Who are the world’s most valuable soccer players?

The FIFA World Cup in Brazil is around the corner and although each of the players in the 32 teams that are participating have to prove their worth, there are some who are considered more valuable than others. 

Gumtree.co.za has caught the soccer fever and released an interactive infographic of the world’s most valuable soccer players, ranked according to their performance, seniority, and of course – salaries. 

According to the infographic, Lionel Messi of Argentina has attained the coveted top spot, with a salary of R 227,910,016.00 and an impressive 27 goals behind his belt, and whilst Cristiano Ronaldo comes a close second in terms of performance value, he shouldn’t be too heart-broken about his ranking – the Real Madrid midfielder takes home a cool R300-million every year. 

As for top clubs, Bayern Munich and Barcelona has by far the most appearances in the top 100 – 11 of their players have been named on the list. In terms of leagues, the Premier League remains the best represented league with 29 players, ahead of La Liga with 26. 

Sadly only a handful of African players made the top 100 list, including Yayon Toure from the Ivory Coast (ranked 19th), Pierre Emerick Aubameyang from Gabon (79th), Samuel Eto’o from Cameroon (83rd), Mehdi Benatia from Morrocco (87th) and Emmanuel Emerike from Nigeria (97th). 

The infographic will allow users to find out exactly how much the top 100 earns, which positions are the most lucrative and the number of goals each player has scored in their career. It can be accessed on Gumtree, http://www.gumtree.co.za/pages/soccerplayersalary, South Africa’s # 1 free classifieds. 

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2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup Count Down

27 Days to go before the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup kicks off in South Africa. 

Not that I'm an avid soccer fan, and not that I'll be going to any of the matches either, but I do watch my 7 year old Megan play Under 7's at AFC with great enthusiasum.  I normally come back from her matches horse and completely pumped up. 

Everywhere you go at the moment in South African people are participating in Football Fridays at work - where instead of our usual casual clothes on a Friday, we adorn our Soccer Civies and wear our South Africa colours.  People get very creative with their outfits...

At least 5 out of 10 ten cars on the road at the moment are decorated with South African flags attached to their arials, Makarabas on the back boards, car mirror flag covers in the SA colours and plenty other patriotic paraphernalia.

Our official 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup mascot, Zakumi, is splattered everywhere too, from stuffed dolls, to key rings, hats, pens, you name it! 

Soccer Fever is causing quite a hype amongst South Africans at the moment with less than a month to go and people are competing against one another to have as many adornments as possible. 

I think its brilliant!  It nice to "stand together" and be one nation supporting our team.  Most of us know our team won't get very far but we're supporting them nevertheless.  Go Bafana Banfana!

Hey, for me, its any excuse to blow my Vuvuzela to piss off the neighbours and spook the cat, dress up like an eejit and oogle the visiting Football Eye Candy Players.   Yum Yum!

I heart Soccer Hotties!

Here's Shakira and Freshly Ground singing the official 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup song: