Top 20 most commercially viable players in the world today

Mark

Ronaldinho is most valuable star

Ronaldinho is the most commercially valuable football player in the world, according to a new study.

The Barcelona ace, 26, is worth £32.6m, more than English duo David Beckham (£31.2m) and Wayne Rooney (£30.4m), who are second and third respectively.
Beckham still has the best-known face, but Ronaldinho's age and recent feats make him a better marketing prospect, says consultancy firm BBDO Germany.
Frank Lampard (£20m) is eighth while Steven Gerrard (£19.2m) is 11th.
"Beckham owes his second place in the ranking to his status as the 'metrosexual' prototype and the lucrative contracts this generated for him," added BBDO.

Ronaldinho, who is five years younger than Beckham, was voted Fifa World Player of the Year the past two years.


Full list:
1 Ronaldinho (Barcelona) £32.6m
2 David Beckham (Real Madrid) £31.2m
3 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) £30.4m
4 Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona) £21.3m
5 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) £21.1m
6 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Juventus) £20.9m
7 Ronaldo (Real Madrid) £20.4m
8 Frank Lampard (Chelsea) £20m
9 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) £19.95m
10 Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich) £19.9m
11 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) £19.2m
12 Raul (Real Madrid) £18.9m
13 Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid) £18.8m
14 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) £18.6m
15 Didier Drogba (Chelsea) £18.3m
16 Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) £12.9m
17 Ryan Babel (Ajax Amsterdam) £12.6m
18 Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United) £12.1m
19 Lukas Podolski (Cologne) £11.3m
20 Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan) £9.9m

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/4861300.stm

Mitch Connor

some of the position are quite surprising.

Babel is surprisingly high, and the madrid ronaldo, ibrahimovic and lampard over henry is too.

iregk

How on earth is Podolski and Babel in there?

Also please tell me how Drogba can be considered a marketable talent! The word talent is pushing the boundaries enough....

Mitch Connor

Podolski is in there cause he is a vey talented young german player, and its a german marketing company.

Babel and Drogba confuse me too though

Ruskie4Rent

I'm sure Drogba has some value in Africa where I'm certain that he has a big following.

Mitch Connor

plus drogba has been in the media lots lately....

wonder what his sportsdaq price is....

TheMonster

only 1 Italian and hes in 16th.

iregk

Well lets not forget, england and the premiership hype themselves up to outrageous proportions so their stock is always going to be high.

Royale with Cheese

iregk wrote:

How on earth is Podolski and Babel in there?

Also please tell me how Drogba can be considered a marketable talent! The word talent is pushing the boundaries enough....

Podolski is huge in Germany. He has his own clothing line and everything. I live in Cologne and he's everywhere. Prinz Poldi he's known as. FC Koeln are basically just known as FC Podolski around here.

segadreamcast

Royale with Cheese wrote:

Podolski is huge in Germany.

So is David Hasselhoff. For all the wrong reasons.

Incidentally, is anyone else surprised at how high Wayne Rooney is, compared to Beckham? Beckham's leagues ahead of Rooney in terms of marketability.... he's huge in Asia, well known (as in, is now probably the only household soccer name) in America...

Royale with Cheese

NoelRock wrote:

So is David Hasselhoff. For all the wrong reasons.

He's actually not. Haven't seen him on tv or heard his name mentioned around here once. Asked a few people what they thought of him and most replied 'oh that baywatch guy, god i hate him'. Shame really.

mike65

8 Frank Lampard (Chelsea) £20m
-
11 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) £19.2m

Eh?

Mike.

Pepe LeFrits

Lampard, Henry and Gerrard all seem very low in that.

Pigman II

Sorry to have to ask but , what exactly are these numbers? Are they the actual amount of money these players made from off-the-pitch business in the past year or is it just the amount they 'could earn' if they really pimped themselves? Or is it something to do with transfer fees?

I loved the old days when I could still actually understand a transfer fee. Damn you bosman!

Seaneh

What How is Kaka less marketable than anyone on that list?

Seaneh

I think it's projected figures of how much a club could make from marketing merch from the player for the rest of thier career.

Rikand

only forwards playing in italian teams are allowed to be marketable

blu_sonic

Ah wheres Pat Mcourt? Where's Joey Ndo? Where's Wesso (insert Joesoaps ;)tears here)? Where's Derek Tracey? ah thats mickey mouse!















ps. I'm being sarcastic

iregk

NoelRock wrote:

So is David Hasselhoff. For all the wrong reasons.

Don't mean to stray off topic but your about 15 years out of date there. Common misconception that because he was big as a singer in Germany in the 80's he is still big now!

I lived in Frankfurt for a good while and trust me the Germans think its hillarious the way the rest of the world has this idea that the hoff is huge over there!!!

OTliddy

Top 3 make sense. would have expected Henry to be 4th. No Nedved or Kaka

Kingp35

Ridiculous list. You cant ust pull figures out of the air. Bit of an explanation as to where they are coming from would go down well.

Big Nelly

Where is Lee Trundle???? his clothing range must be making him a fortune:p