Faiq Bolkiah, the world's richest footballer
Faiq Bolkiah is the world's richest footballer
The world's richest footballer, Faiq Bolkiah, is relieved to be playing the beautiful game once more after recovering from a horrific leg break.
The 26-year-old, who plies his trade at Ratchaburi FC in the Thai Premier League, spent the best part of a year sidelined after colliding with a Police Tero defender back in February 2024.
Taking to social media to update fans on his condition, Bolkiah explained: "Thank you for all your kind messages. I am devastated with the news I received a few days ago. But I will stay positive and work hard to come back stronger inshallah."
After missing 36 games for his side, spending a total of 349 days off the pitch, Bolkiah breathed a sigh of relief when he returned to the fray in a 4-1 win over Rayong FC last month. Once more, taking to social media to share a clip of him coming on as a substitute during the fixture, Bolkiah wrote: "Almost 1 year since my injury. Feels great to be back out there."
Despite failing to make it at the highest level, Bolkiah has an astounding net worth that more than eclipses that of Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. A member of the House of Bolkiah and the nephew of the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, Faiq is one of several heirs to a staggering £20billion fortune.
This amount is more than 30 times the impressive £600million net worth of Al-Nassr star Ronaldo, who will go down in the annals of history as one of the greatest-ever footballers to grace the pitch.
Born in California, Bolkiah bounced between the youth set-ups of Southampton, Chelsea and Leicester before signing his first professional contract at Maritimo in 2020. He made his first and only appearance with the U23 set-up in a 3-3 draw with Sporting CP U23 in the December, before moving on to Chonburi the following year.
There, the left winger scored two goals and bagged four assists in 32 games before making the move to his current side of Ratchaburi in 2023. To date, the star has made just 16 appearances for the club, securing two goals for his efforts. In terms of international duty, Bolkiah has represented Brunei six times since 2016, with one goal to his name for his country.
While he failed to make it in the Premier League, his time at Chelsea in his youth saw him share the training pitch with the likes of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tammy Abraham, and Ruben Sammut - the latter explaining that he was an incredibly down-to-earth person despite his fortune.
Speaking to The Athletic, Sammut said: "You would never ever have thought he was something like the 12th in line to the throne. You would not have thought of him as royalty. He was a humble guy, trying every day like every academy player. We used to joke he didn’t need to play football but he wanted to play because he loved football.
"It wasn't a regular thing we mentioned. It was that typical banter, saying he is royalty, saying, 'What's he doing playing with us?' But we all knew deep down how much he wanted to play, so it was more good-willed passing comments."
It appears that his former Chelsea team-mates have remained in touch with him to this day, with Reece James taking to his Instagram post celebrating his recent return to football to write, "Happy for you, bro."
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