The champagne lifestyles of our top footballers're the stuff of gossip columns and TV soaps. Now though we know the size of their fortunes. David Beckham is the richest footballer in the list-worth 75m pounds. Arsenal's Dennis Bergkamp is next, with a paltry 37m in the bank. Michale Owen is in third place with a fortune of 30 million pounds.

But the man who's made a big difference to this year's list is Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. He tops it with a fortune of 10 billion pounds, but his money has put another four people into the ranks of football super-rich, including Jose Mourinho who's worth 20 million pounds, putting him ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson. But some think the glory days could be coming to an end.

We've been living in an era of bubble for the last few years, and we start to see the signs of it changing again. I want that happens, then I think the natural effect is the players are gonna have half their salaries cut, or at least clubs are going to stop paying as much as they do.

Super-rich footballers are though a relatively new phenomenon. The late Johnny Haynes was the first player to earn 100 pounds a week. That was in 1961 and despite his fame, George Best's earnings were fairly modest. It's thought he made around 15, 000 pounds from playing, getting endorsements in 1967. Today that would be worth 170, 000 pounds or rounded 2 weeks' wages for David Beckham .

Obviously seeing how popular George Best was in the 1960s and how crowds flocked to see him, it's quite frightening to see how much he was earning, as little as 10 thousand pounds a year, 15, 000 pounds a year when he was at his peak, winning the European Cup for Manchester United. So they were still not earning a great deal more than the average worker.

Most of the players' money comes from TV deals, but it's thought the big money contracts of pit meaning Mr. Beckham and his collegues will have to make a few savings in the years to come.
Dark Lyttle, SKY News.

本期难点
paltry: Lacking in importance or worth在文中，是说博格坎普挣的比起小贝来，就有点微不足道了。

本期生词：
flock: To congregate or travel in a flock or crowd