🤑 Forget Messi or CR7, this is the richest footballer in the world | OneFootball

When we talk about the richest footballers, many of us probably think immediately of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. But that’s simply not true. While Cristiano Ronaldo is indeed the highest-paid athlete in the world in 2025 (according to Forbes, he earns a relaxed $237 million per year), and Lionel Messi is also far from struggling financially (still making $116 million), when it comes to net worth, they cannot call themselves the “richest footballer in the world.”

With an estimated net worth of around 900 million euros, Messi is only in 4th place among the wealthiest footballers, while CR7 grabs 3rd place with around 1.1 billion euros. Second place goes to Neymar, with an incredible estimated fortune of 1.4 billion euros.

And the richest footballer in the world? You’ve most likely never heard of him. Or does the name Faiq Bolkiah ring a bell? According to estimates, his net worth is 22.7 billion euros.

What’s special about him? Unlike all the other footballers in this ranking, Bolkiah didn’t build his fortune solely through his footballing skills, but rather has his family to thank for it.

Faiq Bolkiah is an American-Bruneian footballer who, in his youth, trained in the Premier League with Southampton, Chelsea, and Leicester. The 27-year-old never managed a major breakthrough there. After a stint in Portugal, he eventually landed at Ratchaburi FC in Thailand’s top league. Big money probably isn’t made there.

Instead, his fortune comes from his uncle: Bolkiah is the grandnephew of the Sultan of Brunei. By the way: exactly how many billions his wealthy uncle owns isn’t entirely clear. According to various reports, it’s likely somewhere between 28 and 50 billion euros.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

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