An exclusive photo of Yaya after being informed just how much money he makes.

With the summer upon us, list making is en vogue once again. Today we find out just which players from Africa make the most money and Man City's ode to financial irresponsibility, commonly known as Emmanuel Adebayor's contract.

By Chris Wright

Well, what do you know? Looks like Manchester United and Liverpool are keen to get all their summer transfer dealing out of the way up top.

Several newspapers are claiming this morning that 'third parties' acting on behalf of Nasri and United met in Manchester yesterday to discuss a potential move, though the Daily Telegraph are also offering the explanation that the Frenchman may just be flirting with the Premier League champions in order to eek a new £120,000-a-week out contract of Arsenal doing a 'Rooney' so to speak.

Manchester United are to open talks with Nike over a world record new kit deal worth an astonishing £400million. In real terms though the actual increase is from the annual current value of £23.5 million, to £40 million a year with the new deal also projected to cover 10 years.

The Phil Jones transfer to Manchester United that seemed to be completed earlier this week, has completely fallen part as Blackburn's Indian owners have told United ‘We will not be bullied' into selling Jones.

So what happened? Jones has a £16.5m release clause in his contract, and when United formally offered that amount, they were allowed to talk to Jones and his agent.

By Chris Wright

Aston Villa's American goalkeeper Brad Friedel has been declared bankrupt in his homeland, after his non-profit football academy in Lorain, Ohio racked up debts of almost £5 million after failing to attract enough hopefuls willing to pay the annual £20,000 membership fee.

ESPN Soccernet - On The Move15.31 We're hearing that Gervinho's move to Arsenal in a £10.5 million deal from Lille is all but a done deal. Confirmation imminent.With the news that Gervinho is extremely likely to arrive at The Emirates, here are some quick thoughts. The PlayerMy expectations range from "good" to "very good" as a player.

Liverpool is being linked with a January move for Aston Villa midfielder Stephen Ireland.
The former Irish international has found it difficult to settle at Villa Park under French manager Gerard Houllier, and the Metro reports that Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson has targeted the player as someone who can strengthen the Reds in the centre of the park.

Barcelona have announced a much smaller loss than expected and are confident of returning to profit in the 2011-12 season according to Javier Faus, vice-president for economic affairs.

Barcelona posted a pre-tax loss of 9.3 million euros (£8.2m) in the year to the end of June, less than half the 21.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Oct 6, 2011) US Soccer Players -- So we now know what a top-tier soccer game on network television draws. Even on tape-delay, it's about 1.5 million viewers. That's the takeaway from Fox's experiment in showing delayed English Premier League games on Sunday afternoon, and it's also a new goal for what counts as success with televised soccer in America.

MANCHESTER, England — Premier League title-chasers Manchester City on Friday completed the signing of Bosnia and Herzegovina striker Edin Dzeko from German club Wolfsburg. The 24-year-old, who is believed to have cost City 27 million pounds (32.5 million euros) has signed a four-and-a-half year contract and has been handed the number 10 shirt at the [.

One is an in-form Arsenal midfielder, the other is a very obvious and unfunny comedian...and it just so happens that they look a like...(Cheers Guradian blog for pointing the likeness out!)

During his early career Nasri gained more praise than your typical god.

In all the euphoria of Mike Ashley recently signing three players of seemingly high calibre, all for under £5 million, it can be forgotten that two of these player have had injury question marks hanging over them, so I have decided to investigate the problem and look to see if Mike Ashley has taken something [.

I've written about match day attendance and leagues' financial health before, so I thought it was interesting to see these figures from the latest report on the Bundesliga's financial situation. Here's the trend in spectators since the inception of the league in 1963.
While the league's annual attendance ranged between 5 and 7 million per season for almost three decades throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, we have seen a rapid and sustained increased since Germany's unification in 1989/90 from about 5 million then to almost 13 million during these last two years.

QPR: Serious cause for concern? is a post from: Just Football

by Theo Fan

As Queens Park Rangers look destined to enjoy the glory of Premier League football next season a serious case of rule breaking, dodgy dealing and high profile characters rumbles on in the background that threatens to rain on the Super Hoops' parade.

