BRITISH FOOTBALL RICH LIST

It’s that time again! We love a good rich-list here on Footy-Boots.com, and we know you do too. Being mostly a football boots website, it gives us a great excuse to see how much the brands rate certain players and estimate what their sponsorship earns them.

A quick disclaimer – this list is purely about Britain, so includes everyone in the Premier League plus any players eligible to play for England. It’s also based on accumulated personal wealth, so it’s not just the ‘highest earners’, it’s who’s invested and saved the most cash. Anyway, onto the list!

18 = Damien Duff'  – £13m

A surprising entry in the top 20 is Fulham’s Damien Duff, but the Irish International has played for the likes of Chelsea and Newcastle before settling into Craven Cottage, meaning his accumulated transfer windfalls make him valuable indeed.

Most interestingly, Duff doesn’t have a football boots contract at the minute, flitting between the very old-school Pantafola D’oro and the new Sapphire Blue Nike CTR360‘s, instead Duff makes his fortune by investing in Caribbean beachfront properties, and has a company – Lightzest – which has assets of over £1m.

18 = Emile Heskey – £13m

Oft-maligned Villa striker Emile Heskey took a hell of a verbal beating over the summer after being derided by fans and pundits for his selection in England’s World Cup squad. The former Liverpool player probably slept a little easier than he might have, though, when he looked to the £13m that he’s accumulated over his long career.

Heskey has played for 5 clubs in the last 10 years and has been savvy enough to grab his share of the transfer fees. His football boots sponsorship from Nike supplements his already-substantial £35,000 per week Villa wage packet.

18= Michael Essien – £13m

Essien completes the trio of players who are worth around £13m. Essien’s contract negotiations in Summer ’09 saw Ghana’s star man blag an £80,000 p/w wage that gives him a net gain of over £4m per annum. With the 27 year old earning that sort of cash, we can only guess the recently switched CTR360 man will rocket up the rankings next year.

14 = Gary Neville – £14m

Whilst Gary Neville might not have ever had the pleasure of snagging a bit of a transfer money to bolster his worth, the life-long Red’s 19-year Manchester United stint has seen his wage rise to around £70,000 per week. Neville’s opinion columns and property investments make up the rest of 35 year-old’s worth.

14 = Joe Cole – £14m

Joe Cole’s status as the most high-profile free agent this summer essentially allowed the West Ham prodigy to have a blank cheque infront of him when it came to wage bills.

The 28 year old went from is £80,000 per week position at Chelsea to over £90k at Liverpool over a 4-year-contract. Presuming he honours his full contract, that could see him earn nearly £19m. Throw in a Nike football boots deal, and the boy Cole could well climb several places on next year’s list.

14 = Nicolas Anelka – £14m

‘Le Sulk’ will undoubtedly see most of his fortune derived from his many transfer fees. Stints at Arsenal, Real Madrid, Paris Saint German, Fenerbache, Liverpool, Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers and now Chelsea have seen the 31-year-old change hands for a total of over £85m over the last 13 years.

We’d be most interested in finding out how his football boots sposorship income has changed over that last few months, as the Frenchman made the switch to the adidas F50 adiZero.

14 = Petr Cech – £14m

The highest-paid Goalkeeper in the World, Cech was one of the many signings made by Chelsea in 2004 after Roman Abramovich bought the club. Wilst his name was obscure at the time, the footballing world recognises Cech as one of the best in the business. As do his sponsors – deals with adidas and Samsung are thought to bring the ex-Rennes man around £25m over their duration. Add that to a £90,000 a week wage and Cech’s worth equals that of some of the best outfield players in the world.

13. Fernando Torres – £15m

‘El Nino’ might not be having the best of times at the moment, with Liverpool dipping into the relegation zone, but Torres’ World Cup with with Spain has done wonders for him image rights.

The 26 year old earns £110,000 a week on a four year deal, and supplements this with a mind-boggling array of sponsorships. As well as being one of Nike’s football boots posterboys, do you also know that Torres also endorses a dog-training school in Spain? Us neither – and part of us didn’t want to!

12. Paul Scholes – £16m Veteran midfielder Scholes has seen has wages over the last few years skyrocket from £50k per week to a tasty £90,000.

Add to this his endorsement of the Nike T90 Laser III and his imaginatively titled business: Paul Scholes Ltd has over £1.1m in assets, and Scholesy is set for life.

However, we have it on good authority that his specialist football training academy, ‘The Paul Scholes School of Well-Timed Tackles’ was a commercial failure.

