Faiq Bolkiah, the £22bn royal who played for Chelsea, released at 28 and without a club

Faiq Bolkiah, the Brunei international widely described as the world’s richest footballer, is without a club after Thai side Ratchaburi released him, bringing an end to a three-year spell in which he scored just two goals in 23 appearances.

The 28-year-old winger is the nephew of Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, whose personal fortune is estimated at around £22 billion. That family wealth — built primarily on Brunei’s oil and natural gas reserves and spread across a vast investment portfolio, luxury hotels, and property in London, Paris and New York — has long overshadowed the player’s footballing career. The family’s car collection alone is said to be worth approximately £5 billion, comprising around 7,000 vehicles, with a gold-plated Boeing 747 valued at £460 million among their most prominent assets.

Despite that extraordinary backdrop, Bolkiah has spent much of his life attempting to forge an independent path through football. Born in Los Angeles, he came through youth setups at Southampton, Chelsea and Leicester City over an 11-year period, also earning trials at Arsenal and Stoke City during his early teenage years. He attended Bradford College, which carries an annual fee of around £58,000.

After failing to break into senior football in England, Bolkiah left in 2020 and signed with Portuguese club Maritimo, where he featured only for the youth teams before departing after a year. He then moved to Thailand, joining Chonburi FC and making 32 appearances with two goals across two seasons before switching to Ratchaburi.

His journey has attracted consistent attention less for his performances than for the contrast between his modest footballing record and the immense wealth surrounding him. Former Chelsea academy graduate Ruben Sammut, who came through the ranks alongside Bolkiah and now works as a scout at the club, offered a telling character assessment in an interview with The Athletic. “You would never ever have thought he was something like the 12th in line to the throne,” Sammut said.

Bolkiah is now a free agent at 28, with no announcement yet regarding his next move.