35. Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich) – £20m
Midfield enforcer Bastian Schweinsteiger has been a mainstay of the Bayern Munich and Germany team for close to a decade despite being only 28 years old.
The Bayern vice-captain is approaching 100 caps for Germany and has played in five major tournaments for his country. He has made over 400 games for his club and has won five German Cup winners’ medals – but has also suffered major heartache losing two Champions League finals.
A winner of five league titles in Germany, Schweinsteiger’s importance to Bayern is underlined by his lucrative contract worth £156,000-a-week, plus potential bonuses worth a further £488,000-a-year.
His contract runs to 2016 and he has publicly suggested he may leave the Allianz Arena at the end of that contract, when he will be approaching 32. His wealth was dented ever-so-slightly recently when he was fined by his club for wearing the wrong socks to training.
He has a lucrative sponsorship deal with Adidas as one of their poster boys, plus further income from endorsement deals with Right Guard and Funny-Frisch crisps taking his total income to £8 million a year.