I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and we started talking about soccer. Basketball has always been my sport but recently, I have developed an interest in the sport called soccer. We talked about a very interesting topic in soccer which was the highest paid soccer players in the world. Here’s what we found out:
1. The first highest paid soccer player is my all-time favourite, the always-smiling Ronaldo de Assis Moreira of FC Barcelonia in Spain and also an attacking midfielder in the Brazilian team. He is popularly known as Ronaldhino or Ronnie. In my opinion, he is the best player in the world and Barca is the best team in the world, like it or not. He earns £32.6m a year. That is about half a billion naira a month. That’s pretty impressive. He even won FIFA’s world player of the year award for 2004 and 2005.
2. David Beckham, the midfielder, of Real Madrid and captain of England, earns £31.2m a year. As of December 2005, David Beckham was one of four players to have appeared 100 times in the UEFA Champions League.
3. Wayne Rooney of Manchester United and England, got his metatarsals injured in the last league match of the season on April 29. He returned to action in the England vs Trinidad and Tobago match, a few weeks ago at the ongoing World Cup. He was the youngest player in the English squad until Theo Walcott came along. Rooney is widely considered to be one of the leading young talents in the world today. He earns £30.4m a year.
4. Samuel Eto’o of FC Barcelona and Cameroon (his national team) is currently one of the best strikers in the world and has been ‘African footballer of the year’ three years in a row, in 2003, 2004 and 2005. He earns £21.3m a year.
5. Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona in Spain is the third youngest player ever to play for Barcelona. He is often called ‘the new Diego Maradona’. He is a striker both for Barca and his national team, Argentina. As at May1, 2005, he was the youngest player to score a league goal for Barca at only 17 years of age. He earns £21.1m a year.
6. Zlatan Ibrahimovic of FC Juventus is from Sweden. Referred to as a superb Swedish striker, he earns £20.9m a year.
7. Ronaldo of Real Madrid, at his best, was arguably the most lethal striker in the world of soccer. Nicknamed ‘the phenomenon’, he won FIFA’s world player of the year in 1996, 1997and 2002. He earns £20.4m a year.
8. Frank Lampard of Chelsea is an English midfielder, and one of the most improved players in the world. He earns £20m a year.
9. Thierry Henry of Arsenal, the English club, who also plays for the French national team, is one of the best strikers of all time (he is captain of his club). Right now, he is Arsenal’s all-time leading goalscorer. In March 2004, he was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers. Thierry Henry is the only player ever to have won three FWA Footballer of the Year awards, in 2003, 2004 and 2006. He is shortly going to act a movie alongside Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster as an Arsenal football player. He earns £19.95m a year.
10. Michael Ballack, who recently joined Chelsea of England from Bayern Munich of Germany, is a midfielder and captain of the German national team. He is regarded as one of the most lethal headers of soccer in the world. Some football experts consider him the most complete footballer in the world today. He was German player of the year in 2002, 2003 and 2005. He earns £19.9m a year.
this guys are really rolling in cash.