10= Didier Drogba – £18m

When The Big Drog joined Chelsea from Marseille, he gained a slice of the £24.5m transfer pie and a ludicrous £90,000 per week salary. Now the Ivorian has matured into one of the most fear strikers in Europe, his wage bill is £105,000 per week and he’s become one of the leading names to wear the Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly II (though we know he prefers the SL soleplate!)

10= Patrick Viera – £18m

Amazing as it seems, well-travelled midfielder Patrick Viera is worth as much as hot property Didier Drogba! It seems the Frenchman found his fortune after leaving Arsenal, earning around £90,000 per week at both Juve and Inter.

However, when joining Manchester City in January 2010, Viera was offered a vomit-inducing £140,000 every 7 days. Needless to say, he didn’t turn it down.

9. John Terry – £19m

John Terry’s personal life might have been splashed all over the front pages in recent months, but it’s his headlines on the back page that earns his £130,000 a week.

Interestingly, Terry could have been much higher on the list had he joined Manchester City 12 months ago, as they were reportedly ready to offer the England stopper a frankly stupid £250,000 a week.

7 = Frank Lampard – £22m

32-year-old Lampard is well into a 5-year deal at Chelsea worth around £33m, which levels his wages out at around £130,000 per week. adidas add to Lampard’s personal fortune, paying the England star around £1m a year to wear their football boots

7= Steven Gerrard – £22m

Liverpool’s Captain Fantastic Steven Gerrard was listed by Forbes magazine as earning £6.5m a year in total.

This wage includes his Liverpool payslip and endorsements for wearing the adidas Predator_X and hawking Lucozade earn Stevie G an additional £750,000 per annum. Gerrard’s company – Steven Gerrard Promotions – is also one of the more successful, boasting over £3m in assets.

7= Wayne Rooney – £22m

Rooney’s lurid allegations couldn’t have come at a worse time had they tried. Rooney currently earns around £100,000 per week for his services to Manchester United, but the Liverpool native is currently in talks to have that pushed up to £130,000.

With that deal currently locked and Coca-Cola US dropping him from a campaign, could Rooney be the only player in the Top 10 to drop in the rankings next year?

5. Ryan Giggs – £27m

The Eternal Ryan Giggs is still ticking over at 36 years old, regularly on the pitch as start of the Manchester United starting XI.

His £4.2m per year contract is relatively tame in comparison to some of the younger bucks at Old Trafford, but his football boots contract with Reebok is well established and his reputation as the most decorated club football player on the planet should see Giggsy earning big bucks well after he hangs up his boots.

4. Sol Campbell – £31m

Big Sol?! You weren’t expecting that – were you?

Campbell was one of the first players to gain from Bosman transfers when he moved to Arsenal from Spurs in 2001. As a free agent he took a significant proportion of what Arsenal could have expected to pay in transfer fees as part of his then £5m annual salary.

Sol has spent his money wisely, investing in property – owning a £10m property in Chelsea, and lined his coffers even more in January 2010 when he sued Portsmouth FC for unpaid imagery rights and missed bonus payments.

3. Rio Ferdinand – £34m

Another centre-back in the top 5, Rio Ferdinand has used his influence off the pitch to start building a legacy that will live long after he retires.

Owning a 60% stake in the White Chalk record label, investing in Brit-flick ‘Dead Man Running’ and publishing the lifestyle magazine ‘#5’, Rio’s'  empire is beginning to reach far and wide.

Combine this with his £120,000 a week wages and one of Nike’s most lucrative football boots/image rights deals, and Ferdinand’s a player that has earnt a spot in the top 3.

2. Michael Owen – £40m

Now that he’s on a pay-as-you-play deal at United,'  Owen increasingly looks to his his off-pitch deals to earn the big dollars .

Owning a string of racehorses (including one called Speciali!) and endorsing Jaguar cars sees the Liverpool native earning a good living and wearing Umbro football boots gives him an additional £2m a year pocket money.

1. David Beckham – £100m

Untouchable at the top (at least until he retires from England Duty!) is Goldenballs himself, David Beckham.

Becks’s personal fortune has actually dropped from last year’s evaluation of £125m, as the Beckhams were forced to relinquish some of their property empire.

We can probably expect smaller drops every year until Beckham’s career comes to an end, as his sponsorships and endorsements dry up, such as his deal with adidas – valued around £10m a year – to wear the adidas Predator_X DB football boots.