Football or soccer is one of the highest-paying sports in the world. Some of its top players, like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Kylian Mbappe, earn salaries that might reach up to or above $200 million. Cristiano Ronaldo’s current salary at Al Nassr, for example, is $260 million per year. Thus, it is without saying that the net worth of top football players is pretty high.
However, it is not necessarily true that the most famous football players are also the richest of the lot. This is simply because many football players are insanely wealthy due to their businesses or the property that they inherited from their families. There are two such examples in the list of the top 5 football players in the world as well.
5. David Beckham – $450 million
David Beckham has long retired but still manages to stay on the list of the richest footballers in the world simply because of the many brands that he owns. He is the owner of DV Ventures, with which he has made investments in a lot of companies like Lunaz, Guild Esports, and Cellular Goods.
Apart from that, he is well known as one of the most good-looking football players of all time. Thus, getting brand deals from fashion and other similar brands is not difficult for him. He owns an eyewear brand named Eyewear by David Beckham. Beckham current.
4. Cristiano Ronaldo – $ 500 Million
Cristiano Ronaldo is currently the highest-paid footballer in the world. He currently earns $220 million per year at Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr. Yet, his total net worth has still not crossed that of his longtime rival Lionel Messi. It is expected that Ronaldo’s net worth will cross the $1 billion mark by the time he leaves Saudi Arabia.
Ronaldo has an extremely well-paying contract with Nike and he has several brands of his own that earn him a lot of revenue. Moreover, he has the highest following on Instagram (616 million) which also brings in a lot of revenue for the Portuguese.
Read More: Goals, Stats, And Overall Performance Of Cristiano Ronaldo In Al-Nassr Till Now
3. Lionel Messi – $600 Million
Argentine footballer Lionel Messi has a net worth of $600 million. Before his move to Inter Miami, he used to be one of the highest-paid footballers in the world. However, due to the current inflated salaries that are being offered by the Saudi Pro League, he has lost that status while playing in Major League Soccer.
Messi endorses several brands despite not owning any major brands himself and that is one of his prime sources of income, like any other athlete. He just won his 8th Balon d’Or after his sensational achievement in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He won the World Cup for the first time in his career after years of waiting, finally last year.
2. Mathieu Flamini – $12 Billion
Mathieu Flamini is a former French player who played for teams like Arsenal, Getafe, AC Milan, and Marseille. He brought his career to an end in 2019 and was not much recognized as a player. However, he earned the majority of his fortune from his business.
He is the CEO of GF Biochemicals, a company that is the leading producer of levulinic acid. Levulinic acid is used in making a sustainable alternative to oil-based products like plastics and fuel. Ford reported that he has a net worth of $12 Billion which makes him the second richest footballer in the world.
1. Faiq Bolkiah – $31.2 billion
Quite surprisingly, the richest footballer in this list is the least known. Faiq Bolkiah is part American and part Bruneian. He currently plays for the team Ratchaburi in Thai League 1 and his monthly salary is a meager $2,900. However, that does not matter to him as he is the nephew of the Sultan of Brunei and he will be inheriting properties and assets worth $31.2 billion.