Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nayan has reclaimed the top spot in the FourFourTwo.com Football Rich List, overtaking Queens Park Rangers stakeholder Lakshmi Mittal.
The ever-rising price of oil has helped Sheikh Mansour, increase his wealth by an estimated three billion pounds to a total of £20 billion.
Mittal’s fortune, on the other hand, is valued at £17 billion pounds, down from £18.4 billion that he was estimated to have had a year ago.
Also moving down a place is Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich ( £7.4 billion ), who now stands in fourth place - his lowest ranking since arriving in English football in the summer of 2003.
Uzbek-Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov has overtaken him ( £8 billion pounds).
Former Manchester United and Real Madrid star David Beckham is the highest ranking active player, with an estimated wealth of £100 million, a figure which dwarves that of all of his contemporaries.
Michael Owen is the second richest player on this list, but still has wealth that is 40% less than Beckham’s.
Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney has dropped out of the top five wealthiest players, with his estimated worth plummeting from £37 million to £25 million following a difficult year on and off the pitch for the striker.
Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United, £34 m), Sol Campbell (Newcastle United, £31 pounds) and Ryan Giggs (Manchester United, £27m) are ahead of Rooney in the top five rich players list.
