The worlds most financially savvy football players
Footballers are notorious for their extreme wealth, but kicking a ball around is often not the only source of income. Endorsements and speculative investments, among others, have added a few pennies to some of the largest stacks of personal wealth in the history of sport.
The team at money.co.uk have compiled a list of ten of the most entrepreneurial football players ever to have graced the pitch, detailing their most lucrative contracts and also how much each of their goals are worth (as a ratio of their net wealth)...
... Rooney's overhead goal against Manchester City in February was spectacular - but was it really worth £217,000 ($352,000)?
David Beckham
- Estimated personal wealth:
£100m ($164m) - Value of each senior league goal:
£1.13m ($1.84m)
Lucrative Deals and Assets
- In the twilight of his football career, Beckham's main income (aside from playing the sport) comes from his fashion and cosmetics contracts which include a £8.5m ($13.7m) deal to launch his new aftershave in the US
- Rowneybury House, more frequently referred to as Beckingham Palace, hit the market last year and is expected to fetch around £18m ($29.3m) when it finally sells - a decent profit on the £2m ($3.2m) they bought it for in 1999
Michael Owen
- Estimated personal wealth:
£40m ($65m) - Value of each senior league goal:
£245,000 ($398,000)
Lucrative Deals and Assets
- Owen rose to global fame in the World Cup in France, 1998. Since then, he has represented Tissot watches, Nestlé Sporties breakfast cereal, Persil washing powder and a Pro Evo Soccer computer game
- Owen's ongoing contract with Umbro is worth £2m ($3.2m)
Sol Campbell
- Estimated personal wealth:
£31m ($50.7m) - Value of each senior league goal:
£1.6m ($2.4m)
Lucrative Deals and Assets
- Campbell benefited from the Bosman ruling, absorbing what would have been transfer fees from Arsenal in 2001
- His salary then was £5m ($8.2m), topped up by an endorsement deal with Nike
- In 2010, he sued Portsmouth for "unpaid image rights and bonus payments" to the tune of £1.7m ($2.7m)
- Campbell's house is now worth over £10m ($16.4m)
Ryan Giggs
- Estimated personal wealth:
£27m ($44m) - Value of each senior league goal:
£245,000 ($398,000)
Lucrative Deals and Assets
- Giggs' long list of endorsement contracts, from the early 1990's to the present day, include Reebok, Citizen, Givenchy, Fuji, Patek Phillipe...
- ... and, less glamorously, Quorn
- BBC Sport called him the Beckham of his day, noting that "If you put his face on the cover of a football magazine, it guaranteed you the biggest sales of the year."
Wayne Rooney
- Estimated personal wealth:
£25m ($.4m) - Value of each senior league goal:
£217,000 ($352,000)
Lucrative Deals and Assets
- £7m ($4.3m) per year endorsement deals with Coca-Cola, Nike, Nokia, Ford, and Asda
- Harper Collins gave him an advance payment of £5m ($8.1m) for five books to be published over twelve years
- His Prestbury, Cheshire home is worth £4.25m ($6.9m)
- Even his dog, a Dogue de Bordeaux, is valued at £1,250 ($2,030)
Steven Gerrard
- Estimated personal wealth:
£22m ($36m) - Value of each senior league goal:
£262,000 ($426,000)
Lucrative Deals and Assets
- Alongside Lee Johnson, Gerrard is another player to benefit from the property market. He received a flat in a Dubai skyscraper in return for endorsing the project's opening night in London
- Gerrard has also seen a lot of income from sponsorship deals, including Adidas and Persil (estimated at £1m and £1.5m per year respectively)
Fernando Torres
- Estimated personal wealth:
£15m ($25m) - Value of each senior league goal:
£118,000 ($192,000)
Lucrative Deals and Assets
- While his companions were signing endorsement deals for razor blades, video games and sports clothing, Fernando Torres appeared in an advert for a dog training centre near Madrid. He's also appeared in a Spanish music video
- While these weren't his most profitable activities outside the world of football, they certainly helped elevate him into God-like status in his native Spain
Gary Neville
- Estimated personal wealth:
