Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins is a Nigerian professional footballer, and a retired Super Eagles striker who hails from Lagos, South West Nigeria. He began his professional career at a very young age in Italy as a 16 years old in ‘Serie A team’ before he was promoted to the first-team squad. From there, he expands his journey to other top European football teams and currently plays his football for Chinese Super League giants, Wuhan Zall, which he joined in 2020.
Throughout his career, Martins has earned himself a fortune in Salaries which has helped him climb the ladder of wealth and increased his net worth. Besides featuring on the list of high-paid footballers in the Major League Soccer in the US with Seattle Sounders FC, the successful footballer also featured on the best-paid professionals in the Chinese Super League in the wake of his transfer to Shanghai Shenhua. Thus, it is not a surprise that he enjoys so much wealth and spends fortunes on exotic cars and mansions worth millions of naira.
Obafemi Martins Football Career
He began his football career in 1999 in Italy. Martin’s football talent was discovered by Sunday Oliseh’s father, Churchill Oliseh, while he played football on the streets of Lagos. Oliseh was the coach of FC Ebedei at the time. Martins got signed to the team, and he played for 1 year, 1999-2000, before an Italian club Reggiana picked him up for their youth team.
Following his success, Martins was signed by Serie A giant Inter Milan after just a season with Reggiana FC. After playing for the Inter Milan team for many years, he was signed by Newcastle United of England where he earned 75 thousand pounds a week. After playing at Newcastle for 2 seasons, the team was relegated and Martins was sold to Wolfsburg for a fee of 9million pounds, but he could only play for one season.
He was sold again to Rubin Kazan of Russia after playing 16 games and scoring 6 goals. Rubin Kazan loaned him to Birmingham City Fc of England, where he helped them beat Arsenal in the FA Cup final, scoring the only goal of the game.
In 2012, he joined Levante FC of Spain as a free agent after winning the Russian Cup with Rubin Kazan. He spent 1 season in Spain and then moved to Seattle Sounders where he earned a whopping 600 thousand euros.
After quitting Seattle Sounders, having played for 5years, he joined Shanghai Shenhua and earned himself a contract worth $175, 000 a week and an annual salary of $6.6 million. He later moved to Wuhan Zall.
Clubs that paid Obafemi Martin his highest wages
• Shanghai Shenhua – $175, 000 – weekly
• Wuhan Zall – $127, 000 – weekly
• Inter Milan – 2.5 million euros annually
• Seattle Sounders – $2.4 million annually
• Newcastle United – 75, 000 pounds weekly
• Levante FC – 600 million euros annually.
Obafemi martins net worth
Obafemi Martins is one of the super-wealthy footballers in Nigeria with a net worth of $35 million (about 12.6 billion Naira). He is said to be the fourth on the list behind Mikel Obi, Odion Jude Ighalo and Emmanuel Emenike.
Source: Nyscinfo