Cristiano Ronaldo made history earlier this year as the first soccer player to become a billionaire because of his awesome career. But even with all that cash, he's not the richest player out there.

Ronaldo's huge new deal with Al Nassr will pay him about £492 million over two years. In 2023, he signed a record-setting £173 million-a-year contract in Saudi Arabia. This latest deal pushed him over the £1 billion mark.

According to Bloomberg, Ronaldo's worth jumped to $1.4 billion (£1.045 billion) in October. So, it's not a big surprise that the 40-year-old wants to own a bunch of clubs someday.

Still, even Ronaldo's crazy money looks small compared to another player. It isn't Lionel Messi, his longtime rival, but a player that most people probably don't remember.

Faiq Bolkiah, who plays for Ratchaburi in Thailand, is worth way more than one of soccer's biggest stars. Word is, Bolkiah has a massive £16 billion in the bank.

The 27-year-old is the Sultan of Brunei's nephew and one of the people who could inherit a £200 billion fortune. He was born in Los Angeles and started playing soccer with Newbury before playing on youth teams for Southampton, Chelsea, and Leicester City.

The left-winger went to Maritimo in 2020, but he never actually played a game in England at a high level, and this was when he signed his first pro contract. He didn't do great there either, playing just one game for their under-23s before going to Thailand.

Bolkiah joined Chonburi and played 32 times, scoring two goals and getting four assists. Then, in 2023, he switched to Ratchaburi, who have played in the Asian Champions League.

Bolkiah is a citizen of both America and Brunei but grew up in England. Even though he never made a splash in the Premier League, he did play with guys such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tammy Abraham at Chelsea.

Another teammate from that time, Ruben Sammut, says they used to joke about Bolkiah's wealth. "You would never have guessed he was like 12th in line for the throne," Sammut told The Athletic.

He didn't act like royalty at all. He was a regular guy, working hard every day like every academy player. We would joke that he didn't need to play soccer, but he wanted to because he loved it.

We didn't bring it up all the time. It was just normal joking around, saying he's royalty and asking, 'What's he doing playing with us?' But we all knew he really wanted to play, so it was all in good fun.

Bolkiah might also know an English cricket player. He went to Bradfield College, which costs £58,000 a year, when he was growing up in England. Gus Atkinson, who is the same age as Bolkiah, also went to that private school in Berkshire.

During Cameroon's first Africa Cup of Nations game against Gabon, Carlos Baleba had to come off at halftime. The Brighton midfielder started behind Manchester United striker Bryan Mbeumo, who assisted Karl Etta Eyong's goal in their 1-0 win.

Baleba couldn't continue into the second half because he seemed to get hurt right before halftime. The 21-year-old got medical attention during added time in the first half and was replaced by Jean Onana at halftime. Getting subbed early has happened a lot to Baleba this season.

He's only played a full 90 minutes twice for Brighton, the last time being in early November.

He had a knee issue in the summer and had fitness problems in the first few weeks of the season. During that time, everyone knew United was after him.

But a transfer didn't happen before the deadline, even though Baleba reportedly wanted to move to Old Trafford. Brighton's price tag of £100 million was too much for United.

Still, people think they'll try again in future transfer windows. Any move in January might depend on how bad Baleba's injury is, which forced him off in Agadir.

Meanwhile, Baleba's hoping it's not too bad so he can still play in Morocco this winter. Before the tournament, Baleba said, "I believe in our players."

We're going to play in the AFCON, and I think we'll do well. Playing for Cameroon is a big deal for me because I want to win something with my country.

It's great to play for my country. I want to win the AFCON and World Cup with them!

I've become a leader, but there are many leaders in the group, like Bryan Mbeumo.

But we're all going to stick together and play, and maybe we can give it our all for our country. But first, we have to believe in our team.

Brighton's head coach, Fabian Hurzeler, said in October about Baleba stepping up after his move to United didn't go through: The talk is over. He can't change it.

He's a Brighton player, and no matter what the rumours say, he'll be a Brighton player for the whole season or until the season ends. Now he has to step up.