David Beckham is still the highest earning football player across the globe for the third year in a row, according to the annual feature in Forbes magazine. In 2009 the 35 year old football player earned £40m out of which 80% came from his sponsors, who include Giorgio Armani, Adidas, and Motorola. Beckham unfortunately is predicted to lose some of his larger sponsorship money this year due to the fact that he tore his archilles tendon in March, which will force him to sit out the South African World Cup. Second on the Forbes list was Christiano Ronaldo who earned £30m in the past year. Credits to his name include the 2008 World Player of the Year and the title of the highest salary paid football player in the world when Real Madrid purchased him from Manchester United. His contract is for six years and started at about £15.5m but will increase by a quarter every year after. Sponsors of Ronaldo include Coca-Cola, Giorgio Armani, and Nike. In third place on the list of top earners is Kaka also a Madrid player who earns £25m per year. His sponsors are also Giorgio Armani and Adidas. Fourth place is Ronaldinho who also earns £25m per year and in fifth place is the Barcelona striker from France Thierry Henry who earns about £24m per year. Last year Beckham was estimated by Forbes to have earned £46m while Ronaldinho was estimated to make £33m in second place and Henry was in third place with £28m.