BENJANI Mwaruwari is Zimbabwe’s highest paid sports star with an annual salary of US$3,405,584.00 (£2,065,611.32 or R22,603,110.71), according to a United States sports magazine.
ESPN Magazine compiled a list of the highest paid sports stars from 182 countries, and Mwaruwari unsurprisingly tops the pay league in Zimbabwe.
The former Auxerre, Portsmouth and Manchester City striker earned US$283,798.66 (£172,134.27 or R1,883,592.55) per month last year, or US$70,949.66 (£43,033.56 or R470,898.13) per week.
The figures tell a fascinating story of Mwaruwari’s rags-to-riches story – a career which started uneventfully at Lulu Rovers in Chegutu, then Jomo Cosmos in South Africa before a stop in Swtizerland with Grasshoppers on his way to France where he signed for Auxerre.
The 33-year-old hit the jackpot when he moved to England as a £4,1 million signing for Portsmouth in 2004. He scored 14 Premier League goals in the 2007 season, prompting his £8,9 million move to Manchester City where for three years he earned £69,000-a-week.
According to the figures, Benjani compares well with other sports stars from Africa, earning higher than Morocco and Arsenal forward Marouane Chamakh (US$4,247,000) and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s top earner, Christopher Samba (US$3,000,000), who also plays for Blackburn.
Ivory Coast’s Yaya Toure, who plays for Manchester City, tops the African pay league with an annual return of US$18,200,000. Real Madrid star Emmanuel Adebayor tops the pay league in Togo with US$11,900,000 and Samuel Eto’o is Cameroon’s highest earner with US$8,000,000.
BEST PAID SPORTS STARS BY COUNTRY
Albania: Lorik Cana (Football) $2,500,000
Algeria: Nadir Belhadj (Football) $2,779,000
American Samoa: Domata Peko (American football) $2,950,000
Andorra: Ildefons Lima (Football) $531,822
Angola: Manucho (Football) $865,579
Argentina: Carlos Tevez (Football) $19,000,000
Armenia: Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Football) $360,000
Australia: Andrew Bogut (Basketball) $11,050,000
Austria: Thomas Vanek (Ice hockey) $6,400,000
Azerbaijan: Aleksandr Samedov (Football) $1,287,000
Bahrain: Abdullah Omar Ismail (Football) $202,086
Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (Cricket) $425,000
Belarus: Alexander Hleb (Football) $3,300,000
Belgium: Vincent Kompany (Football) $5,340,000
Benin: Stephane Sessegnon (Football) $2,800,000
Bermuda: Reggie Lambe (Football) $480,000
Bolivia: Marcelo Moreno (Football) $883,449
Bosnia: Edin Dzeko (Football) $8,470,000
Botswana: Mogogi Gabonamong (Football) $354,000
Brazil: Felipe Massa (Motorsports) $17,052,632
Brunei: Darussalam Craig Adams (Ice hockey) $550,000
Bulgaria: Dimitar Berbatov (Football) $6,700,000
Burkina Faso: Charles Kabore (Football) $1,118,000
Burundi: Saidi Ntibazonkiza (Football) $315,000
Cameroon: Samuel Eto'o (Football) $8,000,000
Canada: Jason Bay (Baseball) $18,125,000
Cape Verde: Cafu (Football) $287,000
Central African Republic: Eloge Enza Yanissi (Football) $206,000
Chad: Misdongarde Betoligar (Football) $21,500
Chile: Mark Gonzalez (Football) $9,324,958
China: Yao Ming (Basketball) $17,700,000
Colombia: Juan Pablo Montoya (Motorsports) $5,088,410
Comoros: Kassim Abdallah (Football) $120,000
Cook Islands: Stan Wright (Rugby Union) $204,000
Costa Rica: Bryan Ruiz (Football) $1,720,828
Ivory Coast: Yaya Toure (Football) $18,200,000
Croatia: Luka Modric (Football) $4,900,000
Cuba: Yuniesky Betancourt (Baseball) $4,300,000
