World’s richest footballer who was at Chelsea is worth 12 times more than Ronaldo and Messi combined
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have amassed impressive fortunes, yet their net worths pale in comparison to a footballer who failed to succeed at Premier League clubs.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have had incredible careers (
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been two of the world’s most highly paid footballers in the modern era – yet the value of their combined net worths isn’t even a fraction of one Chelsea reject’s.
The two icons of the beautiful game have had illustrious careers within their own rights, with 37-year-old Messi capturing endless trophies during his time with Barcelona, PSG and Inter Miami, while Ronaldo has crafted an equally as impressive resume with the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus and Al-Nassr.
With eight Ballon d’Ors, 12 league titles, four Champions Leagues and a World Cup to his name, website Celebrity Net Worth report that Messi has racked up an impressive net worth of around £680million ($850m). Meanwhile, Ronaldo – with his five Ballon d’Ors and seven league titles – is estimated to have a net worth of around £640m ($800m).
However, even if you add their two figures together to create a total wealth of £1.32billion, it doesn’t come close to the substantial reported £16billion ($20bn) net worth of Faiq Bolkiah – which is a staggering 12 times the total of Ronaldo and Messi’s combined. But what do we know about the 26-year-old billionaire who couldn’t cut the mustard in the Premier League?
The nephew of the Sultan Brunei and one of several heirs to a £200bn fortune, Bolkiah was born in Los Angeles, but kicked off his footballing career at youth level with Newbury before bouncing around the academies of Southampton, Chelsea and Leicester City – never making a senior appearance.
The left-winger then made the move to Maritimo in 2020 to sign his first professional contract, but once again never featured for the first team – playing just a single game in the U23s before moving on to Thailand’s Chonburi the following year. Bolkiah enjoyed 32 games in total for the club, scoring two goals and creating four assists, before switching allegiance to Ratchaburi in 2023 – where he still plies his trade to this day.
Holding both American and Bruneian citizenship, Bolkiah has also represented the latter on international duty six times – scoring a single goal for his efforts. While he never managed to quite make it in the Premier League, he played alongside the likes of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tammy Abraham at youth level for Chelsea, as well as Ruben Sammut, who claimed that academy players would remind him of his wealth every day.
Faiq Bolkiah never made it at Premier League level (
Getty Images)
As per The Athletic, Sammut said: “You would never ever have thought he was something like the 12th in line to the throne. You would not have thought of him as royalty. He was a humble guy, trying every day like every academy player. We used to joke he didn’t need to play football but he wanted to play because he loved football.
“It wasn’t a regular thing we mentioned. It was that typical banter, saying he is royalty, saying, ‘what’s he doing playing with us?’ But we all knew deep down how much he wanted to play, so it was more good-willed passing comments.”
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