Beckham by far Britain's richest footballer
Wednesday, 06 Dec 2006 12:33
David Beckham: Loaded
He may have been axed from the England squad and be unable to force his way into the Real Madrid first team, but David Beckham is still comfortably British football's wealthiest son.
The 31-year-old has amassed a personal fortune of £87 million thanks to his commercial and sporting activities, putting him more than £50 million ahead of Newcastle United striker Michael Owen, who takes second place in magazine FourFourTwo's football rich list.
But while Beckham is by far Britain's richest footballer, he comes in at only 37th overall on the list of the 100 wealthiest individuals connected with the beautiful game.
Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich unsurprisingly keeps his place at the top with an estimated fortune of £10.8 billion, five times more than Tottenham Hotspur's Joe Lewis, his closest challenger.
FourFourTwo estimates that if current trends are maintained, all 100 places on the football rich list will be occupied by players by 2026, although it seems unlikely that anyone, even Beckham, will be able to raise the required £10 billion to shift Abramovich from his throne.
Football rich list top tenRoman Abramovich, Chelsea £10.8 billion
Joe Lewis, Tottenham Hotspur £2.1 billion
Dermot Desmond, Celtic £1.25 billion
Malcolm Glazer, Man United £1.05 billion
Trevor Hemmings, Charlton and Preston North End £900 million
Sir Alan Sugar, Tottenham Hotspur £790 million
Randy Lerner, Aston Villa £789 million
David Murray, Rangers £650 million
Simon Keswick, Cheltenham Town £644 million
David Sullivan, Birmingham City £595 million
Ten richest playersDavid Beckham, Real Madrid £87 million
Michael Owen, Newcastle United £32 million
Robbie Fowler Liverpool £28 million
Sol Campbell, Portsmouth £27 million
Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United £22 million
Ryan Giggs, Manchester United £22 million
Andriy Shevchenko, Chelsea £22 million
Thierry Henry, Arsenal £21 million
Wayne Rooney, Manchester United £20 million
Michael Ballack, Chelsea £18 million