Beckham Stays On Top Of Sunday Times Rich List

Former England captain David Beckham has once again topped The Sunday Times Rich List for sports stars with a personal fortune estimated at £125m, unchanged from last year.

The annual list is once again dominated by footballers and motor racing stars with the latter group predominantly made up of retired stars and team owners.

The list, which is not restricted to British citizens but those who either live or predominantly work in Britain, assesses the value of assets held by the wealthy elite on these shores.

Beckham draws a huge salary from MLS club LA Galaxy – although he is on a loan deal with Italian club AC Milan at present – but it is in the area of personal endorsements in which he outstrips his peers, such is the marketable commodity of his global image.

Lennox Lewis, despite now being retired from boxing, is second on the list with former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine third.

Due to the deepening recession, none of the names on the list who appeared last year have seen their assets increase in value, with many seeing their fortunes eroded slightly.

Individuals’ wealth also takes in to account that of their entire family and earnings outside sport, with Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler, now playing his football in the Australian A-League, benefiting from judicious investments in property.

Jenson Button, the Brawn GP F1 driver currently leading the driver’s championship, is the highest placed new entry as well as topping the young sportsmen rich list with wealth of £40m up 14% from last year, though reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton was not included.

The main Rich List saw the recession wipe $400bn over the wealth of Britain’s most wealthy 1000 people with steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal maintaining his spot at the top of the list despite his net worth plummeting by £16bn.

Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea football club owner, who has steel and other investment interests, remained second with £7bn, down more than 40%.