List Top football earners in 2009

1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, £11.3m)
2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona, £10.4m)
3 Lionel Messi (Barcelona, £9.1m)
4 Samuel Eto'o (Internazionale, £9.1m)
5 Kaka (Real Madrid, £8.7m)
6 Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City, £7.4m)
7 Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, £7.4m)
8 Carlos Tevez (Manchester City, £7m)
9 John Terry (Chelsea, £6.5m)
10 Frank Lampard (Chelsea, £6.5m)
11 Thierry Henry (Barcelona, £6.5m)
12 Xavi (Barcelona, £6.5m)
13 Ronaldinho (AC Milan, £6.5m)
14 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, £6.5m)
15 Daniel Alves (Barcelona, £6.1m)
16 Michael Ballack (Chelsea, £5.6m)
17 Raul (Real Madrid, £5.6m)
18 Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United, £5.6m)
19 Kolo Toure (Manchester City, £5.6m)
20 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, £5.2m)
21 Robinho (Manchester City, £5.2m)
22 Iker Casillas (Real Madrid, £5.2m)
23 Victor Valdez (Barcelona, £5.2m)
24 Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla, £5.2m)
25 Deco (Chelsea, £5.2m)
26 Didier Drogba (Chelsea, £4.8m)
27 Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, £4.8m)
28 Francesco Totti (Roma, £4.8m)
29 Luca Toni (Roma, £4.8m)
30 David Villa (Valencia, £4.8m)
31 Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich, £4.8m)
32 Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern, £4.8m)
33 Ashley Cole (Chelsea, £4.8m)
34 Fernando Torres (Liverpool, £4.8m)
35 Gareth Barry (Manchester City, £4.8m)
36 Patrick Vieira (Internazionale, £4.8m)
37 Charles Puyol (Barcelona, £4.3m)
38 Andres Iniesta (Barcelona, £4.3m)
39 Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid, £4.3m)
40 Andreas Pirlo (AC Milan, £4.3m)
41 Willy Sagnol (Bayern Munich, £4.3m)
42 Frank Ribery (Bayern Munich, £4.3m)
43 David Beckham (AC Milan, £4.3m)
44 Wayne Bridge (Manchester City, £4.3m)
45 Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid, £4.3m)
46 Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United £4.1m)
47 Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal, £4.1m)
48 Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea, £4.1m)
49 Ryan Giggs (Manchester United £4.1m)
50 Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus, £4.1m)A

IS CHELSEA BACK TO THEIR SPLASHING WAYS NOW THAT THE BAN HAS BEEN LIFTED

David Villa is ready to quit Valencia to join Chelsea according to latest reports. Valencia are under financial pressure to sell after cash flow constraints and Villa’s price tag of £30 would go a long way after Valencia failed to sell their Mestalla Stadium to property developers as Chelsea take advantage of the situation. Chelsea’s interest has increased after contract talks with Nicolas Anelka failed with the French international demanding higher wages. Chelsea is also closing in on highly rated Benfica forward Angel Di Maria. Di Maria, the Argentina star, has been quoted as saying that he will be joining Chelsea soon.



CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TOP FOUR SLOTS TAKES AN INTERESTING TWIST IN THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE



Teams like Arsenal FC, who have been battling for the fourth slot continuously will not like how this reads. The Premier League is considering introducing a play-off system to determine the fourth club to qualify for the following season's European Champions League. Currently the club which finishes fourth goes through but the new proposal would mean a play-off between the clubs finishing fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. The intention is to inject more competition into a league in which qualification has for years remained in the hands of the same four clubs. Premier League sources have confirmed that the play-off proposal was presented at the most recent meeting of all clubs, on 4 February, and the league's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, was authorized to return with further details in April. It is understood that the idea was enthusiastically supported by all clubs – except the so-called big four of Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. Scudamore, and the league's secretary, Mike Foster, will examine the practicalities of how a play-off system could work: whether it should take the form of a home-and-away knockout system, similar to that in the Football League, or incorporate seeding. They will also look into when matches could be fitted into a crowded fixture calendar before making recommendations.

