From Ronaldo to Messi, Benzema to Pogba... footballers build car collections in minutes
Whether at Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man Utd or PSG, the top players are included in a new car ranking that shows how their wealth compares.
There are few cases whereby soccer players who, with an exorbitant salary, choose not to invest part of their income in filling their garage with some of the most luxurious and exclusive models of cars on the market. For this reason, it is not surprising that several of the most dazzling stars on the scene have monopolized over time a car fleet that most of us can only fantasize about.
Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Bale: minutes-to-car purchasing ratios
And much more surprising - and possibly frustrating to some - is a new calculation that shows just how much game time in hours, minutes and seconds, it takes a selection of them to get their particular collection based on their salary last season. (Yes, yes, there’s more to them than just kicking a ball, but go with us on this!)
In this sense, the study by the Bill Plant Driving School, located in the United Kingdom, reveals that Cristiano Ronaldo would have needed 33 hours, 47 minutes and 56 seconds on the field of play (around 22 games) to pay for his $21-million collection in which a Bugatti, a McLaren Senna, a Rolls-Royce and an Aston Martin DBS stand out, among others.
And he doesn’t even have the most valuable collection since, in this sense at least, Lionel Messi surpasses him. That of the Argentine is valued at $33 million and includes models from brands such as Pagani, Mercedes, Audi, Range Rover and Cadillac. With the highest salary among the players that make up the ranking, Messi has been able to pay for his entire collection playing 27 hours, 17 minutes and 36 seconds.
The attacking partner of the aforementioned Argentine, Neymar, is next on the list with a collection said to be worth almost $14 million, one which that includes a rare Maserati. The Brazilian only needed eight hours, 52 minutes and 58 seconds to build that tidy lot.
Strikers Karim Benzema and Zlatan Ibrahimovic follow, with collections worth $9m and $5m, respectively. The Frenchman is the proud owner of a Bugatti Chiron, while the Swede owns a fleet of Ferraris, with 27 and 12 hours of action needed to pay for it.
Roma’s brand new signing, Paulo Dybala, has a collection worth three million dollars, including a Lamborghini worth almost half a million. The Argentine has needed just over four hours of play to pay for it. The garage of another Serie A star, Paul Pogba, includes a Rolls Royce in a collection valued at $2 million, which means that three hours, 21 minutes and 16 seconds on the pitch would have been enough to cover it.
Tottenham’s South Korean, Son Heung-min, who has a collection valued at $1.7 million, including a rare Ferrari, has run around and kicked a ball for seven hours, 47 minutes and 51 seconds to pay it. Barça player, Memphis Depay, also boasts a fleet of cars, in this case valued at $1.4 million and just seven hours, seven minutes and 23 seconds trying to find the goal is all it takes to pick up that tab.
Completing the top 10 is Antoine Griezmann, whose car collection - worth less than a million dollars but includes a McLaren 675LT and a Ferrari F12 - has taken him just two hours of football to pay for.
Seconds to pay for the most popular car in the UK
The study of the driving school located near Leeds also includes a curious fact: how much time on the pitch would the different footballers in their ranking need to get hold of an Opel Corsa, the most popular car in the United Kingdom, valued at around $20,000.
In this sense, Eden Hazard (just 30 seconds), Gareth Bale (36 secs) and Neymar (48 secs), would be the players who would need the least time to pay the model based on their believed wage-per-minute.
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