FourFourTwo’s UK football rich list
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FOOTBALL'S RICH LIST
Man City owner back on top of rich list
Sheikh Mansour: Fortune has risen by £3 billion
Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour has returned to the top of football's rich list, according to the latest figures from FourFourTwo magazine.
The 40-year-old's vast fortune is estimated to have risen by £3 billion, moving him back in front of QPR shareholder Lakshmi Mittal, whose fortune has dipped to £17 billion.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, whose wealth once dwarfed all other fortunes on the list, has now dropped as far as fourth - displaced by Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov, whose estate has exploded to rise from £1.3 billion to £8 billion.
"It's tempting to say that those who live by the rouble, die by the rouble," said FourFourTwo editor Hugh Sleight. "For so many years, Roman Abramovich was the top dog, but now he faces challenges wherever he looks.
"It isn't that Abramovich has got poorer, but more and more billionaires are coming into English football. When we first published this list in 2003, there were two. Now there are 15."
Usmanov's fellow Arsenal shareholder Stanley Kroenke is eighth on the list with a fortune of £1.85 billion, while Mittal's partner at QPR, Bernie Ecclestone, also makes it into the top 10 with his £1.4 billion estate.
The controversial owners of Manchester United, the Glazer family, are ranked ninth with an estimated fortune of £1.53 billion.
Others figuring in the top 10 are Southampton owners the Liebherr family, fifth with a fortune of £3 billion, Tottenham owner Joe Lewis, sixth at £2.7 billion, and Celtic's Denis O'Brien, seventh with a fortune of £1.87 billion.
Tom Hicks and George Gillett, whose ownership of Liverpool could come to an end if the club's other directors are able to force through a sale, do not feature on this year's list at all.
Having been listed joint 16th last year with an estimated £500 million each, analysts said it was now impossible to verify their worth as the turmoil continues at Anfield.
Among players, David Beckham still tops the list by a huge margin, but his worth is said to have dropped from £125 million to £100 million, pushing him from 38th overall to 49th. Wayne Rooney, meanwhile, has dropped from third to sixth.
"For Beckham, missing the World Cup and approaching retirement have had an effect and we've cut his value by a fifth to £100million," Sleight said. As you'd expect, Brand Beckham have a cunning business plan to ensure their financial power continues even after Becks hangs up his boots, but that's still in its early stages and has yet to bear fruit. So for now, it's down to number 49 for Becks."
Rooney has dropped beneath Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell and Ryan Giggs.
"Wayne Rooney's flirtations with the front pages have clearly affected his value to sponsors and we correspondingly cut his value by a third," Sleight said. He's young and he has time to bounce back, on and off the pitch, but for the time being, his reputation has been seriously tarnished."
Michael Owen is second on the players' list with a fortune of £40 million, £6 million more than Manchester United team-mate Ferdinand.
England boss Fabio Capello tops the managers' list with a fortune of £36 million, ahead of Ipswich boss Roy Keane, whose £28 million fortune was largely accumulated as a player at Manchester United. He sits one place above his old boss, Sir Alex Ferguson, third, with a fortune of £26 million.
New Leicester boss Sven-Goran Eriksson is sixth with a £15 million fortune, level with Manchester City's Roberto Mancini.
That puts him £5 million ahead of his predecessor at Eastlands, Fulham manager Mark Hughes, who is joint eighth with Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp and Manchester United reserve-team boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The list once again demonstrates football's ability to ignore the recession as the overall value has risen to £77 billion, £8 billion higher than a year ago.
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The Football Rich List 2010/2011
The Players
The golden boot! The FourFourTwo.com Rich List 2010/11 in association with Leaders in Football, brings you the 20 wealthiest players involved in British football
18. Damien Duff £13m
Fulham Age 31 (Last year £12m, 15th)
He must love his football, Damien Duff. It's not his fault that Newcastle didn't include a relegation clause automatically lowering the £70,000 weekly wage on a five-year deal with two seasons left to run when the Toon went down. Some might call his move to Fulham a desertion but considering he appears to have taken a £25,000 a week hit to sign at Craven Cottage, when many might have been tempted to count the coins up at Newcastle.
Instead he moved back to the capital, putting his £3m Newcastle home up for sale. It didn't find a buyer so Duff has put it up for rent, to add to a property portfolio also including homes in London, the Caribbean and particularly heavy investment in Ireland. Duff also has an endorsement contract with Lucozade and his company Lightzest showed £1.1m net assets in 2008-09. But despite his share of £22m transfers (including a £17m move from Blackburn to Chelsea in 2003 and the £5m move to Newcastle in 2006) we only raise Duff slightly this year to £13m.
