Since 1999 the prestigious French magazine ‘France Football’ publishes the ranking of the players and trainers who earn more money in the world of football. In the indicated figures for the players the money they earn for publicity is also included. Regarding the trainers there are some names that are not working at present.

The first player in the top ten list is David Beckam with 31 million Euro, (6 from  LA Galaxy  and 25 from publicity contracts). Beckam has been already in the top of the list in years 2003, 2004 y 2005 until he was overcome by the star of Barça Ronaldinho. This year Beckam is followed by the mentioned Ronaldinho (FC Barcelona) with 24.1, Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) with 23, Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United FC) with 19.5, Thierry Henry (FC Barcelona) with 16.8, John Terry (Arsenal FC) with 13.9, Michael Ballack (Arsenal FC) with 13.8, Ronaldo (AC Milan) with 13.4, Kaka (AC Milan) with 12.9 and Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC) with 11.8.Regarding the teams, 3 players from the top 10 belong to FC Barcelona followed by Arsenal FC and AC Milan with 2 players each.  With reference to trainers one of them is far away in the top list: Jose Mourinho with  29 million Euro. A bit far from him is Fabio Capello with 14.2, Alex Ferguson with 7.4, Juande Ramos with 7.3, Sven Ericksson with 7.1, Arsene Wenger with 6.4, Martin Jol with 5.8, Vicente del Bosque with 5.2, Roberto Mancini with 5 and Frank Rijkaard with 4.8.Seven of them work for English teams (except Capello – he is the coach of  English national team), while three of them (Mourinho, Del Bosque and Jol) are now on ‘unemployment’.Although these figures are high, there other sports that overcome football and for example Beckam would only be the fourth in the absolute ranking behind Tiger Woods (Golf), with 75 million Euro, Oscar de la Hoya (Boxing) with 35 and Phil Mickelson (Golf) with 32,5.

A first UEFA Champions League goal for Bojan Krkic gave FC Barcelona a significant advantage in their quarter-final against FC Schalke 04 as the Catalan side withstood fierce second-half pressure to win in Gelsenkirchen. Frank Rijkaard’s men may be struggling for form in the Primera Division but having continued their impressive European run, they will be confident of booking a semi-final place in next Wednesday’s second leg match after expertly nullifying their German opponents. Regarding Manchester United it has the best options in sight since Ronaldo headed the English champions in front after 39 minutes and, after United’s defence had resisted a determined rally from the home side, Rooney doubled the lead in the 66th minute. Given that the United has already beaten the “Giallorossi” twice at Old Trafford in the last 12 months, few would bet against them sealing a semi-final berth when the teams meet again next Wednesday.For Liverpool FC from Rafael Benitez is also a good opportunity to find out another important final and he has the theoretical advantage after the draw (1-1) obtained in first leg match played at Emirates Stadium last Wednesday. The situation of Liverpool FC in the Premiership is not excessively buoyant and therefore a new European tittle    Would be enough to save the season.Finally and in spite of his defeat (2-1) in Turkey in front of Fenerbahce FC last Wednesday, Chelsea FC is still the favourite because just a win 1-0 at Stamford Bridge would be enough to qualifies for semi-finals and try to obtain the Champions League tittle for first time in his history.The solution to all these conjectures will be known very soon.