Highest-Paid Soccer Players

Here is the list of The 10 Highest-Paid Soccer Players by Forbes :

1. Ronaldinho, Barcelona
2. David Beckham, Real Madrid
3. Ronaldo, AC Milan
4. Wayne Rooney, Manchester United
5. Michael Ballack, Chelsea
6. Thierry Henry, Arsenal
7. Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid
8. Fabio Cannavaro, Real Madrid
9. John Terry, Chelsea
10. Steven Gerrard, Liverpool

Ronaldinho, Barcelona

Total Earning : $29.5 million eqv £16 million eqv €23.5 million
The impish Barcelona play-maker is not enjoying the best of seasons by his own standards. Like many of the stars of the last World Cup, a long club and international season has taken its physical toll. But he has leapfrogged David Beckham to become soccer’s top-earning player thanks to endorsement deals with Nike and the likes of consumer electronics giant Sony.

David Beckham, Real Madrid

Total Earning : $29.1 million eqv £15.8 million eqv €23.2 million
No one can shift soccer merchandise like Beckham. He did it for Manchester United during his pomp and for Real Madrid over the past four years, where he won over the fans if not the critics. Now coming to America on the back of a potential $250 million marketing and playing deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy, he has proved he has the marketing savvy to put him in the elite of sports commercial superstars who outlast their playing days.

Ronaldo, AC Milan
Wayne Rooney, Manchester United

Total Earning : $17.2 million eqv £9.3 million eqv €13.7 million
The epitome of the sports star who wears his brains in his boots, Rooney’s on-field goal-scoring partnership this season with Cristiano Ronaldo, cemented by Paul Scholes’ Indian summer, has made Manchester United the English Premiership’s unexpected top dogs. The barely 20-something’s commercial challenge is to turn raw soccer talent into polished marketing power.

Michael Ballack, Chelsea

Total Earning : $16.8 million eqv £9.1 million eqv €13.4 million
The switch from being Bayern Munich’s superstar to just another highly paid midfielder in Chelsea’s glittering firmament of world-class stars has proved a challenge for the German on the pitch. But not when it comes to his bank account. Chelsea is reported to pay him a base salary of $240,000 (£121,000) a week, which would make him–for now–the top-paid player in the game.

Tendulkar targets 15K Test runs, 2011 WC for India

Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar has said he is not satisfied with his achievements in the game and hopes to accumulate 15,000 Test runs and win the World Cup for India in 2011. "I am not pleased yet with what I have done. Sunil Gavaskar has told me that I have to get to 15,000 runs. He said he would be angry with me and would come and catch me if I didn't. I admire him so much and to score that many would be a terrific achievement, but that is not the only aim," Tendulkar, who has scored a record 12773 Test runs at an average of 54.58 from 159 matches, said in an interview with the Wisden Cricketer. His other big cricketing ambition is to "win the World Cup in 2011". Tendulkar, 36, also spoke about how he has been consistently playing with pain. "I always play in pain, all the time. I played with a broken finger for the last three months, but you know when pain is manageable or not, and most of the time I can do it," he said. "I can still do what I did when I was 25 but the body is changing, so your thought process has to change too. I have had to change how I think, which is about taking less risk," he added. Tendulkar also disagreed with former Australian coach John Buchanan's views that he had become susceptible to the short ball early in his innings because of a lack of footwork. "It is only his opinion; John Buchanan doesn't have to be right all the time. If I couldn't handle short deliveries, then I wouldn't still be scoring runs," he said. "Maybe he needs to change his opinion. There must be something very wrong with all the bowlers around the world that they have allowed me to score so many runs," he added. Don Bradman had said Tendulkar reminded him of himself and the Indian batsman was the only modern player in Bradman's all-time XI. Does Tendulkar think the same way about anyone? "I would say Virender Sehwag comes closest to my style." Tendulkar said he was not thinking about retirement yet but he would know when to quit cricket. "I will know when it is the right time, I won't have to be dragged away. I am the person who will make the decision and I will know whether I still belong." He admitted life after cricket wouldn't be easy. "It's a scary thought. It has been there for my whole adult life, it will be difficult, I have been around for a long time, I can imagine when I finish I will long to face just 10 more balls but you have to move".

