6. Samuel Eto’o (Anzhi Makhachkala) – £52m
Samuel Eto’o is the most successful African football player of all time having won the African Player of the Year award a record four times. He also just so happens to be the highest paid player in the world, earning a jaw-dropping £365,000 a week.
Eto’o can earn a further £244,000 a year in performance bonuses, while Anzhi also pay the £65,000 a month rent on his luxury mansion in Moscow.
The 31-year-old striker, who won Olympic gold with Cameroon in 2000, has been a major earner since signing for Barcelona for £20 million in 2004. While at the Nou Camp he won three La Liga titles and the Champions League twice, scoring 151 goals in 232 games.
In 2009 he joined Inter Milan as part of deals that saw Maxwell and Ibrahimovic move to Barcelona. Eto’o demanded almost £2.75m from Barcelona for his transfer (15 per cent of the £17.7m transfer fee) as per Spanish rules, before winning Serie A and another Champions League in Italy.
His already considerable earnings are further boosted by lucrative sponsorship deals and partnerships with Puma, Ford and fashion label John Richmond.
He spent £800,000 on designer watches for his international team-mates after qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, but he soon earned that money back as Eto’o’s money-spinning move to Russia was completed in the summer of 2011.
Last year he was forced to deny tax evasion allegations from the Spanish public prosecutor of conspiring to evade £3m in taxes owed on income from his image rights while playing for Barcelona.
He owns properties in Paris, Barcelona, Milan and in Cameroon.