United States international Michael Bradley is set to seal a permanent move to Aston Villa after a season long loan at Villa Park. The midfielder is currently owned by German club Borussia Mönchengladbach, but according to reports in Germany he is set to seal a permanent €5 million move shortly.

There have been plenty of stories circulating this week, and particularly today, regarding Americans plying their trade abroad, and it's time to catch everyone up on the latest:

Michael Bradley has NOT completed a transfer to Aston Villa, despite reports out of Germany suggesting otherwise.

Liverpool has launched a £5 million bid for Arsenal defender Gael Clichy, according to The Times.
The Anfield club, having already finalized a deal for midfielder Jordan Henderson on Thursday, are seemingly on the look-out for a full-back, with Clichy reportedly top of their list.
The 25-year-old is in the final year of his contract at the Emirates and has been reluctant to put pen to paper on a new contract with the north London club.

A busy summer for Arsenal is becoming a frantic one.
With Arsene Wenger attempting to plug the holes in his leaky central defence, another situation vacant will soon emerge at left-back.
As revealed by Goal.com last month, Gael Clichy has told the club that he wants to leave Emirates Stadium after rejecting at least two new contract offers in the last few months.

The Japan Football Association has confirmed that the world football body, FIFA, will donate about $6 million in aid to J-League clubs affected by the disastrous 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Several clubs, whose stadiums were damaged by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami, will receive $4.

Another week, another player rumored to be transferring to the Seattle Sounders. This time, it's Ghana's Prince Tagoe, who was actually quoted in a Ghanian newspaper as saying he's been offered $200,000 a week (that's the equivalent of $10 million a year) to don the Rave Green (H/T to MLS-Rumors for finding this).

In all the euphoria of Mike Ashley recently signing three players of seemingly high calibre, all for under £5 million, it can be forgotten that two of these player have had injury question marks hanging over them, so I have decided to investigate the problem and look to see if Mike Ashley has taken something [.

La Celeste has done it for the 15th time, smashing Paraguay 3 0 in a brilliant demonstration of team work and star individualities. What a game by Luis Suarez & Diego Forlan & Arevalo Rios! Uruguay played its best game during the final, it's 15th win in 21 Copa America finals.

After releasing its initial list of player salaries in May, the MLS Players' Union recently released an updated edition, which includes all of the new signings from an active summer transfer period.

More recent Designated Player signings Robbie Keane, Frank Rost, Mustapha Jarju, Jeferson, Milton Caraglio, Danny Koevermans and Torsten Frings are included in the bunch.

Nice work if you can get it, but then you can't because you're not David Beckham. Given these figures wonder if he ever got close to that $250 million in total income over the five years of his contract with MLS:

LONDON (AP) -- David Beckham's income from personal sponsorship deals rose by 30 percent last year, signaling the enduring strength of the Galaxy player's brand appeal.

Article by Pedro Gomes [Editor's Note: FY = Fiscal Year]
On December 12, Soccer Insider Steven Goff dropped a budgetary bombshell on the soccer world. He revealed an inside look into the United States Soccer Federations's Budget for FY'13. No one knows exactly how this journalistic wizard came to this information and quite honestly I don't think many cared because its juicy details lit the Twitter Sphere ablaze with questions, comments, excitement, and disbelief.

According to the Russian daily Sovietsky Sports, Zenit St. Petersburg are keen on re-acquiring the Arsenal playmaker Andrei Arshavin for the original sum of €16.5 million that the North London side paid for him back in 2009. The report suggests that Zenit are hoping to bring back the little Russian with a view of appointing [.

Arsenal and Liverpool are squaring up to battle it out over German centre-back Per Mertesacker. The Metro are reporting that an £8.5 million offer has been tabled by Arsenal for the Werder Bremen favourite and German international and Liverpool are hot on their tail and keen to test Bremen's resolve with a more attractive offer as [.

