Football, absolutely the most popular game in the world with more than 4 billion fans in the world.With such a big fan bases you can bet that there are millions in the game for the most famous players.
Here is a list of the top 10 richest football players in the world
Continue reading Top 10 richest football players in world
Real Madrid superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo has surprised his fans by how he chose to ‘spend’ his Champions League bonus of nearly £500,000.
According to reports from Spain, the Portuguese footballer NEVER touched the money. Instead, he asked agent Jorge Mendes to give the huge haul to ‘the needy’.
Spanish journalist, Pipi Estrada revealed that, before last week’s final, the Real Madrid superstar “had spoken with (agent) Jorge Mendes and asked him to take charge of distributing the money to the needy”.
Three-time world player of the year Ronaldo sparked doubts over his fitness with a muted display in the showpiece against Atletico Madrid in Milan, although he fired the penalty shootout winner.
But any short-term criticism he receives might be overshadowed by the long-term good his donation of 600,000 Euros (£463,000) will do.
The Sun UK reports that “Last year Ronaldo, 31, was third on the Forbes rich list of sporting competitors, reportedly earning £34million from pay and bonuses PLUS £17m from endorsements.
“That total of £51m pipped the £47.5m reputedly accrued by Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.
“But even their combined earnings were eclipsed by two boxing legends, Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao picking up £103m and American Floyd Mayweather £193m.”
Ronaldo has however insisted that none of that matters to him. He won three Premier League titles and the Champions League with United, before taking the Spanish crown and twice more Europe’s top domestic competition with Real.
Brazilian legend Pele has named Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi as his best player of all time. This is ahead of the Argentine fellow country man Diego Maradona who is sometime painted as the best all time best. Pele made this declaration while also admitting that Brazil’s World Cup defeat to Germany two years ago brought his to tears. Pele was in Milan to promote a movie about his life and he spoke to Italian La Gazzetta della Sport about his favorite players at every point with the Barcelona Lionel Messi topping the list.
The legend is quoted as saying that; “It’s very difficult because there have always been players who have been compared with me [as the best player ever].First there was [Alfredo] Di Stefano, then [Johan] Cruyff, [Franz] Beckenbauer, Bobby Charlton, Maradona and now there is Messi. Leo is the one I like the most — he’s the most complete. Messi is my favourite player, but Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar are also good. They have different styles in a football which has changed.” Pele also mentioned that calling Italian legend Francesco Totti the Italian Pele was correct.
The 75 years old said watching his country beaten by Germany in the World Cup was humiliating, also stating that his son would have seen him cry that day. It is OK to lose but to concede seven goals in the World Cup at that stage is nothing less than humiliating. He said football is a hard game and predicting who would win is a difficult thing. Ahead of Saturday’s Champions League final Pele said he would prefer Madrid wins it ahead of Atletico because of their style of play also adding that the game of football is diminishing because winning is now more important than the beauty of the game.
In a recent poll carried out in Brazil where 25 top coaches where asked ho they would prefer to sign if given the chance between the two players, Lionel Messi got an amazing 20 out of 25 votes. the four time Ballon D’Or winner who is most likely to lift a fifth one in his career if he wins the next one was the favorite to also win the best player award if only Brazilian coaches had to vote. The remaining five coaches picked Ronaldo over Lionel Messi, according to them they prefer him because he was more goal oriented than his rival.
Lionel Messi has been on the sidelines since for the past three weeks due to an injury he sustained and is poised to return on time for his team’s clash against Real Madrid in November. Himself and his father are also facing tax charges by the Spanish football federation for tax evasion, although it seems that he is off the hook but his father is not. while all these has been happening with the Argentine ace, his rival Cristiano Ronaldo was recently awarded the European golden boot award for his goal scoring exploits in the last season. He also went on to become Real Madrid’s all time highest goal scorer toppling Raul’s 323 goals for the club and doing so with even fewer matches.
Four times Ballon D’Or winner Lionel Messi seems to be considering leaving his long time club FC Barcelona. Messi has been with Barcelona for 14 years now and currently has a current that runs till 2019. his intended move away from the Spanish La Liga is not unconnected to the fact that he and his father Jorge are facing charges of tax evasion from the Cataluyna government. Fellow Barcelona team mate Neymar Jr is also being investigated for the same reason and some people are beginning to suggest that this might be a witch hunting.
