The 10 Richest Men in Soccer (According to Forbes)

By: Daryl | November 19th, 2008

Last week, Forbes announced it’s list of the 10 Richest Men in Football. None of them are footballers. Though playing the game is spectacularly well rewarded, players earn peanuts next to these guys.

Top of the list is a Russian gentleman, but not the one you’re thinking of. He’s number two. Number one is Oleg Deripaska (pictured), who made his billions in aluminium and bought local team Kuban Krasnodar in 2004.

1. Oleg Deripaska (Kuban Krasnodar) $28 billion

2. Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) $23.5 billion

3. Lakshmi Mittal (QPR) $20.5 billion

4. Amancio Ortega (Deportivo De La Coruna) $20.2 billion

5. Francois Pinault* (Stade Rennais) $16.9 billion

6. Paul Allen (Seattle Sounders) $16 billion

7. Silvio Berlusconi (AC Milan) $9.4 billion

8. Alisher Usmanov (Arsenal) $9.3 billion

9. Philip Anschutz (LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamo, Hammarby) $8 billion

10. John Fredriksen (Valerenga) $8 billion

*plus, sleeps with Salma Hayek, sometimes

The interesting thing is how few of these men are involved with big big teams. Stade Rennais? Valeranga? Kuban Krrasnodar? Even Abramovich is cutting back his spending at Chelsea.

Proof to fellow billionaires everywhere that the way to stay all billionairey is to avoid dumping all your money into a football team.

Pop quiz: can anyone spot the very conspicuous absence on this list?

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Category: World Football

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Somesence

errr.... Man City owner...????
Nolan

Interesting to see Depor's owner on the list, considering their economic woes.
Shazback

As much as Mr Pinault is obsenely rich (and has pretty weird art tastes), he is not lucky enough to have dated Selma Hayek (who would be some 40 years younger than him, I believe)... It was his son, Francois-Henri Pinault (not just Francois) who dated, was engaged to, and fathered Selma Hayek's child.

Also, when did Mittal lose about half his fortune? I thought he was almost at 50 billion, and that QPR were the new rich kids on the block thanks to him!
vind

Where is the guy who owns Man Utd. Thought he was a billionaire as well.
Francesco

I once read somewhere that Sampdoria's owner Riccardo Garrone is richer than Inter owner Massimo Moratti. He just chooses not to spend so much money on the squad. (Thus bringing in the classic Italian stereotype that people from Genoa are cheap).
ursus arctos

The thing about both the Mansours and the Agnelli/Elkaans is that they are reasonably large families of fabulous wealth, which Forbes won't ascribe to a single individual.

Deripaska is rumoured to have lost several billion (perhaps more than 10) in the current crisis, but is still far from hurting.
Daryl

Exactly. I expected to see Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on there, since he's the owner of Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment.
manc

where are the ci-teh owners ?!?!?!
matt

Would it be a former prime minister of Thailand?