Footballers classifiedby salary, endorsements, social media presence and major championships
With the United States topping Ghana 2-1 on Monday, it seems like a good a time to unveil our inaugural?Wrap?FIFA World Cup soccer player power rankings.
The unique and secret proprietary formula ? which is less scientific than it hopefully sounds ? took into consideration a player’s salary, endorsements, social media footprint and World Cup, Premier League, EUFA and Olympic championship accomplishments.?Salary and endorsement data come courtesy of?Forbes.
Here are the rankings of the 20 highest paid footballers in the world. Feel free to duke it out in the comments section below.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
Salary: $49 million
Endorsements: $24 million (Nike, Samsung, Tag Heuer)
Twitter Followers: 26.8 million
Facebook Likes: 85.2 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 3
EUFA League Medals:?2
Olympic Medals: 0
2. Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Salary: $42 million
Endorsements: $23 million (Adidas, Samsung, Pepsi)
Twitter Followers: 1.95 million
Facebook Likes: 58 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?3 (injured for 2006 finals)
Olympic Medals: 1 (Gold, 2008)
3. Sergio Aguero (Argentina)
Salary: $17 million
Endorsements: $4 million (Puma, Pepsi, Gillette)
Twitter Followers: 5.82 million
Facebook Likes: 5.8 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 2
EUFA League Medals:?0
Olympic Medals: 1 (2008 Gold)
4. Neymar Jr (Brazil)
Salary: $12 million
Endorsements: $16 million (Nike, Castrol, Panasonic)
Twitter Followers: 11.1 million
Facebook Likes: 24.7 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?0
Olympic Medals: 1 (2012 Silver)
5. Kaka (Brazil)
Salary: $10 million
Endorsements: $5 million (Adidas, Hyundai)
Twitter Followers: 19.2 million
Facebook Likes: 28.9 million
World Cup Championships: 1
Premier League Medals: 2
EUFA League Medals:?1
Olympic Medals: 0
6. David Silva (Spain)
Salary: $15 million
Endorsements: $1 million (Adidas)
Twitter Followers: 2.66 million
Facebook Likes: 935,000
Major Championships: 1
Premier League Medals: 2
EUFA League Medals:?0
Olympic Medals: 0
7. Wayne Rooney (England)
Salary: $18 million
Endorsements: $4 million (Nike, Samsung, HarperCollins)
Twitter Followers: 8.9 million
Facebook Likes: 21.1 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 5
EUFA League Medals:?1
Olympic Medals: 0
8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)
Salary: $30 million
Endorsements: $4 million (Nike, Volvo)
Twitter Followers: 1.32 million
Facebook Likes: 16.2 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?0
Olympic Medals: 0
9. Gareth Bale (Wales)
Salary: $15 million
Endorsements: $9 million (Adidas, EA Sports)
Twitter Followers: 3.6 million
Facebook Likes: 17.2 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?1
Olympic Medals: 0
10. Robin Van Persie (Netherlands)
Salary: $16 million
Endorsements: $3 million (Adidas, Pepsi)
Twitter Followers: 5.2 million
Facebook Likes: 9.3 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 1
EUFA League Medals:?0
Olympic Medals: 0
11.
?(Spain)
Salary: $17 million
Endorsements: $3 million
Twitter Followers: 1.91 million
Facebook Likes: 264,900
World Cup Championships: 1
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?1
Olympic Medals: 0
12. Frank Lampard (England)
Salary: $12 million
Endorsements: $4 million (Adidas, Pepsi)
Twitter Followers: N/A
Facebook Likes: 15,400
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 3
EUFA League Medals:?1
Olympic Medals: 0
13. Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast)
Salary: $18 million
Endorsements: $3 million (Puma)
Twitter Followers: 55,300
Facebook Likes: 265,700
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 2
EUFA League Medals:?1
Olympic Medals: 0
14. Mesut Ozil (Germany)
Salary: $10 million
Endorsements: $6 million (Adidas)
Twitter Followers: 5.99 million
Facebook Likes: 20 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?0
Olympic Medals: 0
15. Luis Suarez (Uruguay)
Salary: $11 million
Endorsements: $4 million (Adidas, Pepsi)
Twitter Followers: 2.77 million
Facebook Likes: 6.7 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?0
Olympic Medals: 0
16. Radamel Falcao (Colombia)
Salary: $23 million
Endorsements: $3 million (Puma, Samsung, Gillette)
Twitter Followers: 5.03 million
Facebook Likes: 10,600
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals: 0
Olympic Medals: 0
17. Franck Ribery (France)
Salary: $17 million
Endorsements: $1 million
Twitter Followers: 38,500
Facebook Likes: 91,200
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?1
Olympic Medals: 0
18. Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany)
Salary: $13 million
Endorsements: $3 million (Adidas)
Twitter Followers: 421,000
Facebook Likes: 3.8 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?1
Olympic Medals: 0
19. Steven Gerrard (England)
Salary: $13 million
Endorsements: $4 million (Adidas)
Twitter Followers: 78,800
Facebook Likes: 1.3 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?1
Olympic Medals: 0
20. Philipp Lahm (Germany)
Salary: $13 million
Endorsements: $2 million (Adidas)
Twitter Followers: 21,000
Facebook Likes: 2.9 million
World Cup Championships: 0
Premier League Medals: 0
EUFA League Medals:?1
Olympic Medals: 0
Source Yahoo Sports