World's Richest Footballer Has A New Club After Being Released

Faiq Bolkiah, the man known as the 'world's richest footballer,' has been handed a contract at a new club, having been released by Portuguese side Maritimo.

Faiq is known by the moniker due to his father Jefri Bolkiah, who is the Prince of Brunei and brother of the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah.

The family fortune is reported to stand at around $28 billion, as of October 2019, which means that Faiq's family is richer than most club owners as well.

The 23-year-old son of the Prince, has spent time at both Chelsea and Leicester City in his younger years but recently found himself without a club.

He signed for Maritimo in September 2020, made no appearances for the first team, and was released earlier this month, but his exile hasn't lasted long.

Faiq has now signed for Chonburi Football Club in the top division of Thai football, with the announcement of the signing coming on their official Facebook page.

The former Leicester player was born in Los Angeles but moved to England for his education and first signed as an academy player at Southampton in 2009.

He had stints at Arsenal and Chelsea before signing with Leicester in 2016 and has so far made six appearances for the Brunei national team, scoring his first, and so far only, goal against Laos in 2016.

He left the Foxes in 2020, having not played a single game for the Foxes, before his move to Portugal, although things didn't go well there either.

He didn't make a single appearance for Maritimo's first team, although he did make a handful of appearances for the club's B team.

Bolkiah with his new shirt. Image: Chonburi Football Club

A Vanity Fair article in 2011 claimed the player's father, whose full name is His Royal Highness Pengiran Digadong Sahibul Mal Pengiran Muda Jefri Bolkiah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien, 'has probably gone through more cash than any other human being on earth,' and described him as a 'notorious playboy.'

The same article says the 65-year-old celebrated his 50th birthday with celebrations that included a concert from Michael Jackson that cost him $17 million.

He also had a private concert by Whitney Houston in which he reportedly handed the singer a blank cheque and told her to pay herself what she thought it was worth and cost him $7 million.

Topics: Transfers, Leicester City, Chelsea

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

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