Rugby’s highest paid player Dan Carter would take more than 24 years to earn what Portuguese and Real Madrid winger Cristiano Ronaldo makes in a year.
Ronaldo is the highest earner in world football, making about 33.8 million pounds annually, compared to Carter who will earn 1.4 million pounds a year in his new contract with French club Racing Metro following the World Cup.
According to the Association of Accounting Technicians, Bath and England’s Sam Burgess is the only player in the top ten highest paid rugby players who does not play in France and earns about 500,000 pounds a year.
The astronomical TV deals the world’s best football leagues have with their broadcasters reflect the huge difference in salaries. Last season the English Premier League, one of the richest leagues in the world, agreed a three year deal with Sky and BT worth 5.14 billion pounds.
French top 14 is rugby’s richest league and their last TV deal with TV channel Canal+ was worth just less than 60m pounds a year.
Rugby’s top 4
| PLAYER | NATIONALITY | CLUB | YEARLY CLUB SALARY(Pounds) | YEARS MATCH TO RONALDO |
| Dan Carter | New Zealand | Racing metro 92 | 1,400,000 | 24 |
| Matt Giteau | Australia | Toulon | 900,000 | 37 |
| Leigh Halfpenny | Wales | Toulon | 600,000 | 56 |
| Sam Burgess | England | Bath | 500,000 | 67 |
Football’s top 4
| PLAYER | NATIONALITY | CLUB | YEARLY CLUB SALARY (POUNDS) |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | Real Madrid | 33,800,000 |
| Lionel Messi | Argentina | Barcelona | 33,540,000 |
| Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Sweden | PSG | 21,320,000 |
| Gareth Bale | Wales | Real Madrid | 16,640,000 |
Source: stuff.co.nz