While the rumors might not be true, it is not far fetched. Imagine the amount of money that would be made by any Premier League club capable of landing this Argentine superstar from TV rights, shirts sales and all. The Premier League currently makes the highest revenue compared to other leagues around the world when it comes to TV rights and that is why clubs like Stoke City can afford to buy youth players from Europe’s elite team like Barcelona. A move to the Premier League by the Argentine international is sure to make him and the club richer by the numbers.
we have seen in recent times how much the team needs a player like Lionel Messi given their performances since he went on injury last month. The likes of Neymar and Suarez have not been able to make the Argentine’s absence less felt. The thoughts of losing their talisman would surely not go down well with the president of the club and the fans, so as is their usual, Barcelona is expected to offer Lionel Messi a contract extension soon.
Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo who make up the clubs attacking trio known as “the BBC” together with Barcelona’s fearsome MSN which consist of Lionel Messi, Lius Suarez and Neymar Santos Jr would battle other players in world football for the FIFA Ballon D’Or. The 23 man shortlist which was announced by FIFA is dominated by Barcelona players and that of course is because of the team’s success last term. Exceptional players like Alexis Sanchez who has been a sensation since his move to arsenal also made the 23 man shortlist. Chelsea’s Eden Hazard also made the cut along side Manchester City stars; Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure.
Current holder Cristiano Ronaldo recently became Real Madrid’s all time highest goal scorer eclipsing club legend Raul Gonzalez. Lionel Messi led Barcelona to a treble last season and Alexis Sanchez was instrumental in winning a trophy each for his club Arsenal and Chile in the Copa America. the full 23 man shortlist is listed below;
Sergio Aguero (Argentina/Manchester City), Gareth Bale (Wales/Real Madrid), Karim Benzema (France/Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid), Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium/VfL Wolfsburg/Manchester City), Eden Hazard (Belgium/Chelsea), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden/Paris Saint-Germain), Andres Iniesta (Spain/FC Barcelona), Toni Kroos (Germany/Real Madrid), Robert Lewandowski (Poland/FC Bayern Munich), Javier Mascherano (Argentina/FC Barcelona), Lionel Messi (Argentina/FC Barcelona), Thomas Muller (Germany/FC Bayern Munich), Manuel Neuer (Germany/FC Bayern Munich), Neymar (Brazil/FC Barcelona), Paul Pogba (France/Juventus), Ivan Rakitic (Croatia/FC Barcelona), Arjen Robben (Netherlands/FC Bayern Munich), James Rodriguez (Colombia/Real Madrid), Alexis Sanchez (Chile/Arsenal), Luis Suarez (Uruguay/FC Barcelona), Yaya Toure (Côte d’Ivoire/Manchester City), Arturo Vidal (Chile/Juventus/FC Bayern Munich).
Neymar Jr was the star man as Barcelona came from behind to record a comfortable win against Rayo Vallecano. The Brazilian striker scored two from the spot and two later on in the second as Barcelona overturned the deficit to remain on equal points with Real Madrid. Rayo Vallecano had initially taken the lead through Javi Guerra who made the most of a slack defending from Barcelona just 15 minutes into the game. The goal silenced Camp Nou but that was not to be the case at the end of the game.
Neymar proved too hot for Rayo Vallecano’s defenders as he forced them into fouling him. He converted both spot kicks to take his tally for the season to six goals. He continued to cause problems in the opposition area and added two more goals to take his goal tally to eight goals from seven appearances. Neymar rounded the game up by assisting Lius Suarez who had been a constant threat as Barcelona got their fifth goal of the game which ended 5-2.
Neymar’s performance gave Camp Nou a rejuvenated feeling considering the fact that they had been struggling since they lost their talisman Lionel Messi to injury. The Argentine star was on hand to watch the game from the stands and would be happy to see that his team is coping in his absence. Lionel Messi is due to return from injury very soon but the club can only hope that his financial issues doesn’t cause more distractions for the player.
Lionel Messi started out this football season in his characteristically good note. All these changed when he incurred a two months injury in the match against Las Palmas. After this event, it appears that there is another hurdle that this star has to cross. There is a likelihood that Lionel Messi would bag a jail term extending for about two years.
The possible term is due to allegations of tax fraud against Messi and his father, Jorge.The pair were accused of defrauding the Spanish Tax Authorities of a sum of about €4 million. The tax fraud is related to money not remitted in relation to Messi’s image rights between the year 2007 and 2009.
Although there was a request by prosecutors for Messi’s charge to be dropped, this was overruled by the court. Thus, Messi and his father are going to be charged on three count charges of tax fraud. Messi and his father have come out to deny any wrongdoings on their part.
Messi’s father is alleged to have transferred the money in question to fake companies located in different countries. The companies mentioned are said to be in Belize, Uruguay, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Messi and his father have also paid a sum as repatriation for the alleged tax fraud. Since the tax fraud case was started in 2013, the duo have paid a sum totalling about €5 million. This covers the money owed and the interest.
In all, although Messi going out on a 2 months long injury is bad enough, it would be unfathomable if he ends up in jail.