FourFourTwo.com's Fulham news page
18. Emile Heskey £13m
Aston Villa Age 32 (Last year £13m, 14th)
Perhaps unfairly derided for England's failure in South Africa, Emile Heskey will be happy to be reunited with new Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier. The Frenchman broke Liverpool's transfer record to sign Heskey from Leicester in 2000 for £11m, and when Heskey moved to Birmingham in summer 2004 the deal was structured so the initial £3.5m fee could have risen to £6.25m – another club record, although Blues escaped the final £1.5m payment by the simple method of getting relegated. Heskey stayed in the top flight by moving to Wigan for £5.5m – another club record – and in January 2009, with only six months left on his contract, he was sold to Villa for a further £3.5m.
Heskey had earned £8.2m at Liverpool and Birmingham gave him a five-year contract worth £30,000 a week. Wigan raisd this to £40,000 a week and his Villa wage is thought to be closer to £35,000 a week. His company Emile Heskey Promotions had £379,000 net assets in 2008-09. In all Heskey's share of the transfer fees, his nine years at the top and a boot deal with Nike take him to £13m. Not bad for someone alleged to be a donkey.
FourFourTwo.com's Aston Villa news page
18. Michael Essien £13m
Chelsea Age 27 (New entry)
Lyon didn't want to sell Michael Essien, but Chelsea kept on bidding until they accepted £26m. You can see why. A superb athlete who once told FourFourTwo he'd happily play another game immediately after the usual 90-minute runaround, Ghana's star player is also an excellent footballer who has become even more important for Chelsea during the absence of Frank Lampard.
He signed an £80,000 a week contract in the summer of 2009 which keeps him at Stamford Bridge until 2013. Endorsement deals and promotional work should take him to £13m.
FourFourTwo.com's Chelsea news page
14. Gary Neville £14m
Manchester United Age 35 (Last year £12m, 15th)
"Red Nev" joined Manchester United as a schoolboy in 1991; 10 years later he signed a six-year £11m contract. Since then his wages have risen to around £70,000 a week. Neville also has a Diadora boot deal to add to his opinion columns and role in a Pepsi ad. He has two homes near Manchester including a £1.5m Manchester penthouse plus a £700,000 villa on his beloved isle of Malta. He has put his pad near Bolton on the market with a £6m price tag and applied for permission to build an eco-friendly house locally.

FourFourTwo.com's Manchester United news page
14. Joe Cole £14m
Liverpool Age 28 (Last year £11m, 18th)
This time last year, Chelsea and Joe Cole were unable to reach agreement on a contract extension, amid claims that club were unwilling to grant him –- or, for that matter, Michael Ballack – a six-figure weekly wage. Fellow Champions League qualifiers Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham were all possible destinations but in the end Cole signed a four-year, £90,000-a-week contract with Liverpool.
A schoolboy prodigy, Cole made his debut for West Ham in 1998. His 2003 move from West Ham to Chelsea in a £6.5m deal increased his salary from £25,000 a week to £30,000. He signed an £80,000 a week Chelsea contract in June 2006 and had endorsement deals with Samsung and Adidas. He enjoys the usual footballer trappings of property in Dubai and fast cars. There is little in his company, Joe Cole Promotions, with just £307,000 net assets in 2008-09.
FourFourTwo.com's Liverpool news page
14. Nicolas Anelka £14m
Chelsea Age 31 (Last year £14m, 11th)
Being the world's most expensive player by cumulative transfer fee indicates two things: usefulness and restlessness. But notwithstanding a high-profile bust-up with the France management effectively ending his international career, Anelka appears genuinely settled back in England: a harmonious time at Bolton has been followed by a successful spell at Chelsea, dovetailing with Didier Drogba and firing the Blues to a Double last year.
Chelsea were just the latest team to pay a high price – £15m – for his services. Previous stints at Arsenal, Real Madrid, Paris St Germain (twice), Liverpool, Fenerbahce and Manchester City have seen him command more than £85 million in transfer fees from his various moves. His near £4m Chelsea salary, past earnings and share of his huge transfer deals, take him to £14m at least.
FourFourTwo.com's Chelsea news page
14. Petr Cech £14m
Chelsea Age 28 (Last year £12m, 15th)
The world's highest-paid goalkeeper, Chelsea's Petr Cech signed for the Blues from French side Rennes in 2004 for £7m. He earns around £90,000 a week from Chelsea and signed a five-year endorsement deal with Samsung and Adidas in 2008 said to be worth up to £25m. With five years in the Premier League behind him and a contract that stretches to 2013, Cech should easily be worth £14m right now.
