David Beckham (LA Galaxy, England) £24.1m
The return of the King! In an unbelievable turn of events, David Beckham is back as the World's Highest Earning Footballer.
Goldenballs is actually earning less than he did throughout 2009, but a smart new deal with EA Sports, a short term deal with Yahoo and a return to the Pepsi payroll have seen Beckham weather the sponsorship storm better than everyone else in the industry!
Add this to Beckham's LA Galaxy deal and his clever sponsorship deal with Adidas football boots (which is not only the biggest in football, but actually sees Beckham take a cut of each pair of his signature football boots sold!) and it's no surprise that 'Brand Beckham' is still one of the most popular in world sport.
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As of 2010, Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) is the highest paid football player in the world. He receives €1.083 million per month, or 13 million euros per year.