London: Manchester United star Wayne Rooney is the only Premier League player among world sport’s top 20 earners, according to America's Sports Illustrated. The annually-compiled 'rich list' shows that Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo are the world's two wealthiest footballers, though both trail stars from other sports.
The ‘Fortunate 50’ takes into account the earnings, endorsements, bonuses and appearance fees of leading sports stars.
Rooney is 18th on the list after signing a new contract this season at Manchester United, thought to be worth 160,000 Pounds a week, which has seen him rise above the likes of David Beckham and Carlos Tevez - who are 23rd and 39th, respectively.
Rooney did not even feature on last-year's list, but his recent new contract has seen him bring in a reported USD 29.2 million (18 million Pounds) and shoot up the list.
Tiger Woods is leading the way – earning a staggering 41 million Pounds last year, though that was down 18 million Pounds on his previous year’s earnings.
La Liga superstars Messi and Ronaldo are unsurprisingly the top earning footballers, with Rooney coming in at third.
But what may surprise many is that Messi – the best paid footballer in the world - comes in at seventh behind the likes of Fernando Alonso.
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