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As announced in the Tuesday issue of the French weekly "France Football", the Brazilian star Ronaldinho has become the highest-earning footballer in the world. Earning 23 million euros last year, the best player of 2005 has surpassed the star of Real Madrid and former captain of the English national team, David Beckham, who had been at the top of the list for three years.
The "France Football" list is compiled based on players' salaries, bonuses, and advertising income.
In second place, David Beckham has fallen far behind Ronaldinho, who claimed the top spot this year - earning 25 million euros last year, the Englishman had to settle for 18 million euros this year, with 6.4 million coming from his salary at the Royal club and the remaining 11.6 million from advertising income. "France Football" also calculated that his assets should be valued at around 180 million euros.
In third place on the list is another star from Real Madrid, the Brazilian Ronaldo, who earned 17.4 million euros. The top ten is completed by Manchester United's English forward Wayne Rooney (16.1), Monaco's Italian star Christian Vieri (16), Real Madrid's French defender Zinedine Zidane (15), Juventus' Italian forward Alessandro del Piero (11.5), Chelsea's English defender Frank Lampard (9.8), Arsenal's attacking leader Thierry Henry (9.8), and Chelsea's captain and English defender John Terry (9.7).
At 25, Ronaldinho tripled his income compared to the previous year. Undoubtedly, this was helped by winning the Golden Ball in 2005, which allowed the Brazilian to earn 14 million euros from advertising.
"France Football" also published a list of the top-earning coaches. Unsurprisingly, in first place is Chelsea's strategist Jose Mourinho, who earned 10.9 million euros last year. He was followed by England's national team coach Sven-Goran Eriksson (6.9) and Manchester United's coach Sir Alex Ferguson (6).
Following them are former Valencia coach Claudio Ranieri (5.3), who received a substantial compensation for the termination of his contract, Arsenal's French manager Arsene Wenger (4.5), and the January-dismissed Atletico Madrid coach, Argentine Carlos Bianchi (4.3).
The highest-earning coach in 2005 and currently leading a Spanish club is Barcelona's Dutch strategist Frank Rijkaard, who earned 3.5 million euros.
