Counting Down the Richest British Sports Stars

Many who love playing sport would gladly turn out for a League 2 side and earn £2,000 a week. Well, not least because that salary of £104,000, reportedly the average in the fourth tier, is around three times the UK standard for the rest of us civilians. Equally, those who love a good walk spoiled would probably give away their least-favourite child for a chance to play golf on a second-tier tour and make a journeyman’s salary.

However, whilst the majority of people in the UK have to slug it out in a job about which they are indifferent at best, a select few not only get to do their dream “job” of driving a very fast car, kicking around a ball, hitting a small ball into a hole, or something equally taxing; but they also get very handsomely remunerated for it too.

The Sunday Times Rich List

Each year, The Sunday Times publishes its Rich List, detailing the wealthiest 350 people in the United Kingdom. Here we take a look at the richest sportspeople in the UK according to that list. The paper puts investors Gopi Hinduja and family as number one overall, with a rather staggering wealth of more than £35bn. Whilst nobody from the world of sport can get anywhere near that, there are certainly one or two who are making a mockery of their career advisor’s words of “you’ll never make a proper living doing that!”

Note that we are using the Sunday Times figures and also that we are not including those merely with links to sport, or whose fame and wealth are largely garnered outside a sport they may have previously played. For example, whilst Jim Ratcliffe (worth £17bn, down from £23bn in 2024) may own a good chunk of Manchester United and various other sports teams, but his wealth derives from chemicals.

Other owners of football clubs are excluded, as are those who have made their money through sports betting or other online gambling. That rules out, for example, the Coates family, on two counts, with the bet365 founders also owning Stoke City. In addition, some of the stars detailed have wealth not quite sufficient to make the rich list so we have used alternative sources, including the paper’s info for the wealthiest people under the age of 40.

1) Bernie Ecclestone and Family – £2bn

Having said what we said above, it may seem strange to include 94-year-old F1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone, who comes in at number 81 overall, having increased his worth from a mere £1.84bn last year. However, whilst Ecclestone has never played any sport, it is through his ownership and commercial development of Formula 1 that he has amassed the vast majority of his wealth.

2) David and Victoria Beckham – £500m

This may also be a somewhat questionable inclusion, given Victoria’s significant contribution to the total comes from pop music and fashion, whilst Becks himself has made a fortune from endorsements and through his ownership of Inter Miami. However, ignoring Posh, Beckham himself has still earned a huge sum through playing.

We would always include a golfer’s off-course earnings through sponsorship and commercial partnerships, as they have the star’s success as a sportsperson at their root. As such we are happy to include these two. It is thought that Beckham earned around $800m during his 20-year playing career, through massive wages, lucrative image rights deals, a wide range of commercial agreements and some canny deals.

His move to LA Galaxy and the MLS was particularly well structured, with one key clause allowing him to buy an expansion team for $25m. By the time he cashed that chip in, it equated to an 84% reduction on the market value of Inter Miami, a franchise now valued well north of $1bn. Becks owns 26% of that and has a very wide range of business interests both within and beyond sport.

3) Lewis Hamilton – £385m

Hamilton seems to have been around for a long, long time, and indeed he first raced in F1 back in 2007. Now 40 years old, he is a veteran but continues to earn a huge salary from his new team, Ferrari. His contract with the Italian team is said to be worth £40m a year and with his longevity in the sport and commercial deals off the track, it is easy to see why his wealth increased from £350m in last year’s list.

4) Rory McIlroy – £260m

Rory completed the career Grand Slam when he won the US Masters in April and his wealth will no doubt soar as a result. Already able to bring in huge partnership and endorsement deals, the massively popular Northern Irish ace will now be in even greater demand.

His wealth, like that of Hamilton, also comes from longevity, with Rory winning his first major in 2011. He has been the number one-ranked player in the world for well over two years in all and boasts career PGA Tour earnings of around $105m. Add in what he has earned elsewhere playing golf and he hasn’t done too badly for himself! Earnings in recent years have been boosted due to competition from LIV, and three big wins this year have seen him bring in $14m in prize money in 2025 alone.

5) Anthony Joshua – £195m

Joshua’s days as a highly respected, top-class boxer may well be over, but the Watford man still knows how to keep his bank manager happy. Getting punched in the head is a more taxing way to bring home the bacon, compared to strolling around Hawaii occasionally hitting a golf ball, but even a recent defeat to Daniel Dubois is said to have earned him £25m.

The 35-year-old has also invested wisely and is thought to own a vast property portfolio worth around £100m. Two fights against Oleksandr Usyk have been very lucrative, too, and again, he lost both of those. Yet to retire, he may have one more bumper payday in him to boost his wealth yet further.

What About the Footballers?

It is often our nation’s footballers who attract the most negative attention for the scale of their earnings but apart from Beckham, where are they? Of players still active, Harry Kane leads the way, with the England skipper said to be worth £100m. Pay of £400k per week at Bayern, plus a range of partnership deals and some decent investments has helped with that.

Lots of ex-footballers have vast wealth too, and of those Wayne Rooney may well be the richest, with some estimates suggesting the former Everton and Man United man may be worth around £170m. Gareth Bale, Frank Lampard and many others all have substantial wealth but none comes anywhere near Beckham.