What if U.K. Premier League Teams Were Countries?

There’s a lot of ink given to the high salaries of sports stars in the United States. Last year, not including endorsements, for example: the MLB’s Alex Rodriguez earned $32 million, the NFL’s Tom Brady was paid $20 million, the NBA’s Kobe Bryant took in a cool $24 million and NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson pulled in $7 million. If you add endorsements into the mix, pro golfers Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson each earned more than $60 million. But the U.K.’s Premier League teams (soccer, to us Yanks) have tremendous payrolls, too. Insurance company Confused took a look at which nations’ GDPs were eclipsed by League payrolls, in this infographic. Taken all together, the league’s net worth of 3.9 billion British pounds is greater than the GDP of Niger, at 3.6 billion pounds. Here’s a closer look (click image to view bigger in new window):