‘I snubbed football deal to go on Big Brother for £300k – I seriously regret it’

Jamie O’Hara admits he regrets choosing Big Brother over a football contract – despite netting £300,000 for appearing on the reality show.

Early in the 2016/17 season, O’Hara, now 37, found himself without a club after leaving Gillingham. The former Tottenham and Wolves midfielder was in limbo, but he was given a chance to kick-start his career by Nigel Clough’s Burton Albion, then of the Championship.

O’Hara was keen on the move and a short-term contract was in the pipeline – only for producers of Celebrity Big Brother to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. O’Hara, now a radio pundit, was reunited with Clough when the now-Mansfield manager appeared on talkSPORT recently.

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Clough recalled: "He said he was happy and he wanted to get back playing and I thought if we offer him a few hundred quid a week… then Big Brother happened."

Still feeling bad about the snub, O’Hara offered Clough a belated apology, saying: "Oh Nige I’m sorry mate. I went up there [to Burton] and Nige was brilliant with me to be fair because I hadn’t been playing. I was out and I was a little bit worried about my fitness.

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"He asked me to come up there and I trained really well for a few days. He was like ‘look, I really want you, I need a midfielder’ but I’d already signed a contract to go in Big Brother!

"I said to my agent ‘Nigel wants me to sign a contract. How much are they offering?’ He said, ‘a couple of grand a week’. It was £300,000 to go on Big Brother. I said 'sorry Nige, I’m off'. I do apologise though Nige, I do regret that one."

O’Hara spent 27 days on the show before being evicted. He added: “Big Nige didn’t talk to me when I got out!" O'Hara did carry on playing, albeit in non-league with Billericay Town, where he also had a stint as manager before moving into the media with talkSPORT.

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