THE NEW DROGBA IS HERE ACCORDING TO CHELSEA (ROMELU LUKAKU)


Standing at 6ft 3in and 14st, he is widely regarded as the natural successor to Didier Drogba. No wonder the Chelsea scouts are the most regular attendants in every Anderlecht matches to watch and monitor the teenage protégée who is 16yrs old and already is a regular starter at top flight Belgium league and under 21 national team. His dads close hawk eye could be the deciding factor as he has already said that Romelu is not going to leave Belgium until he is 18. One to watch out for, definitely.




NIGERIA ADD TRAPATONI TO THEIR EXTENSIVE LIST OF SUCCESSIVE COACHES



Giovanni Trapattoni has been added to the Nigerian Football Federation's list of preferred candidates to take over as national team coach. The 70-year-old Italian is currently manager of the Republic of Ireland and is contracted to lead them through to the end of the Euro 2012 qualifiers. Nigeria fired Coach Shaibu Amodu at the weekend and need a new boss for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. Trapattoni joins a list of five other coaches being targeted by Nigeria. The others are Egypt coach Hassan Shehata, Guus Hiddink who is currently in charge of Russia, Louis Van Gaal, former Senegal boss Bruno Metsu, ex-Ghana coach Ratomir Dujkovic, and one-time England caretaker manager Peter Taylor. Many Nigerian fans have argues that the big issue here is the players and not the managers as before Shaibu Amodu, Berti Vogts the renowned German coach was in charge with loosely speaking, very little evidence of improvement.








IS FRANK RIBBERY IMPLICITLY SAYING THAT THE ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD?

The English premiership has evolved to become the best league in the world according to many football commentators and observers. Since the late 80’s to the late 90’s with the emergence of the likes of Maradona, Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Basten, power shifted from the Italian League to gradually the premiership with the Spanish League always maintaining a standard. At the moment two leagues stand out, the English premiership and Spain’s La Liga. Most football enthusiasts would argue that the Premiership has an edge over La Liga, as the Spanish League is often shadowed by the only two teams, Real and Barcelona. If we look at Champions League stats, the English Premiership looks very impressive, last four English sides in the last sixteen, Liverpool and Manchester United winning it recently, Arsenal and Chelsea reaching the finals. Thus Monsieur Frank Ribbery has hinted his move to either Spain or England. Franck Ribéry has added weight to the belief that he will leave Bayern Munich at the end of the season by claiming the German club are not good enough to compete with Europe's biggest teams. "Bayern is still a big club. It's one of the biggest in the world but I find that our team is not as strong as other teams, like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea," said the France winger, who has been heavily linked with a move to either England or Spain. "Maybe we will have trouble competing against these teams.

EACH WEEK I WILL ENDEAVOUR TO UPDATE THE RANKINGS TO DETERMINE THIS SEASON’S WINNER OF THE PRESTIGIOUS GOLDEN SHOE TROPHY

Current standings (League goals only)
(Including games played on Fenruary 8, 2010)

