Jamie Carragher’s Net Worth
‘Carra’ is a Liverpool legend after spending his entire 17 year football career with the Merseyside giants. Now he spends his time as the face of Sky Sports’ flagship show Monday Night Football. With all that considered, you’d expect him to be well off. Here we tell you just how well off he is as we look at Jamie Carragher’s net worth.
What is Jamie Carragher’s net worth?
As of 2021, Carragher has a net worth of £16 million, which is all the more impressive when you consider he’s just a boy from Bootle; there were certainly no handouts in his childhood. To be fair though, his roots have played a substantial role in making him the man he is today. It’s not the stuff you see pushed by the mainstream media either.
Early Life
As already touched on, Carragher grew up in Bootle, which is a small town that is just three miles from Anfield. He was born to parents Phil and Paula and grew up with a less than modest lifestyle alongside his two brothers – John and Paul. Carragher’s success as a footballer was largely down to his graft and refusal to give in; both qualities were drilled in to him as a youngster with one particular tale involving his father leaving a lasting impression. In his autobiography, he tells a story of a young Carragher feigning injury during an amateur match. He wanted to come off because he didn’t fancy it in the weather conditions. His dad let him know in no uncertain terms that wasn’t how a Carragher behaved.
The other major thing to note from his youth, is the club he supported. Whilst he was a hardcore Red on the pitch, he grew up cheering on the Blue side of Merseyside. That’s right, Carragher was an Everton fan. His allegiance to Liverpool was born out of his decision to join their academy owing to the better structure on offer.
Footballing career
Carragher originally started out as a striker but was converted to a defender long before his professional bow came. In fact, he played at the back in Liverpool’s Youth Cup win back in 1995/96. Of both teams – Liverpool and West Ham – only four players went on to have truly elite careers. Carragher was one, the others were Michael Owen, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard.
Despite preferring to play at centre back, his early performances saw him play in a range of positions. His debut came at right back and then 10 days later he was deployed in a central midfield role. He bagged his first goal in the same match. The youngster was hardly raking in wages like they do nowadays though. He recently revealed to SkySports that he used to cheat at cards on the team bus to win a few extra quid!
It’s fair to say Carragher didn’t remain on peanuts for too long. He quickly established himself as a key member of the Liverpool team and went on to make 737 appearances for the club. That’s a record that is second to only England World Cup winning midfielder Ian Callaghan. During his 17 year stay, his wages are thought to have peaked at £80,000 per week. Throw in some handsome bonuses for performance related perks and it’s a fair assumption that five domestic cup triumphs in addition to a UEFA Cup and Champions League win meant he could stop fiddling cards.
International career
Admittedly, it doesn’t play an enormous role in Carragher’s net worth today but his contribution to the England national team shouldn’t be ignored. It probably gave him an extra bump of sponsorship over the years too.
Most of his time with the Three Lions was spent as a back up with John Terry and Ferdinand the players generally given the nod ahead of him; Sol Campbell was also still in the squad as Carragher broke through. He did, however, go with England to five major tournaments – three World Cups and two European Championships. His main strength to the squad was his versatility and many of his 38 caps came at full back.
Moving into media
After his playing career, Carragher took a different route to his friend and teammate Steven Gerrard who went into management. Instead, Carragher joined Sky Sports as a pundit where he works alongside another Liverpool legend, Graeme Souness. It’s a move he made almost immediately after his retirement from football in 2013. He appears on several of their shows but he’s best known for his role on Monday Night Football.
That show had long been Sky’s main football analytics segment but only when Carragher arrived did the channel experiment with multiple voices. This saw Carragher pair up with fellow ex-pro and long-time club rival Gary Neville. The duo developed an excellent rapport on screen. It meant they kept hold of their roles for several seasons until Neville decided a revamp was needed.
Neville moved on but Carragher remained as the main voice on the show alongside guests. It is reported that his contract with the television giant is worth £1 million per year. On top of that, he’s written for various newspapers over the years including the Daily Mail and the Telegraph in addition to completing ad hoc pundit work for TV3 – a Danish company – and CBS.
Away from football
Carragher hasn’t always received the most positive news away from the beautiful game with his infamous spitting incident springing to mind. A lot of those around him defended his actions saying they were out of character and a look at his charity work suggests he is a man with a heart firmly in the right place.
In 2009 – whilst still playing – he founded the 23 charity. The name is his shirt number whilst the cause comes from a more obvious place, Carragher’s roots. The foundation was set up to help and support children and community projects in the Merseyside area but it’s exploded over the past 11 years and now provides help to youngsters around the world.
There you have it, a look at Jamie Carragher’s net worth.