Beckham is top of pay league with £10m a year

On the day David Beckham told Manchester United the four words the supporters of the newly crowned Premiership champions have been waiting all season to hear – "I want to stay" – a survey into the highest-paid footballers in the world revealed the reason why the England captain may be in no hurry to leave.

Beckham is now the best-paid player in the world, according to the respected magazine France Football, with estimated yearly earnings of £10.5m, a figure that has seen him leapfrog Real Madrid's Zinedine Zidane, who can only muster £9.8m. The Brazilian striker Ronaldo, a team-mate of Zidane at Real, stands at third place in the list with an estimated annual income of £8.2m.

Rio Ferdinand, the Manchester United defender, is fourth on £6.8m, while the Liverpool and England striker Michael Owen is in ninth place on £6.2m. The other three Premiership players in the top 20 are United's Roy Keane (10th with £6.05m), and the Arsenal pair Sol Campbell (12th with £5.7m) and Thierry Henry, (18th on £4.3m).

Beckham negotiated a new contract earlier this season that saw his salary at Manchester United rise to about £4.6m a year, or nearly £100,000 a week before bonuses. That took him to par with Zidane, who earns a similar wage with Real, but it was Beckham's income off the pitch that saw him pull clear at the top of football's rich league.

The 28-year-old more than doubles his earnings by appearing in adverts for companies such as Pepsi, Adidas, Vodafone and Marks & Spencer, endorsements that pull in almost £6m a year. Ronaldo earns only £3.5m a year for his link-ups with Nike and others. In modern football, it seems, when it comes to earning power it is not how many goals you score that count but how many pairs of boots your face will sell.

Together, with his wife, Victoria, the Beckhams have become two of the most recognisable faces in Britain, a celebrity that has burgeoned as he has grabbed almost as many headlines on the front pages as the back pages. Unsurprisingly, this fame has led to criticism from inside football, which claims he is more famous for what he does off the pitch than on it. The Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly has been the latest to speak out. "Beckham is no longer in the soccer world but he is an integral part of showbusiness," the France captain told France Football. "His wife is already part of showbiz circles and he's surrounded by people who give him advice, from the shoes he should wear to whether he should get a tattoo.

"Beckham has left the context of traditional football while players like Zidane or Ronaldo refuse to."

Beckham said yesterday: "I want to stay at United. My feelings for Manchester United, the club itself, the players, the fans and the back room staff, are as strong as ever. There's been lots of stuff in the media about me and my future, but I can honestly say that there has been no contact between either me or my adviser, with Real Madrid, or any other club."

WORLD FOOTBALL'S TOP 20 EARNERS

1 DAVID BECKHAM (Manchester United) £10.5m. Club pay: £4.6m. Other income (including Vodafone and Marks & Spencer deals): £5.9m AFP

2 ZINEDINE ZIDANE (Real Madrid) £9.8m. Club pay: £4.5m. Other income (including Orange and Ford deals): £5.3m

3 RONALDO (Real Madrid) £8.2m. Club pay: £4.7m. Other income (including Nike deal): £3.5m

4 Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United) £6.75m
5 Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) £6.7m
6 Hidetoshi Nakata (Parma) £6.6m
7 Raul (Real Madrid) £6.55m
8 Christian Vieri (Inter Milan) £6.5m
9 Michael Owen (Liverpool) £6.2m
10 Roy Keane (Manchester United) £6.05m
11 Luis Figo (Real Madrid) £6m
12 Gabriel Batistuta (Inter Milan) £6m
13 Sol Campbell (Arsenal) £5.7m
14 Oliver Kahn (Bayern Munich) £5.4m
15 Alvaro Recoba (Inter Milan) £5.35m
16 Francesco Totti (AS Roma) £5.1m
17 Rivaldo (AC Milan) £5.05m
18 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) £4.3m
19 Fabio Cannavaro (Inter Milan) £4.2m
20 Paolo Maldini (AC Milan) £4.1m.

Source: France Football