Rooney to scoop £104m

Posted on 23. Jan, 2007 by Milox in La Liga, Premiership

Wayne Rooney will lead the way in a Premiership boom in player earnings - scooping £103.65million in the next 10 years.

A Premiership Rich List reveals the Manchester United striker will be the biggest winner as earnings soar.

Fuelled by the Premier League’s new TV deal, which will net clubs a share of £2.7bn over three years, earnings of £10m a year will soon become routine.

Newcastle’s Michael Owen is projected to bank £96.1m in the next 10 years while Frank

Lampard and Rio Ferdinand are next in the table of wealth, pocketing £74.5m and £71.5m.

The current generation of top footballers, already awash with cash, are set to break through into the ranks of the super-rich of big business founders and family landowners, according to Zoo magazine’s rich list.

Rooney has predicted football earnings of £70m by the time he retires.

He already has a six-year contract signed last November at £5.9m, but on top of that comes six major sponsorship deals.

With earnings already at £10m, Rooney has endorsements from Nike, Coke Zero, Asda, Ford Sports, EA Sports and Harper Collins worth a further £17m. All will be hiked and extended before his career ends.

Close behind on Zoo’s rich list is Owen who gets £103,000-a-week from Newcastle, and who recently splashed out more than £1m on his own horse racing yard. The astounding figures will reopen the debate over football losing touch with reality, or whether Premiership stars deserve their rewards.

Next season the Premiership’s bottom club will get £30m in TV money - the same as Chelsea earned for finishing first last year. The 2008 Premiership winners will bank £50m.

Dan Johnson of the Premier League said: “We want to put our clubs in the best position to attract and develop the best talent to keep the Premier League in the position of being the best for the fans and entertainment.

“Clubs will look at market forces and pay players what they believe they are worth. It is the players who make the Premiership what it is.”

Manchester City boss Stuart Pearce has railed against players’ obsession with money, but has no problem with the vast sums earned if they keep their competitive ambition.

He said: “If I was a player my main criteria would be going where the football was going to be best for me. Wages are irrelevant.”

Zoo reckons that footballers are having no problem spending the proceeds of their careers with houses, cars and jewellery top of their shopping lists.

The average Premier League player’s house is worth £3.5m, with most owning holiday pads in Europe, Florida and Dubai.

No related posts.