Georgina Rodríguez just married Ronaldo, but she’s one of several WAGs with independent fortunes and careers, from dentistry to jewellery brands to media empires, worth millions on their own.

WAG was coined to describe women standing next to famous footballers, and it has never been a particularly generous label. Spend a bit of time looking at what this current group actually does for work, and how much some of them are worth, and the shorthand starts to feel thin, because several of them trained in fields that have nothing to do with football at all, while others run companies, media empires and jewellery lines that existed long before the relationships that eventually made them famous.

Victoria Beckham

Victoria Beckham spent the 1990s as a member of the Spice Girls before marrying David Beckham, and rather than settling into life as a footballer’s wife she went on to build a fashion house of her own, one known for tailoring and restraint rather than spectacle, which has stayed standing for more than two decades and against which most of the newer names on this list still get measured, whether they like it or not.

Georgina Rodríguez, the newlywed worth up to 35 million on her own

Georgina Rodríguez was working the sales floor at a Gucci store in Madrid when she met Ronaldo, and her career has since stretched into modelling, brand partnerships and a Netflix documentary series called I Am Georgina that ran across several seasons. She has more than 70 million followers on Instagram, and estimates of her personal fortune land anywhere between 10 and 35 million dollars depending on which outlet is doing the counting, a figure that sits entirely apart from whatever Ronaldo himself is worth.

Antonela Roccuzzo, the dentist turned philanthropist Messi’s money can’t explain

Lionel Messi’s wife trained in dentistry before switching her studies to social communication, and her business record tends to go unnoticed largely because she rarely talks it up herself. She co-founded the children’s clothing label Enfans with her family, holds a stake in a Ricky Sarkany boutique in Barcelona, and started a phone case line with Casetify whose profits are donated to a women’s charity rather than kept by her, alongside her work as a UNICEF ambassador. Her own fortune is generally put at around 20 million dollars, a modest slice next to a combined family fortune some reports estimate above a billion.

Coleen Rooney, the one who now reportedly out-earns her husband

Coleen Rooney’s media career stretches back further than almost anyone else’s here, built on several bestselling style books, a fitness DVD, a run of television documentaries and, more recently, a wellness product line with Holland & Barrett. Some recent reporting suggests her own annual earnings have overtaken those of her husband, former footballer and manager Wayne Rooney, which would have sounded unthinkable back when she was best known as the teenager from the Rooney family documentary, and her personal wealth is generally estimated somewhere between fifteen and twenty million pounds.

Bruna Biancardi, the marketing manager who became a Louis Vuitton face

Long before her relationship with Neymar became public, Bruna Biancardi worked as a marketing and e-commerce manager at her family’s surfwear brand, Long Island, where she handled budgets and contract negotiation, and she holds a fashion business degree from Universidade Anhembi Morumbi in São Paulo. That background sits underneath the influencer career she has built since, which now includes campaigns with Louis Vuitton, Balmain and Nike as well as her own clothing line, a rise that has coincided with a relationship that has itself gone through a publicised breakup and reconciliation.

Imane Khallad, the one who wants none of this attention

Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou’s wife has kept things deliberately low key even through swirling rumours of a split that both she and her husband later moved to quiet down, posting fashion and travel content to a fairly modest following and working with local advertisers rather than chasing a global brand deal, which reads less like a lack of opportunity than a decision she has made on her own terms.

Luz Méndez, the pilates instructor with an empire spanning three cities

Luz Méndez married Real Madrid and Morocco midfielder Brahim Díaz this past August, only days before his birthday, but the wellness business she runs predates the relationship by years. She is a certified Pilates instructor and co-founder of Elements Madrid, which now has outposts in Madrid, Miami and Mexico City, built entirely before Díaz became a household name.

Valentina Ghoddos, the quiet operator married since 2023

Married to Iran international Saman Ghoddos since 2023, Valentina Ghoddos works as a digital content creator, building her own following and her own brand partnerships in a way that does not depend on her husband’s football career, and doing it all with almost none of the public drama that tends to follow the bigger names on this list.

Taylor Ward, the reality star with a 400,000 pound ring and three weddings

Taylor Ward grew up in front of cameras long before Riyad Mahrez proposed, appearing on The Real Housewives of Cheshire alongside her mother, Dawn Ward, and later fronting the docuseries Married to the Game, where she was shown in tears over leaving England for Saudi Arabia after Mahrez’s move to Al-Ahli. Mahrez proposed in Mykonos with a custom ring reported to be worth around 400,000 pounds, and the couple went on to hold three separate ceremonies, including a three day celebration at Lake Como with a performance from Leona Lewis.

Taylor also co-founded the jewellery brand Astalia with her sister Darby, giving her an income stream that has nothing to do with the marriage at all. Mahrez’s first wife, Rita Johal, has said publicly that his move to Manchester City changed him, and has since built her own independent career in fashion and brand partnerships.