World's most beautiful athletes

Meike Kroger (Germany)

Meike Kroger takes a break during the women's high jump competition at the 2009 World Athletics Championships at the Olympic stadium in Berlin.

Anna Rogowska (Poland)
Yelena Isinbayeva was not the only startlingly attractive competitor in the women's pole vault. This year's champion, Anna Rogowska, matched her Russian rival in skill and the good looks department.

Defeating Yelena for the second time in two months -- Anna also beat her at the London Grand Prix last month -- the Beijing Olympics bronze medalist claimed her first world title in Berlin with a clearance of 4.75 metres.

Tatyana Lebedeva (Russia)

The triple-jumper, a gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Olympics and a silver medallist at Beijing, is no longer the best, finishing sixth in her event.

Tatyana won back-to-back gold medals in the event at the world championships in Edmonton (2001) and Paris (2003) besides winning the long jump gold at the last championships in Osaka (2007). If that is not fantastic, what is?

Manchester united Training session

Ganguly captain, Wright coach of KKR in 2010

Sourav Ganguly is almost certain to be reinstated as the captain while John Wright is likely to take over as the coach of Kolkata Knight Riders in the third edition of the Indian Premier League in 2010, team sources said on Saturday.

Even as an official announcement is awaited, sources said that there could be a major reshuffle with former India coach Wright likely to replace John Buchanan as Knight Riders coach, while former Australian middle-order batsman Michael Bevan will be in the coaching panel.

Sources said Ganguly would be back at the helm in 2010 when his contract with the Kolkata team ends and the iconic Bengal cricketer had a one-on-one with principal owner Shah Rukh Khan when the duo met in London to receive doctorates by the University of Central Lancashire last week.

"Ganguly and Shah Rukh Khan had a discussion about this when the left-hander was in London last week. They have agreed in priniciple that Ganguly will lead the side," the source said.

"There were also discussions about the possible coaches. Wright and Bevan are the front runners. It is up to Shah Rukh to take the final call."

Ganguly, meanwhile, said that nothing is final as yet and a proper announcement will be made in due time. "I don't take the decision of KKR alone. There are a number of people involved in the process. But hopefully in due course of time we will get a person who will coach the team. The decision has not been made yet," Ganguly said.

The Knight Riders management was also tightlipped about the development.

When contacted, Knight Riders CEO Joy Bhattacharya said: "At the moment, I don't deny this (Ganguly as captain and Wright as the chief coach). However, there has not been any official announcement as yet."

Asked whether he was aware of this development, he said, "I don't want to comment on this. When there is an official announcement, we will let you know."

In the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa, Kolkata Knight Riders were plagued with controversies especially after Ganguly was dethroned just two days before the start of the tournament.

Knight Riders coach John Buchanan, who later had to part ways with the side after their bottom place finish, had floated the idea of multiple captaincy but only to hand over the baton to New Zealand wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum.

IPL III, which was pre-poned to accommodate the ICC World Twenty20, begins in March next year and will overlap with Australia's tour of New Zealand.

Wasim Akram The Great!

The fifth ODI between Pakistan and South Africa was dedicated to Wasim Akram who retired just after the World Cup. A moment to rejoice for the oppositions all over the world and the way Proteas easily beat Pakistan one could see how Pakistan missed Wasim. But things aren’t forever and as all good things must come to an end, Wasim has finally called it a day. Here’s a piece that I wrote earlier in tribute to the Big W, God’s own left arm. It is reproduced here for the readers of Cricketfundas.com:

“First of all, convince yourself that you are the best because the rest of your life is gonna go proving this to others” -Wasim Akram, in a T.V commercial.