Curaçao: Jair Jurrjens (Baseball) $3,250,000
Cyprus: Constandinos Charalambides (Football) $1,589,000
Czech Republic: Petr Cech (Football) $7,400,000
Dem. Rep. of the Congo: Herita Ilunga (Football) $2,730,000
Denmark: Daniel Agger (Football) $4,500,000
Djibouti: Ismail Ahmed Kadar Hassan (Football) $51,500
Dominican Republic: Alfonso Soriano (Baseball) $19,000,000
Ecuador: Antonio Valencia (Football) $6,361,983
Egypt (Tie): Mohammed Zidan (Football) $2,580,000 and Mohamed Abu Treika (Football) $2,580,000
El Salvador: Arturo Alvarez (Football) $201,922
England: Lewis Hamilton (Motorsports) $18,473,684
Equatorial Guinea: Rodolfo Bodipo (Football) $430,000
Eritrea: Zersenay Tadese (Track and field) $340,000
Estonia: Ragnar Klavan (Football) $2,006,000
Ethiopia: Tilahun Regassa (Track and field) $318,250
Faroe Islands: Christian Holst (Football) $1,630,000
Fiji: Vijay Singh (Golf) $1,334,262
Finland: Kimi Raikkonen (Motorsports) $26,333,333
France: Franck Ribery (Football) $14,100,000
French GuianaL: Florent Malouda (Football) $3,441,823
Gabon: Daniel Cousin (Football) $645,000
Gambia: Ousman Jallow (Football) $314,000
Georgia: Zaza Pachulia (Basketball) $4,251,250
Germany: Dirk Nowitzki (Basketball) $17,278,618
Ghana: Michael Essien (Football) $5,500,000
Greece: Theodoros Papaloukas (Basketball) $4,400,000
Greenland: Jesper Gronkjaer (Football) $923,440
Guadeloupe: Mickael Pietrus (Basketball) $5,300,000
Guatemala: Carlos Ruiz (Football) $306,670
Guinea: Ibrahima Yattara (Football) $717,000
Guinea-Bissau: Almami Moreira (Football) $573,000
Haiti: Samuel Dalembert (Basketball) $12,200,000
Honduras: David Suazo (Football) $5,716,476
Hungary: Zoltan Gera (Football) $2,970,000
Iceland: Eidur Gudjohnsen (Football) $2,538,000
India: Ms Dhoni (Cricket) $1,800,000
Indonesia: Bambang Pamungkas (Football) $160,000
Iran: Hamed Haddadi (Basketball) $1,600,000
Iraq: Nashat Akram (Football) $900,000
Ireland: John O'Shea (Football) $6,800,000
Israel: Yossi Benayoun (Football) $6,859,267
Italy: Valentino Rossi (Motorcycling) $20,800,000
Jamaica: Ricardo Gardner (Football) $2,613,074
Japan: Ichiro Suzuki (Baseball) $18,000,000
Jordan: Odai Al-Saify (Football) $145,000
Kazakhstan: Nik Antropov (Ice hockey) $3,750,000
Kenya: McDonald Mariga (Football) $1,300,000
Kuwait: Bader Al-Mutwa (Football) $400,000
Kyrgyzstan: Mirlan Murzaev (Football) $150,000
Latvia: Andris Biedrins (Basketball) $9,000,000
Lebanon: Youssef Mohamad (Football) $1,074,839
Lesotho: Lehlohonolo Seema (Football) $34,300
Liberia: Sekou Oliseh (Football) $573,000
Libya: Tariq El Taib (Football) $1,130,000
Liechtenstein: Martin Stocklasa (Football) $978,800
Lithuania: Linas Kleiza (Basketball) $4,995,000
Luxembourg: Andy Schleck road bicycle racing $2,700,000
Macedonia: Goran Pandev (Football) $4,250,000
Madagascar: Anicet Andrianantenaina (Football) $86,000
Malawi: Tamika Mkandawire (Football) $571,000
Malaysia: Lee Chong Wei (Badminton) $106,000
Mali: Frederic Kanoute (Football) $8,600,000
Malta: Michael Mifsud (Football) $1,142,000
Martinique: Ronny Turiaf (Basketball) $4,000,000
Mauritania: Pascal Gourville (Football) $353,000
Mauritius: Diallo Guidileye (Football) $313,000
Mexico: Jorge De La Rosa (Baseball) $10,000,000
Moldova: Alexandru Epureanu (Football) $1,433,000
Mongolia: Hakuho (Sumo)$400,000
Montenegro: Mirko Vucinic (Football) $6,020,000
Morocco: Marouane Chamakh (Football) $4,247,000
Mozambique: Mate Simao Junior (Football) $516,000
Northern Ireland: Graeme McDowell (Golf) $5,176,586
