidelines whenever he watched his son play football.

Lamptey went on to play for PSV, Anderlecht, Aston Villa and Coventry - but he failed to hit the heights after being tipped for the top.

Nii Lamptey playing for Villa

Awful childhood: Nii Lamptey playing for Villa


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