One thing Wasim has shown us in his 19 year long career is he enacts what he says. The tremendous confidence he had as a young boy of 18 when some more ordinary guy would be nervous participating in a school debate would make even greatest of champions envious of him. He damn sure knew he was the best and boy, has he proved this to the whole world! Yes he has and in fact, he has done this in a manner that the best of the batsmen in the world fear him. But there’s good news for some new batsmen, the Sultan of Swing has finally decided to retire from international cricket. This would mean batters need not worry about a lanky fast bowler whose run up was a mere 10-15 steps but who could bowl fast, swinging toe crushing yorkers that could render even the best of batsmen mere spectators. And they also need not worry about the late swinging deliveries to which the umpires couldn’t resist raising the finger indicative of an LBW. (29% of his wickets include LBWs!). And bowlers over the world can save themselves blushes, the kind when the very same man got stuck into them and hit them a mile. (Ask Zimbabweans whom he hit for a record number of sixes in his 257 run knock!)

Usain Bolt is world's fastest man

Usain Bolt broke his own world record with another sensational performance to win the 100 metres at the World Championships in Berlin.

The triple Olympic champion stormed to victory in Berlin's Olympic Stadium in 9.58 seconds, comfortably beating the mark of 9.69secs set in Beijing last year.

Defending champion Tyson Gay set an American record of 9.71 to claim the silver with former world-record holder Asafa Powell third in 9.84. Britain's Dwain Chambers was sixth in 10.00, a season's best for the 31-year-old.

In the semi-finals, Bolt had shrugged off two false starts - the second of which saw Britain's Tyrone Edgar disqualified - to breeze into the final. Bolt was guilty of the first false start, which meant any athlete guilty of another would be disqualified.

But after Edgar had committed that second misdemeanour and left the track, Bolt was quickly out of his blocks and almost as quickly began easing down to a brilliant time of 9.89.

That indicated something special was on the cards and the Jamaican superstar duly delivered, powering out of the blocks at the first time of asking in the final and seizing control of the race within 30m.

From there it was only a matter of the time and the large crowd exploded as Bolt streaked across the line to create another piece of sporting history.

Virender Sehwag wants to quit Delhi team - report..!!

Virender Sehwag is reported to be seeking a move from Delhi, the state he

has represented since 1998, to Haryana from the 2009-10 season, citing the heavy interference in selection matters.

"I am trying to leave Delhi and play for Haryana," he was quoted as telling the Delhi-based newspaper Mail Today. "I spoke to the Delhi District and

Cricket Association (DDCA) president, Arun Jaitley, [on Sunday] and he has asked me to discuss the issue with him and then take a decision. If I am not

satisfied with the outcome of our meeting, I will surely leave Delhi."

Though international commitments have kept Sehwag away from much of Delhi's recent campaigns, he said there was too much manipulation in the

Ranji Trophy selection. "It has often happened that four selectors get together and vote for 'their' players, leaving the chairman of the committee

and me defeated," he is quoted as saying. "Especially, when I am on national

duty, they put pressure on the stand-in captains and the interference becomes more rampant."

He was even less satisfied with selection process for the junior teams in the state. "There is too much interference and manipulation from the sports

committee in selection committees," he said. "The sports committee has got too much power. There is more interference at the under-16 and under-19

levels than the Ranji Trophy. In a squad of 15, for instance, the sports

committee tries to influence the selectors and slip in one or two of 'their own' boys."

To play for another state, Sehwag requires a No-Objection Certificate from the DDCA. Sunil Dev, the DDCA general secretary, who is authorised to issue

NOCs, said he had not been contacted by Sehwag yet. "He has not talked to

me and I have not signed the NOC," Dev said. "But if he comes to me, I will give him the NOC immediately."

One of the selection-related controversies involving the DDCA was in 2006, when the entire selection committee was sacked midway through the season

for picking Navdeep Tomar as the 16th man for a couple of Ranji matches. Tomar was not in the list of 21 players from which the side was to be

chosen, and the selectors allegedly named him after being threatened by his supporters.