Jonjo Shelvey offered John Legend an eye-watering amount to sing at his wedding, he immediately said no

Nottingham Forest midfielder Jonjo Shelvey wanted to get John Legend to play one song at his wedding, but the American turned him down.

You have to wonder sometimes what exactly it is that footballers spend their money, especially how much money the elite players find themselves on.

Erling Haaland, for example, is reportedly on £375,000-a-week, and could soon be earning half a million pounds every seven days, that's a decent sized house every week, if he so wished.

As well as getting a wage that the rest of us couldn't even begin to imagine, players are usually lavished with everything they need, from boots to cars to watches, and everything else that can get a deal for.

In fact, some players even get paid not to wear boots, with former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rafael van der Vaart once paid a ridiculous sum to not wear red boots.

With all that money available to them, and not much use for it, they can pretty much throw the cash about on the kind of things the rest of us wouldn't think up.

That certainly goes for Nottingham Forest midfielder Shelvey, who decided he wanted Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award winner Legend at his wedding.

"I tried to get John Legend to sing my wedding song," the 31-year-old told Sky Sports.

"I offered him like 50 grand to sing one song, and he just turned it down.

"And I'm thinking 'come on mate'. 50 grand as well, to sing one song!"

Legend performing at the 2023 MusiCares Persons of the Year Gala, rather than Shelvey's wedding. Image: Alamy

That amount of money would have most of us doing anything, and yet hearing it makes you think it doesn't sound like enough to persuade the American.

Shelvey's surprise at being declined speaks of someone who is used to just being able to pay whatever he likes for whatever he wants, but it's not enough for a man worth a reported $100 million.

The Forest star, who was one of the many signings for Steve Cooper's team this season, was apparently on £70,00-a-week at Newcastle, and got a pay rise to move to Nottingham.

Instead of Legend, the footballer, his wife, and their guests, were left watching a stand up comedy routine by Jimmy Carr as part of the evening's entertainment, quite a different vibe.

Topics: Football, Premier League, Nottingham Forest

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

@Sidler28