£14m ($23m) - Value of each senior league goal:
£2.8m ($4.6m)
Lucrative Deals and Assets
- Long-time Manchester United stalwart Gary Neville is on about £70,000 ($115,000) per week
- Aside from his football earnings, his income is derived from a column in the Daily Mail, a Pepsi endorsement deal and a Diadora contract
- Instead of a supercar he drives an environmentally-friendly Prius, and he's selling his Bolton house for £6m ($9.8m) while he builds an eco-home embedded in a Lancashire hillside
Lee Johnson
- Estimated personal wealth:
£2m ($3.2m) - Value of each senior league goal:
£59,000 ($95,800)
Lucrative Deals and Assets
- The Bristol City midfielder was brave to buy an £890,000 ($1.5m) Victorian house during the price slump of 2009. After spending just £94,000 ($153,000) on renovations, it sold for £1.2m ($2m)
- Having proved that he can make a healthy profit even during a recession, he intends to buy a further twenty properties in the Bristol area
John Norman "Johnny" Haynes
- Estimated personal wealth:
£250,000 ($400,000) - Value of each senior league goal:
£1,700 ($2,700)
Lucrative Deals and Assets
- His personal fortune might seem dwarfed by the others on this list, but Haynes was the first footballer to be paid an astronomical wage. On January 18, 1961, it was announced that there would no longer be a £20 ($31) cap on footballers' weekly wages. This was the result of a strike by players all over the country, some of whom hoped for wages of around £40 ($63). Haynes managed to wrangle a £100 ($160) per week contract - a veritable fortune at the time.
- He also had a profitable endorsement deal with Brylcream worth £1,500 ($2,400) a year, and a contract with the Milk Marketing Board. He played for England and made 494 appearances for Fulham.
Not all footballers stay minted forever
- Keith Gillespie, who has played for Manchester United, Newcastle and Northern Ireland, and was once on £40,000 ($65,000) a week, has been declared bankrupt. He invested in film (due to apparent tax breaks) but now owes around half a million pounds to various creditors including HMRC.
- Scottish defender and manager Colin Hendry started drinking and gambling after the death of his wife two years ago and amassed debts of £2.5m ($4m). He was declared bankrupt last year.
Footballers' homes tend not to fetch their apparent market price
- This is largely due to the garish decor. Footballers will buy a property at a premium (from sellers who see them coming with a wedge of ready cash) and then spend millions ‘improving' them in a style known as ‘footballer chic'. The Rooneys' house in Cheshire is an example of this style - it includes a Wild West-themed cinema (complete with John Wayne cut-outs), a spray tanning facility and a garden full of mock-Greek sculptures. Ryan Giggs bought a lovely home in Worsley, knocked it down and built a bunker which the locals compared to a supermarket.
- Ashley Cole - who kept the property he shared with his ex, Cheryl - now faces making a loss on the house they bought for £3.5m ($5.7m) and decorated for many thousands more.
- Phil Neville's Versace-themed palace sold for £1.5m ($2.5m) less than he wanted for it.
It isn't just the players who make cash outside the game
- Tony Bloom, chairman of Brighton & Hove Albion, is a successful poker player. His total live tournament winnings exceed $2m. His love of gambling began when he lost all his pocket money in a fruit machine when he was eight years old. Preston shareholder Trevor Hemmings made a cool £40m ($65m) selling his Blackpool Tower complex to the council.
- Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp owns a Sandbanks mansion rumoured to be worth at least £8m ($13m).
- And HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the richest man in football by a long shot, has spent $280m investing in Virgin Galactic and is currently chairman of the UAE's sovereign wealth fund.
Further Reading
Since publishing this piece, money.co.uk has been made aware of some further great football resources - if you enjoyed our article on the world's most financially-savvy football players, we highly recommend checking out these fine sites.