FourFourTwo.com's Chelsea news page
13. Fernando Torres £15m
Liverpool Age 26 (Last year £14m, 11th)
It's not been a good year for World Cup winner Fernando Torres. His club appear to be falling apart and his country's triumph came against a background of personal struggles with injury.
Born in Madrid, Torres played for six years at Atletico Madrid before his move to Anfield. After an initial six-year deal worth £90,000 a week, he signed a new four-year deal in August 2009 worth £110,000 a week. He has advertising endorsements ranging from Nike, Pepsi and Pringles to a Spanish hair salon and a dog training school.
FourFourTwo.com's Liverpool news page
12. Paul Scholes £16m
Manchester United Age 35 (Re-entry)
Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes may be nearing 36 but his passes and reading of the game are as accurate as ever. With over 600 games for United, Scholes recently announced his intention to retire at the end of the 2010–11 season. However, he said he may continue beyond the season if he has a good campaign and is "doing the job the manager wants". Nobody - least of all Sir Alex Ferguson - doubts that.
Scholes' salaries have ranged from £50,000 to £90,000 a week. He also has a Nike endorsement deal and there are over £1.1m net assets in Paul Scholes Ltd for 2008-09. His longevity at the top should take Scholes to £16m after-tax and spending.
FourFourTwo.com's Manchester United news page
10. Didier Drogba £18m
Chelsea Age 32 (Last year £16m, 10th)
Chelsea and Didier Drogba have done well out of each other. He increased his wages four-fold by leaving Marseilles and signing a £24.5m transfer at Chelsea in July 2004. A year previously he had only cost the French team £3.3m. He earned himself a further 50% pay rise in November 2006, signing a four-year deal worth £90,000 a week. That was improved in the summer of 2007 to £100,000 a week. It was extended to 2012 in the summer of 2009 and is now worth £105,000 a week. If anything improving under Carlo Ancelotti, he enjoys further bonuses when he wins trophies or tops 15 goals in a season.
FourFourTwo.com's Chelsea news page
10. Patrick Vieira £18m
Manchester City Age 34 (New entry)
Midfield general Patrick Vieira made his name in English football at Arsenal after a £3.5m move from Milan in 1996. Nine successful years later he left Arsenal for Juventus in a €20m transfer. A year later he signed a four-year deal for Internazionale in a €9.5m deal. At both clubs the French international earned around £90,000 a week. In January 2010 he joined Manchester City on a six month contract worth £140,000 a week, extended in June 2010 by a year. In all we reckon Vieira is worth £18m.
FourFourTwo.com's Manchester City news page
9. John Terry £19m
Chelsea Age 29 (Last year £18m, 9th)
Few players can have had worse years in which they've captained their side to the Double. John Terry has gone through tabloid scandal, widespread public condemnation, the loss of his England captaincy and the subsequent poor World Cup. Perhaps he's glad he stayed loyal to Chelsea by turning down the £250,000 weekly wage Manchester City offered; the club seems to be his home and he's hardly penniless on £160,000 a week with the right to a testimonial worth around £2.5m.Endorsements, headed by Umbro, supplement his wages. But as with Rooney we are cautious about further promotional earnings due to the rough ride he has had in the tabloids. On the flip side, Terry has invested heavily in property developments, some of them overseas. We therefore add just £1m to Terry’s valuation this year, taking him to £19m.
FourFourTwo.com's Chelsea news page
7. Frank Lampard £22m
Chelsea Age 32 (Last year £21m, 88th)
Frank Lampard remains with Chelsea after shunning overtures from his former boss Jose Mourinho in the summer of 2008. He signed a five-year deal worth £33m, which sees his wages peak at £140,000 a week (£7.3m a year). We gather another £1m a year comes from his boot sponsors Adidas.
Lampard has three companies including Frank Lampard Promotions, with nearly £1.5m net assets in total in 2008-09. Last year's split with his fiancée Elen Rivas is likely to have hit his finances, so we cautiously value Lampard at £22m.
FourFourTwo.com's Chelsea news page
7. Steven Gerrard £22m
Liverpool Age 30 (Last year £20m, 90th)
Liverpool’s totem earns £6.5m a year; given his importance to the team’s cause, fans would not begrudge him a penny. Endorsement deals with Adidas and Lucozade add around £750,000 a year, giving him annual earnings of at least £9m according to Forbes magazine.
