Accumulated profits at Johnny Sexton firm top €2.2m

Former Irish rugby captain moving into business since retiring from professional game

Johnny Sexton is one of Ireland's most decorated rugby players. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

Accumulated profits at the management company owned by former Ireland rugby captain Johnny Sexton totalled €2.25 million before his retirement from the professional game last year.

New accounts filed by Sexton’s JAS Management & Promotions Ltd show that the firm recorded a post-tax loss of €83,240 in the 12 months to the end of September last.

The firm recorded the loss after pay to directors increased by 157 per cent from €100,493 to €258,997.

In the prior year, Sexton ploughed €552,509 into the company’s directors’ pension pot as he prepared for life away from the game and in 2023 a further €62,337 was paid in directors’ pension contributions.

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Cash funds at the company decreased by €145,561 from €1.446 million to €1.3 million while, during the same period, the value of the company’s financial assets increased by €152,313 from €729,513 to €881,826.

Sexton – who turned 39 last month – is set to add to his company’s coffers with sales from his autobiography, Obsessed: The Autobiography, this October.

The outhalf retired from the game after Ireland exited the Rugby World Cup in France after losing to the All-Blacks.

However, before his retirement, Sexton had been busy in recent years laying out the groundwork for the sometimes tricky transition from professional sportsman to a life in the corporate world.

Since April 2021, he performed a part-time role as commercial manager at Ardagh, Paul Coulson’s glass-bottle and tin-can maker.

According to his LinkedIn profile he is now chief of staff at Ardagh Glass and has been in the full-time role since January of this year.

Away from Ardagh, Sexton continues to be a Lexus ambassador and his commercial deals are guided by Conor Ridge’s Horizon Sports, whose other high-profile clients include Open winner Shane Lowry and rugby player Peter O’Mahony.

Sexton, a former World Rugby player of the year was appointed Ireland captain by Andy Farrell in January 2020. He is one of Irish Rugby’s most decorated players and led Ireland to a Grand Slam in 2023 and won four European Rugby Champions Cups with Leinster.

Sexton set up his firm in 2010 and is one of a number of rugby players with their own management companies to handle earnings from commercial ventures such as sponsorships and image rights.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times