Cristiano Ronaldo falls well short behind world’s richest footballer despite £1.3bn deal
Cristiano Ronaldo has fallen short of becoming the world’s richest footballer once again despite his mega-rich move to Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner made the switch to the Middle-East on Friday evening as he penned a two-and-a-half year contract, although he is expected to stay for longer than that deal to head-up Saudi Arabia’s push for the 2030 World Cup. It is a lucrative deal that is set to earn Ronaldo around £173million-a-year, which is equivalent to £3.3m per week – the wealthiest contract in world football.
Ronaldo is set to stay at Al-Nassr in an ambassadorial role once he retires from playing which is set to keep him at the club for seven years and he could earn up to £1.3bn if he stays there for that time. However, despite his new fountain of wealth, Ronaldo’s bank balance is still peanuts compared to former Arsenal and Chelsea youth star Faiq Bolkiah who is worth a staggering £13billion.
Although he isn’t particularly well-known amongst the general football fan, Bolkah is the world’s richest player, and already infinitely wealthier than Ronaldo. However, unlike Ronaldo, Bolkiah hasn’t amassed his wealth from his endeavours on the pitch – and his fortunes are nothing to do with how much he earns while playing football.
The 24-year-old is the nephew of the Sultan of Brunei, while his father is a prince in the southeast Asian country, but he decided to go his own way and pursue a career as a professional athlete. Born in the United States, Bolkiah grew up in England and was educated at Bradfield College, a boarding school in Berkshire which these days charges fees north of £40,000 per year.
After spells on the books of AFC Newbury and Southampton, the latter when the Saints were still outside the Premier League, he later joined Chelsea’s academy as a teenager. He also spent time at Arsenal, before joining Leicester City in 2016, with the Foxes handing him a three-year contract which eventually became four.
Bolkiah didn’t make a senior appearance for the Foxes but was an key presence in the Under 23s side that competed in the UEFA Youth League alongside Harvey Barnes, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Calvin Bassey, who have gone on to become household names. But he struggled for regular minutes and decided to join Portuguese outfit Maritimo, where he featured on the bench on a couple of occasions.
He was 24 by the time he finally ended that long wait for senior minutes in a top-flight league. It came in Thailand, with Bolkiah joining Chonburi after leaving Maritimo by mutual consent, and he has begun to find his feet for the five-time national champions and recently scored his first goal for the club against Port FC in November.