Benfica have completed their first move of the January transfer season, securing the acquisition of Argentinian Jose Luis Fernandez from Racing Club. The 23 year old winger is 5 foot 6 and has scored 3 goals in 39 appearances for Racing.Fernandez also earned his first cap for Argentina when he made an appearance against Haiti.

Liverpool's director of football strategy Damien Comolli has explained that the club dismissed Roy Hodgson from his position as manager due to a "cycle of negativity" sweeping through the team.
Hodgson was sacked on Saturday morning after just six months in charge at Anfield, a spell which had seen Liverpool win only 7 of 20 Premier League matches and has left the five-time European Champions languishing in 12th place and just four points from the relegation spots.

Liverpool defender Daniel Agger is reported to be negotiating terms with Fiorentina.
Agger, 26, warned recently that he would look to leave the club if he was not a first-team regular.
There appears little reason for the player to act on that threat - he has made four appearances already in January, starting both games since Kenny Dalglish took charge - but FIFA agent Bernardo Brovarone has claimed he is now discussing a move to Italy.

Charlie Adam could be set to leave Blackpool this month and join Liverpool after the Reds chairman Tom Werner declared a mountain of transfer funds will be made available to manager Kenny Dalglish.
The 25-year-old Scotland international has expressed his desire to play at a top level club after impressing in the Premier League this season.

LONDON, England English Premier League star Jermaine Pennant — once Britain's most expensive teenage soccer player — forgot he owned a Porsche, leaving the luxury car at a train station for six months, it emerged Wednesday. On the same day "Britain's brainiest footballer," Burnley defender Clarke Carlisle, announced he had been selected as a [.

By Chris Wright

Word is reaching Pies (via those diligent bods over at Sky Sports News) that Blackpool captain Charlie Adam has handed in a formal transfer request at Bloomfield Road, in a bid to push through a £5 million move to Liverpool.

More when we have it.

It's hard to imagine a guy making more than £40,000 running out of money, but it's happened to Brad Friedel.

The former U.S. International and Aston Villa keeper owes about £5 million, according to a English court.

Apparently, an academy he opened in Ohio a few years ago is the source of his financial woes, and he seems hopeful that he can get it sorted out soon.

LIVERPOOL, England —Chelsea has agreed a fee with Liverpool to sign Fernando Torres in what could be British football's most expensive transfer. A Liverpool statement says the Spain striker "has now been given permission to speak to the London club." British media say Chelsea will pay about 50 million pounds ($79.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has confirmed that Spurs made a club-record bid of £35m for Giuseppe Rossi on Monday. That bid was turned down, but Spurs expects to be back in the summer to try again.

Redknapp said:

"Daniel (Spurs club chairman Daniel Levy) always said that if we found the right player then we would have gone for him but it was difficult.

LIVERPOOL, England — Luis Suarez came off the substitutes bench to score on his Liverpool debut as Kenny Dalglish's side overcame Stoke 2-0 at Anfield here on Wednesday. Suarez, a 22.6 million pounds (36.5 million dollars) transfer deadline day signing from Ajax, needed just 16 minutes to open his goal account after Dirk Kuyt's pass [.

By Chris Wright

1.) A goal down against Hannover, Wolfsburg midfielder Diego tumbles in the area and wins his side an 80th-minute penalty.

2.) Diego then wrestles the ball away from Wolfsburg manager Steve McClaren's designated penalty taker namely deadline day signing Patrick Helmes as the Brazilian is unsure of who Helmes actually is.

Lucas Piazon

According to reports in the Brazilian press, Chelsea are set to fork out £6.5 million for São Paulo forward, Lucas Piazon. The 17-year-old, who has yet to make his debut for the professionals at São Paulo, is currently on tour with Brazil's U17s in Ecuador. The deal is set to be confirmed when he returns but Piazon will not move to Chelsea until he turns 18 in January 2012.

The Major League Soccer Player Union's release of 2011 MLS player salaries contains few surprises. David Beckham and Thierry Henry are the only players who earn more than $5 million a year and only six active players make more than $1 million.
Other highlights:
-- Only eight of the 25 best-paid players (and 21 of the 50 best-paid players) are Americans.