David Beckham heads the list of richest footballers in the world by almost £60million.
PSG’s latest signing may be donating all of his wages to charity, but he still tops the list of the richest footballers on the planet.
The 37-year-old midfielder is worth a staggering £175million. This puts him a whopping £59.5million ahead of second place – Lionel Messi.
The Ballon d’Or winner edges just ahead of his rival at Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo, who is worth £112million. Brazilians Kaka and Ronaldinho make up the rest of the top five.
These figures from Goal.com are based on the players’ net worth and encorporates not only their salary, but also endorsements, assets and any business interests the player may have outside of football.
Despite never reaching the unbelievable heights of Messi and Ronaldo as a footballer, Beckham is considered to be one of the most marketable sportsmen in the world and his wealth proves this.
Cynics argued that PSG only brought the former England captain to France for his five month stint to cash in on this. A report in the Daily Mail in February said that shirt and boot sales associated with Beckham had topped £1billion.
Players from Beckham’s former club Manchester United also make it into the top ten, with Wayne Rooney the richest player in the Premier League with £50million and Rio Ferdinand just behind on £42million.
Although to most these would already seem like astronomical sums, the ex-LA Galaxy man is still some way short of the earnings of stars in other sports.
Tiger Woods, as reported at Goal.com, has a net worth of £538million with Formula 1 ace Michael Schumacher next on £510million. In fact Beckham doesn’t even make it into the top five with Roger Federer, Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez the other big money rollers in sport.
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