The research collated a seed list of the top 18 players who retired over the past year.

Mikel John Obi, the former Super Eagles captain, made a fortune for himself at Chelsea after playing for the club for over 10 years.

Subsequent moves to China, Turkey, and then Bahrain also brought the soft-spoken midfielder good money, placing him among the wealthiest Nigerian football stars.

Despite announcing his retirement from the sports that brought him fame and fortune, Mikel remains a top earner in his own right, according to recent research conducted by Ticketgum.com.

The study compiled a seed list of the top 18 players who retired the previous year.

Mikel is ranked eighth in a list that includes other accomplished stars such as Gareth Bale, Jack Wilshere, and Carlos Tevez, among others, after obtaining their estimated earnings per Instagram post using Influencer Marketing Hub’s social media earnings calculator.

Mikel has about 1.8 million followers on Instagram and his Estimated Instagram earnings per post are pegged at $6,127.50 (about N2.8 million)

But while Mikel’s projected earnings look massive, especially when converted to Naira, his is a far cry from the others ahead of him on the list compiled by Ticketgum.com.

Welsh captain Gareth Bale tops the list by a landslide, with potential earnings per Instagram post.

The projected earnings for the former Real Madrid star reached a whopping $162,191 – thanks to his massive follower base.