With four premier league titles; one FA Cup winners’ medal; three league cup medals; a Champions League winners’ medal and a FIFA World Club Championship winners’ medal,  under his belt, is it any surprise that John O’Shea is Ireland’s highest paid sports star.

O’Shea bet the likes of Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington, Robbie Keane, Shay Given and Damien Duff to come out on top as Ireland’s most well paid sports star.

The Waterford man also has 69 senior international caps for Ireland.

The 30-year-old was recently named as Ireland’s highest sport’s earner by ESPN magazine.

For the magazines money issue they revealed the best paid sports stars in the world’s 182 countries for 2010 and O’Shea came out on top for Ireland.

Last year alone the Manchester United player earned a whopping $6.6 million (€4.6 million) and ESPN reports that this figure does not include sponsorship endorsements, bonuses or such enhancements. 

The top two earners on the list were Alex Rodriguez from the Yankees and the boxer Manny Pacquiao from the Phillipines, who both earned $32m last year.