Football: Beckham heads player rich list!

David Beckham remains Britain's wealthiest footballer in a list of the sport's richest people. But the England midfielder is only 41st overall in the list of football's money men, published by FourFourTwo magazine.

Beckham's fortune is estimated at 65m, nearly twice as much as Arsenal's Dennis Bergkamp, whose 37m is enough to put him second among the players. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich tops the poll with an estimated 7.5bn - up 2bn from last year.

He is followed by Joe Lewis - a Barbados-based investor whose investment company ENIC owns Tottenham Hotspur and also retains an interest in Rangers - who is valued at 1.8bn. Irish investor Dermot Desmond, Celtic's principal shareholder, is third with 850m, but there is no place in the top 100 for Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney.

Michael Owen is third among the players on the list - who are either British or British-based - while Robbie Fowler is fourth, the Manchester City striker having built on his fortune through property investment. Only two managers make the top 100, with Sir Alex Ferguson top with an estimated 15m fortune. England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson scrapes in at number 100 with 10m, while Arsene Wenger and Kevin Keegan are joint third with 7m.

The list was compiled by Philip Beresford and Dominic Prince, the authors who produce the Sunday Times Rich List.

A FourFourTwo spokesman said: "The list was compiled using established methods of calculating business values and individual wealth.

"But, naturally, there is an element of estimation because people are reluctant to open their bank accounts for examination."

FOOTBALL'S RICHEST PLAYERS

1 David Beckham 65m
2 Dennis Bergkamp 37m
3 Michael Owen 30m
4 Robbie Fowler 28m
5 Alan Shearer 22m
6= Sol Campbell 20m
6= Rio Ferdinand 20m
6= Ryan Giggs 20m
6= Roy Keane 20m
10 Thierry Henry 18m

RICHEST MANAGERS

1 Sir Alex Ferguson 15m
2 Sven-Goran Eriksson 10m
3= Kevin Keegan 7m
3= Arsene Wenger 7m
5 David O'Leary 5m

BBC Sport

woah! abromhavic made a extra 2 billion last year and look at the money he spent

am suprised keegan gets as much as he does, maybe if he took a drop it could help man city

Some of Keegans money he more than likely got when he was the England manager. The 7 million is not what he earns a year its how much money he has earned from the game altogether.

Rio is still pretty young and he is at the 20 million mark already...

Thats what it is all about nowadays...Money!

Beckham will always top the list as he has too many outside interests in advertising and so forth.