He has invested £5m of his fortune in Merseyside and Dubai penthouse apartments. Steven Gerrard Promotions, his company showed £3.5m net assets in 2008-09. Gerrard should now be worth £22m despite the collapse in Dubai property prices.
FourFourTwo.com's Liverpool news page
6. Wayne Rooney £25m
Manchester United Age 24 (Last year £37m, 65th)
It's not been quite the 2010 Wayne Rooney envisaged. An injury knocked him off the blistering form he'd been displaying, Manchester United won nothing bigger than the League Cup and England were hugely disappointing at the World Cup. And then it got worse.
Lurid tabloid allegations over his private life have threatened his marriage to childhood sweetheart Coleen, held him up to terrace ridicule, and could undermine his lucrative sponsorship deals with the likes of Coca-Cola, EA Sports and Nike. In 2008, he signed a £1m two-year deal to become a global face for Mercedes. These sponsorship deals are worth around £6m a year. He has a five-book deal with Harper Collins with a £5m advance.
The £3.2m deal with OK! for the photographic rights to his summer 2008 wedding to Coleen confirmed their status as celebrity hot property. The Rooneys live in a £4.25m home in Cheshire and also have a Florida holiday home. He is paid £100,000 a week by the club and is in negotiations to push that up to £130,000 a week. But with fears over the future of sponsorship deals and speculation that their marriage may not survive (leading inevitably to talks of a hefty divorce settlement) we cautiously cut Rooney back to £25m this year.
FourFourTwo.com's Manchester United news page
5. Ryan Giggs £27m
Manchester United Age 36 (Last year £24m, 85th)
Evergreen hardly does Giggs justice. Now approaching 850 appearances for Manchester United and with a contract that takes him through until the end of next season, he has every chance of clocking up more than 20 years in the club’s first team. He has been richly rewarded for his loyalty and while his current £4.2m a year contract does not match that of some of his younger team-mates, he has been earning at this rate and more since some of them were still in their prams.
A mainstay of Reebok, Giggs has managed to keep his exploits on the back pages rather than the front, maintaining a private life despite being the most decorated footballer in history. Now in his 20th year at the top, Giggs has amassed a personal fortune that should ensure he never has to work again when he hangs up his boots. His company, Ryan Giggs Ltd, has around £3.4m net assets as at the end of 2008. As he is very careful with his money and with his longevity, we reckon Giggs should be worth £27m right now.
FourFourTwo.com's Manchester United news page
4. Sol Campbell £31m
Newcastle United Age 36 (Re-entry)
Now on a one-year contract with Newcastle United, Sol Campbell last year became only the fifth ever player to return to Arsenal. Before that, he had played just one game for Notts County before walking out on a five-year £40,000-a-week contract claiming that promises to bring other star signings had not been kept.
An outstanding athlete with 73 England caps, Campbell has benefited from playing at the height of the Premier League’s pulling power. Huge income from television rights has been passed on to players and Campbell was one of the first to benefit from Bosman free transfers when he moved to Arsenal from Spurs in 2001 as a free agent and took a significant proportion of what Arsenal could have expected to pay in transfer fees as part of his then £5m annual salary.
A boot deal with Nike added more to the Campbell coffers, and he the first time he left Arsenal the club paid up the final year of his contract - at which point he signed a lucrative contract with the then high-rolling Portsmouth. In January 2010, Campbell sued Pompey for £1.7m in unpaid image rights and bonus payments. His company Sol Man Ltd showed £668,000 net assets in 2008-09, and he has a £10m plus house on Chelsea’s Cheyne Walk.
FourFourTwo.com's Newcastle United news page
3. Rio Ferdinand £34m
Manchester United Age 31 (Last year £30m, 85th)
Ever more plagued by injury, Rio Ferdinand is increasingly active outside football. Yet the Manchester United centre back is still reckoned to be the Premier League's best natural defender. A £1m a year pay rise taking him to £120,000 a week was Ferdinand’s reward for the imperious form that helped Manchester United claim the Premier League and Champions League double in 2008.
A lucrative boot deal with Nike provides extra funds to channel into his extensive property portfolio that takes in London, Morocco and the Caribbean. He owns 60% of the White Chalk recording company which he hopes will help him realise his ambition to become a music mogul. It made a £78,000 loss in 2008-09, while his personal company, RGF Enterprises only publishes abbreviated accounts. But with property values not yet recovered we only raise Ferdinand this year to £34m.
