Unable to escape speculation about how much money he has, Mathieu Flamini now finds a revised estimate of his net worth of €200 million, placing him 395th in the top 500 professional fortunes in France. He's the only professional athlete in the group.

Stories: L'Equipe (below), also Huffpost

Even though, in a March interview in L'Equipe, he denied rumours that his bank account ran into crazy figures (€30 billion!), Mathieu Flamini does no less than enter the ranking of the 500 largest French professional fortunes unveiled this week by Challenges. According to the economic magazine, the 34 year old former international is worth €200 million, which ranks 395th place in the economic hexagonal Gotha.

The estimated fortune of the current player Getafe, 8th of the last Spanish Championship, is on the same level as the heirs of the publisher Albin Michel or the owners of the clothes Gerard Darel. He is the only professional athlete in the rankings where, on the other hand, there are several "players" in the world of football and more broadly in sports. Most saw their fortunes improve in one year.

Jean-Michel Aulas (27% of Olympique Lyonnais, holding Holnest) passes in one year from 410th to 153rd rank (fortune estimated at €600M). Jérôme Seydoux, the owner of the Pathé cinemas and another shareholder of the OL (€1.2bn, 71st French fortune) is also included in the "500"; Olivier Sadran, main shareholder of Toulouse FC (252nd); Laurent Batteur, CEO of the pharmaceutical group that bears his name and co-owner of SM Caen (292th); Loïc Fery (FC Lorient, 373rd) and the Nicollin family (Montpellier HSC, 473rd).

Mathieu Flamini is the only player in the Challenges ranking, thanks to his investment in chemistry. For even the high salaries of top French players (and their advertising contracts) are not enough to pass the "cut". This year, a fortune of at least 140 million was needed to appear on the list. It will take a few years of savings for Kylian Mbappé to reach this threshold. According to Challenges , the player of the PSG and the team of France receives a gross annual remuneration of 10.6 million euros.

Transfer News

His contract with Getafe expired at the end of the season, so he's on the market again, and free as always. Last time he talked about his footballing future (last fall), he estimated that he had 2 years left in the tank, so presumably next season could be his last, assuming he still has time for football, after being named to a global thinktank 2 months ago.

We'll keep an eye out for news of a signing, but as usual, he'll likely leave it very late - if not well past the transfer deadline.