POS PLAYER TEAM GOALS FACTOR PTS

1 Wayne Rooney Man. United (Eng) 21 x 2 42
2 Didier Drogba Chelsea (Eng) 17 x 2 34
3 Luis Suarez Ajax (Ned) 22 x 1,5 33
4= Lionel Messi Barcelona (Spa) 16 x 2 32
4= Antonio Di Natale Udinese (Ita) 16 x 2 32
6 Welliton Soares Spartak Moskou (Rus) 21 x 1,5 31,5
7= David Villa Valencia (Spa) 15 x 2 30
7= Jermaine Defoe Tottenham (Eng) 15 x 2 30
7= Kristaps Grebis Metalurgs Liepaja (Let) 30 x 1 30
10 Kris Boyd Rangers (Sco) 19 x 1,5 28,5
11= Darren Bent Sunderland (Eng) 14 x 2 28
11= Diego Milito Genoa (Ita) 14 x 2 28
13= Shlomi Arbeitman Maccabi Haifa (Isr) 18 x 1,5 27
13= Vittali Gussev Levadia Tallinn (Est) 27 x 1 27
15= Stefan Kiessling Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 13 x 2 26
15= Nene Monaco (Fra) 13 x 2 26
17= Djibril Cisse Panathinaikos (Gre) 17 x 1,5 25,5
17= Seydou Doumbia Young Boys (Swi) 17 x 1,5 25,5
17= Rade Prica Rosenborg (Nor) 17 x 1,5 25,5
20= Gonzalo Higuain Real Madrid (Spa) 12 x 2 24
20= Fernando Torres Liverpool (Eng) 12 x 2 24
20= Carlos Tevez Manchester City (Eng) 12 x 2 24
20= Oscar Cardozo Benfica (Por) 16 x 1,5 24
20= Alejandro Dominguez Rubin Kazan (Rus) 16 x 1,5 24
20= Aleksandr Bukharov Rubin Kazan (Rus) 16 x 1,5 24
20= Mame Diouf Molde FK (Nor) 16 x 1,5 24
20= Peter Kovacs Odd Grenland (Nor) 16 x 1,5 24
20= Gary Twigg Shamrock Rovers (Ire) 24 x 1 24

( Picture courtesy of Inter Milan website)

THE SIGNING OF A PLAYER LEAVES A NATION IN AWE

When Kenya is mentioned in terms of sports, the first thing that comes to mind is athletics, to be more specific, middle and long distance running. That is why the signing of Kenyan midfielder MacDonald Mariga by Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan left the nation in a state of elation and euphoria. Taiwo Atieno, Kenya’s former International Player said that it is becoming now evident that Kenyans can also play football at the highest level. What is even more interesting is that the Manchester City were bound to sign until the final minutes when he was denied a UK work permit prompting Mourinho, who has been a long admirer to snap him. Roberto Mancini, Manchester City manager, says he is baffled that he is denied a work permit and then signed by a top club like Inter Milan.

JOHN TERRY, DO CHELSEA FANS HAVE A CLAIM?

“He who has no sin, let him cast the first stone”, according to most Chelsea fans JT should be judged according to his contribution in the pitch and not off the pitch. Further claims of having a squeaky clean captain or any person in a position of responsibility is compared to squeezing blood out of a stone. His current successor, Rio Ferdinand, has had his share of misdemeanours including punching a Hull player just two weeks prior to him being announced the captain. Chelsea fans still feel aggrieved as the squeaky clean rally by Mark Lawrenson on Football Focus BBC 1 is a utopian dream that can never be attained. The big question is whether they have a claim, he is poised to lose £20m in sponsorship revenue over the next four years after being stripped of the England captaincy and is determined to fight back the captaincy, wise move or naive?

ASHARVIN ERUPTS AT LAST

According to Daily Mail, Andrey Arshavin admits Arsenal do not have the class to match title rivals Manchester United and Chelsea. The diminutive Russia international says the Gunners will never be champions while they have to rely on him as a makeshift centre forward. The big issue here is whether Aserne Wenger's stubborness is costing Asernal. While Asernal is run like a business, according to the stakeholder theory the classic view of shareholders given primacy does not hold. Asernal have always sold big players to make huge profits every year to make their P&L and Balance sheet look good without winning any cups to the detriment of the fans. Thierry Henry, Kolo Toure, Adebayor and now they want to sell Fabrigas together with Eboue to Barcelona. Could Asharvin be right, Asernal is fast becoming a feeder team for big clubs in Europe like the likes of Lyon and Ajax.

IS ZIDAN'S FATHER WHIPPING UP INTEREST?

Mohammed Zidane is reportedly being chased by a host of top clubs including the likes of Barcelona, Asernal and Manchester United according to his father, Abdulla Zidan. He told Egyptian channel Dream TV that Asernak, Manchester United and Barcelona have talked to Mohammed’s agent. Zidan just recently came from a successful stint in the African cup of Nations, scoring vital goals and assisting Egypt all the way to glory. Could his dad be just whipping up interest in his son; would he be good enough for any of the mentioned club? Zidan is clearly an excellent player and all the best in his endeavours.