Namibia: Collin Benjamin (Football) $1,000,000
Nepal: Santosh Sahukhala (Football) $8,430
Netherlands: Nigel De Jong (Football) $10,500,000
New Caledonia: Frederic Piquionne (Football) $2,972,339
New Zealand: Russell Coutts (Yachting) $10,000,000
Nicaragua: Vicente Padilla (Baseball) $2,000,000
Niger: Alhassane Issoufou (Football) $200,000
Nigeria: John Mikel Obi (Football) $5,800,000
Niue: Michael Junior Jackson (Track and field) $5,000
North Korea (Tie): An Yong-Hak (Football) $619,107 Jong Tae-Se (Football) $619,107
Norway: John Carew (Football) $4,500,000
Oman: Ali Al Habsi (Football) $3,000,000
Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (Cricket) $136,000
Palestine: Fadi Lafi (Football) $65,000
Panama: Carlos Lee (Baseball) $19,000,000
Papua New Guinea: Nev Costigan rugby league $216,667
Paraguay: Roque Santa Cruz (Football) $7,668,947
Peru: Claudio Pizarro (Football) $5,448,894
Philippines: Manny Pacquiao (Boxing) $32,000,000
Poland: Robert Kubica (Motorsports) $10,657,895
Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo (Football) $19,500,000
Puerto Rico: Carlos Beltran (Baseball) $19,325,436
Qatar: Sebastian Soria Quintana (Football) $391,000
Republic of the Congo: Christopher Samba (Football) $3,000,000
Romania: Cristian Chivu (Football) $5,013,000
Russia: Andrei Kirilenko (Basketball) $17,822,187
Rwanda: Olivier Karekezi (Football) $52,000
Samoa: David Tua (Boxing) $500,000
San Marino: Aldo Simoncini (Football) $172,000
Saudi Arabia: Mohammed Noor (Football) $1,200,000
Scotland: Darren Fletcher (Football) $5,000,000
Senegal: DeSagana Diop (Basketball) $6,478,600
Serbia: Peja Stojakovic (Basketball) $15,602,138
Seychelles: Michael Mancienne (Football) $2,100,000
Sierra Leone: Madieu Williams (American football) $2,974,000
Singapore: Mardan Mamat (Golf) $500,609
Slovakia: Marian Hossa (Ice hockey) $7,900,000
Slovenia: Anze Kopitar (Ice hockey) $6,000,000
Somalia: Abdisalam Ibrahim (Football) $340,000
South Africa: Ernie Els (Golf) $5,347,012
South Korea: Ji-Sung Park (Football) $4,700,000
Spain: Fernando Alonso (Motorsports) $22,736,842
Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (Cricket) $1,500,000
Sudan: Luol Deng (Basketball) $11,355,850
Suriname: Clarence Seedorf (Football) $4,000,000
Swaziland: Tony Tsabedze (Football) $212,000
Sweden: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Football) $12,700,000
Switzerland: Roger Federer (Tennis) $7,698,289
Syria: Sanharib Malki (Football) $400,000
Tahiti: Fabrice Santoro (Tennis) $19,500
Taiwan: Hong-Chih Kuo (Baseball) $2,725,000
Tajikistan: Farkhod Vasiev (Football) $145,000
Tanzania: Hasheem Thabeet (Basketball) $4,793,280
Thailand: Thongchai Jaidee (Golf) $1,400,000
Togo: Emmanuel Adebayor (Football) $11,900,000
Tonga: Chris Kemoeatu (American football) $2,369,000
Trinidad And Tobago: Anthony Herrera (American football) $1,425,000
Tunisia: Karim Haggui (Football) $820,000
Turkey: Hedo Turkoglu (Basketball) $9,800,000
UAE: Ismail Matar (Football) $360,000
Uganda: Mathias Kiwanuka (American football) $1,776,000
Ukraine: Vitali Klitschko (Boxing) $6-8M
Uruguay: Diego Forlan (Football) $7,169,746
U.S. Virgin Islands: Tim Duncan (Basketball) $18,700,000
USA: Alex Rodriguez (Baseball) $32,000,000
Uzbekistan: Maksim Shatskikh (Football) $120,000
Venezuela: Johan Santana (Baseball) $21,644,707
Vietnam: Lee Nguyen (Football) $180,000
Wales: Ryan Giggs (Football) $6,300,000
Zambia: Chris Katongo (Football) $315,300
Zimbabwe Benjani Mwaruwari (Football) $3,405,584