10. Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United) – £42m
One of England’s most elegant centre-halves, the Manchester United stopper made his name at West Ham before completing a then British transfer record breaking move to Leeds United worth £18 million. At the time the fee was also a world record for a defender.
In 2002 he joined Man Utd for £30m, where he has enjoyed great success under Sir Alex Ferguson, winning the Premier League five times amongst other trophies.
Now 34, Peckham-born Ferdinand still commands a salary of £130,000-a-week at Old Trafford, with a potential bonus of up £300,000 a year.
He has a staggering 3.8m followers on Twitter, but found himself at the centre of a controversy for receiving payment from Mars to promote chocolate bar Snickers. Advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) subsequently cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Outside of football, Ferdinand has a diverse range of interests and has 10 current or previous company director or secretary appointments.
Ferdinand helped create record label White Chalk Music, while he also has an interest in online lifestyle magazine #5 and fashion label fivebyriofredinand.com. The latest accounts for White Chalk Music (30 April 2012), showed a net worth of -£600,000.
He has an interest in Scion Films Sale And Leaseback Sixth Llp. Latest accounts to April 2012 reported ‘net worth’ of £62m.
Endorsements include Mars and Nike, while Ferdinand has an extensive property portfolio including houses in London, a luxury mansion in Alderley Edge, worth over £2.2m, as well as places in Barbados, Turks and Caicos Islands and Morocco. He also has an investment in a restaurant called Rosso located in Manchester.
His cars include a £190,000 Bentley Arnage and a £120,000 Bentley Continental, although he received a six-month driving ban after being caught speeding three times in five weeks. He is a fervent supporter of charities and has been particularly vocal when speaking out against knife crime.