Last month, VOA looked at the top ten highest football players in the world. Of those ten, only three are still in contention for the World Cup, and what’s more, they are either from Argentina or Brazil. Check out the list below – the highlighted players are still in (Note: even though Neymar is out of the World Cup with a broken vertebra, since he plays for Brazil, he’s included):
| Player | Team | Total | Salary | Endorsements |
Age | Position |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal (Real Madrid) |
$44.0 M (21,3 Mds CFA) |
$23.0 M (11,1 Mds CFA) |
$21.0 M (10,2 Mds CFA) |
29 | attacker |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Argentina (FC Barcelona) |
$41.3 M (20,0 Mds CFA) |
$20.3 M (9,8 Mds CFA) |
$21.0 M (10,2 Mds CFA) |
27 | attacker |
| 3 | Wayne Rooney | England (Manchester United) |
$21.1 M (10,2 Mds CFA) |
$18.1 M (8,8 Mds CFA) |
$3.0 M (1,5 Mds CFA) |
28 | attacker |
| 4 | Sergio Aguero | Argentina (Manchester City) |
$20.9 M (10,1 Mds CFA) |
$17.4 M (8,4 Mds CFA) |
$3.5 M (1,7 Mds CFA) |
26 | attacker |
| 5 | Didier Drogba | Côte d’Ivoire (Galatasaray) |
$20.8 M (10,1 Mds CFA) |
$15.8 M (7,6 Mds CFA) |
$5.0 M (2,4 Mds CFA) |
36 | attacker |
| 6 | Yaya Touré | Côte d’Ivoire (Manchester City) |
$20.7 M (10,0 Mds CFA) |
$18.2 M (8,8 Mds CFA) |
$2.5 M (1,2 Mds CFA) |
31 | midfield |
| 7 | Neymar | Brazil (FC Barcelona) |
$20.5 M (9,9 Mds CFA) |
$10.5 M (5,1 Mds CFA) |
$10.0 M (4,8 Mds CFA) |
22 | attacker |
| 8 | Fernando Torres | Spain (Chelsea) |
$20.0 M (9,7 Mds CFA) |
$17.0 M (8,2 Mds CFA) |
$3.0 M (1,5 Mds CFA) |
30 | attacker |
| 9 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Sweden (PSG) |
$19.7 M (9,5 Mds CFA) |
$17.2 M (8,3 Mds CFA) |
$2.5 M (1,2 Mds CFA) |
32 | attacker |
| 10 | Kaka | Brazil (AC Milan) |
$19.3 M (9,5 Mds CFA) |
$13.8 M (6,7 Mds CFA) |
$5.5 M (2,7 Mds CFA) |
32 | midfield |