FourFourTwo.com's Manchester United news page
2. Michael Owen £40m
Manchester United Age 30 (Last year £38m, 64th)
Upon joining Manchester United, Michael Owen struck a pay-as-you play deal dwarfed by the £110,000 a week he was on at Newcastle, but the only begging he'll need to do is asking Alex Ferguson for more games. Decent wages at Real Madrid and Liverpool were topped up on the commercial front as Owen starred in a series of adverts that charted his life, and rise to fame.
In 2001, he was the advertising face of breakfast cereal Nestlé Sporties. He also appeared in several adverts for the washing powder Persil, in a contract worth £1m. Owen was a cover star for Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. He has been an ambassador of the Swiss watchmaker Tissot since 1998 and has a contract with car manufacturer Jaguar. His sponsorship deal with Umbro nets him £2m a year, lifting his earnings at his peak to north of £7.5m a year.
His Owen Promotions company showed £6.8m net assets in 2008-09. He also has a string of racehorses trained by the up and coming Tom Dascombe. But with his lower income this year from his new Manchester United deal, we keep Owen at £40m.
FourFourTwo.com's Manchester United news page
1. David & Victoria Beckham £100m
Age 35 & 36 (Last year £125m, 38th)
Tough times for the Beckhams – relatively speaking, of course. Reports that they are downsizing their large domestic retinue by 14 come after accountants have trawled over their finances. Their Hertfordshire mansion is on the market for £18m. And the Heat era's golden couple are finding that as Becks' football career draws to a close, sponsorship and other deals are becoming rarer and less lucrative. None of this will matter to Beckham half as much as Fabio Capello's brusque termination of his 117-cap England career.
Where did it all go wrong for the handsome multimillionaire global fashion icon with the cupboard full of medals? Beckham's four-year Real Madrid contract earned him £6m annually and was followed by a transatlantic move which made global news, even if the headline figure of £128m was partly misleading: a large part of it would flow from sponsorship deals and his ability to raise attendance at games.
With Victoria, Beckham is now clearly preparing for his life after football, launching fashion and cosmetics lines. In 2007, the Beckhams were reportedly paid $13.7m to launch his fragrance line in the US. They have their own company, Beckham Brand Limited, to exploit the family name. In 2008 its profits soared to £5.6m on £9.8m sales. In 2008, Beckham's own company, Footwork Productions paid him nearly £10.8m against £5.2m the year previously. The good news for David as his playing career winds down is that a quarter of his earnings come from Asia, driven more by his iconic status than his football performance: Forbes magazine's celebrity 100 list last year put Beckham's worldwide earnings at £28m. But while he has a £10m a year from adidas, some deals have ended and the very lucrative ones depend on his continuing as a top-class player.
For her part, Victoria has made £10m from her Spice Girl days and is making more from musicals and a TV career, but her real future earnings will come from her fashion range. Her fourth collection has won global praise and been sold out at top stores. The business “funds itself” but is not yet a real moneyspinner. With annual living costs of £5m a year, the Beckham family wealth and asset wealth is around £80m. In the past their wealth figure has been boosted by their value as a brand, but until we see how that pans out, we cautiously cut the value of the pair to £100m for now. -
FourFourTwo’s football rich list.
1 Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan (Man City) £20bn
2 Lakshmi Mittal (QPR) £17bn
3 Alisher Usmanov (Arsenal) £8bn
4 Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) £7.4bn
5 The Liebherr Family (Southampton) £3bn
6 Joe Lewis (Tottenham) £2.7bn
7 Denis O’Brien (Celtic) £1.87bn
8 Stanley Kroenke (Arsenal) £1.85bn
9 Malcolm Glazer and family (Man Utd) £1.53bn
10 Bernie Ecclestone (QPR) £1.4bn
11 Dermot Desmond (Celtic) £1.39bn
12 Mohamed Al-Fayed (Fulham) £1.3bn
13 Lord Ashcroft (Tottenham/Watford) £1.25bn
14 Lord Grantchester (Everton) £1.2bn
15 Ellis Short (Sunderland) £1bn
16 Mike Ashley (Newcastle) £950m
17 Vincent Tan (Cardiff) £765m
18 The Walker Family (Blackburn) £600m
19 Randy Lerner (Aston Villa) £600m
20 Stephen Rubin (Watford) £520m
21 Stephen Lansdown (Bristol City) £516m
22 Marcus Evans (Ipswich Town) £510m
23Trevor Hemmings (Preston NE) £500m
24 Peter Coates (Stoke) £500m
25 Terry Bramall (Doncaster) £450m
26 David Sullivan (West Ham) £400m
27 John W Henry (Liverpool – tbc) £380m, estimated
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what is the owner of southampton doing?