With the recent release of Sunday Time 2011 Rich List and Forbes 2011 highest-paid soccer players, the below are Africa’s top five richest footballers of 2011.
Samuel Eto’o
Estimated net worth:$40 million
Annual salary: ?7million
2010 Earnings $15million(endorsement + salary)
Current Club—FC Anzhi
Former Inter Milan’s Cameroonian striker and African footballer of the year award winner with a record of four times, Samuel Eto’o, is currently Africa’s highest paid footballer and ranked 10th to be the only African footballer on the Forbes list.
The Cameroonian counts Puma and ford as sponsors. Eto’o is the most decorated African player of all time, with much to be proud of -in the wake of his Champions League success with Spanish giant, Barcelona and Italian club, Internazionale.
The former Inter Milan striker joined Russian soccer Club, FC Anzhi Makhanchkala in a three-year-deal with an annual salary of ?20.5 million Euros or $28.8 million at current exchange rates. The deal made him the highest paid player in the history of soccer, dwarfing the earning of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’ Christiano Ronaldo.
Didier Drogba
Net worth: $30.7 million (?19m), according to Sunday times rich list.
Net worth last calculation may 2011
Annual salary: ?5.5million
Club: Chelsea
Country: Ivory Coast
The Ivory Coast striker, 33, is Chelsea’s top scoring overseas player of all time with successes that have been rewarded with a ?105, 000 a week contact.? He has an endorsement deal with Pepsi, the proceeds from which have been diverted to build a children’s hospital in Abidjan, his home city.
Drogba is said to have put ?3m towards the hospital from Pepsi and other endorsement deals, including Nike and Orange France.
?
Michael Essien
Net worth: $22.7million (?14m), according t Sunday Times’ rich list
Net Worth last calculated May 2011
Club: Chelsea
Country: Ghana
Chelsea extended Michael Essien’s ?80,000 a-week contract by two years last summer, taking the 28-year-old through to 2015. He moved from Lyons in 2005 for a then club record fee of ?24.4m. Essien has played more than 50 times for his country, Ghana.
?
Yaya Toure
Net Worth: $11.4million (?7m)
Net Worth last calculated May 2011
Annual salary: ?8.8million
Club: Manchester City
Country: Ivory Coast
Yaya Toure, 28, made headlines worldwide when he joined his brother Kolo Toure at Manchester City last summer for a contract worth of ?200,000-a-week. The deal took his earnings beyond all new comers in the UK and trebled his former salary at Barcelona. In a single year, earns more than ?4m after tax. With at least ?5m banked from his first year in England, added to ?2m for his three years deal at Barcelona.
?
Kolo Toure
Net Worth: $11.4million (?7M)
Net worth last calculated may 2011
Annual salary: ?5.7million
Club: Manchester City
Country: Ivory Coast
If Kolo Toure’s high point of 2011 was playing alongside his brother Yaya for the first time since they were in the same team in the Ivory Coast, the low point was a failed drugs test in March that saw him suspended. The Manchester City defender faces a two-year ban but says he unwittingly took one of his wife’ diet pills. Kolo, 30, is not as well paid as his brother but ?120, 00 a week keeps the wolf from the door. He has a boot deal with aAdidas.
Source:? www.therichest.org/sports/highest-paid-football-players/