On September 24, the richest footballer on the planet landed on the island of Madeira. No, we’re not talking about Cristiano Ronaldo, but Faiq Bolkiah, a 22-year-old right winger originally from Brunei. His assets amount to about 18 billion euros, a figure that makes even the Juventus star pale: the curiosity is that Faiq, the Sultan’s nephew, has signed for Maritimo Funchal, team from hometown CR7.
The reason for this wealth is quickly explained: Faiq is the son of Jefri Bolkiah, prince of Brunei and brother of Sultan Hassanal, whose total assets are estimated at around 28 billion dollars.
Faiq studied in England, a country in which he also trained in football thanks to the experiences lived in the Arsenal and Chelsea Academies. The boy spent the past season in the ranks of Leicester under23, where he managed to accumulate just 5 appearances.
The sultan’s nephew has just moved into the Portuguese Primiera Liga, more precisely in the Maritimo of Funchal, the very fiefdom that gave birth to Cristiano Ronaldo. Bolkiah is also a regular in the Brunei national team, currently at number 191 in the Fifa ranking, with whom he also scored a goal against Laos in 2016.
It is a great Sports Marketing operation for the Portuguese League that can count on a very important personality at an international level, not so much for the skill itself of the footballer who will have all the time to demonstrate his skills and quality in the near future, but above all for the curiosity and the assiduous desire to know the deeds of this public figure who attracts the attention of all the international media and the curious in general for a sporting adventure that could bring a certain economic well-being and a certain visibility at world level to a League not very popular among the European ones.
