Top Ten Richest African Players- Asamoah Gyan Misses Out

Footballers often make filthy amounts of money during the prime of their careers. But due to the short span of the their careers, often just earning these amounts of money isn’t enough- you need to find a way to make income after you retire and the big checks stop coming in.

So this is not just about who earns crazy amounts of money, but who has more net worth. That probably explains why Asamoah Gyan, whose weekly wage of $350,000 per week is one of the highest in the world. Probably, not entirely.


French media outlet Footendirect carried out a research of the richest African players, via their net worth. It covered every African player both past and present, and took into consideration both earnings and investments.

Sulley Muntari and Michael Essien make the top ten list, but Gyan surprisingly misses out. Samuel Eto’o Fils tops the list overall, which isn’t surprising.

The four time African player of the year has played for Barcelona, Inter Milan, Chelsea, and many other top sides during his career, whilst having investments in the telecommunications and real estate industries in his country, as well as food and restaurant chains in Spain and Italy.

Check out the top ten richest African players based on Footendirect’s study.

Samuel Eto’o (Antalyaspor): $202 million

Yaya Touré (Manchester City): $170 million

Didier Drogba (Montreal): $155 million

Jay-Jay Okocha (: $150 million

Nwankwo Kanu: $100 million

Mickaël Essien (Panathinaïkos): $70 million

Emmanuel Adebayor (Free Agent): $57 million

Obi Mikel (Chelsea): $50 million

Kolo Touré (Liverpool): $43 million

Sulley Muntari (Al-Ittihad): $40 million