THE RICH LIST SPORTS STARS
Sunday March 30 2008
1. Eddie Irvine €245m
The 41-year-old earned about €60m from his F1 racing career, but has proved just as successful off the track, with property investments including homes in New York and Florida, a string of Dublin bars, and a stake in a Northern Irish shipping company. Irvine sold his house in Dalkey in 2006 for €1.9m. He has just started building a €2.5m house overlooking the sea in Bangor, Co Down. The falling dollar means we cut Irvine's worth by €10m, but his fortune remains bigger than the combined worth of the next five sportsmen on the list.
2. Roy Keane €73m
By far Ireland's wealthiest footballer, and just €2m off the rich list proper, his final salary at Manchester United was €140,000 a week. Keane's three-year managerial contract with Niall Quinn's Sunderland is worth €3m a year. He claims his aim at the start of this football season was to keep the club in the Premier League. It will be a close call.
3. Eddie Jordan €67m
The former F1 boss was 100th on our list in 2006 and has missed the cut again this year. Jordan, who turns 60 this month, has been widening his business interests which include a London-based hedge fund. Denis O'Brien credits him with having the idea of helping the FAI pay the Ireland manager, which eventually led to the appointment of Giovanni Trapattoni. And his eponymous F1 team, has resurfaced this year as Force India. Jordan's €17m super-yacht, The Snapper, includes a giant on-deck hot tub and an on-board garage complete with a small tender and two jetskis.
4. DarreN Clarke €42m
Lying 48th in the 2008 European Order of Merit, the golfer has earned €152,562 on the tour so far this year. Clarke's total prize money earnings on the tour is €16m, making him the fifth most successful current player. Other prize money and sponsorship deals make him worth over €40m. It is rumoured he spends €20,000 a year on cigars.
5. Padraig HarringtoN
€32m
Harrington has won so much money his accountancy qualifications seem surplus to requirements. Prize money from the European tour alone totals €17m.
6. Robbie Keane €19m
As an U-10 schoolboy playing for Crumlin United, Keane was paid £1 a goal. This year he overtakes his Ireland teammate Damien Duff to become the country's sixth richest sportsman. Keane now enjoys a basic salary of €1.5m at Tottenham.He signed a new-five year contract with Spurs in May last year that will keep him at the club until 2012.
7. Paul McGinley €18m
The Dubliner, who turned pro in 1991, has banked €200k so far this year on the European Tour. 2005 was his best year when he finished third in the Order of Merit, taking home €2.3m in prize money.
8. Damien Duff €17m
Duff, who turned 29 this month, was earning a €6m a year at Chelsea, before his £5m move to Newcastle. He suffered an injury in November and has struggled to find his form. Duff has dropped two places on the sports star rich list.
9. Aidan O'Brien €14m
His trainer's percentage alone is easily enough to make this wealth estimate conservative. Coolmore stud's official trainer, 38, was Ireland's amateur champion jockey for the 1993-94 season, after which he opted to apply for a trainer's licence at the age of 23.
10. Niall Quinn €12m
Quinn put together the Drumaville Consortium to buy his former club, Sunderland, for £10m in 2006. He and Roy Keane famously fell out in Saipan. However, both have buried the hatchet and promotion to the Premier League has added considerably to his fortunes.
