September 26, (THEWILL) – When rivals for the title of Best Footballer in the World, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina’s Lionel Messi, swapped jerseys during the previous transfer season, moving from Juventus to Manchester United for Ronaldo and from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for Messi, another swapping took place in the so called “Rich List” of football’s wealthy hierarchy.
As was expected with Ronaldo’s switch to the English Premier League side, where his rise to fame was birthed, the superstar striker became the bestselling player on the Fanatics Sports merchandise site. Purchases associated with his name topped the sales of other top sports stars, who had made big transfers in recent years even outside football, including the NFL’s Tom Brady in 2020, the NBA’s LeBron James in 2018 and MLB’s Bryce Harper in 2019.
Of these, the accomplishment that must have been most pleasing to reach may have been also outselling Messi, based strictly on the competitive rivalry that continues to define the lives of arguably two of the greatest footballers in the modern game. It was made all the merrier for the Portuguese as Messi’s transfer had been announced weeks earlier before Ronaldo’s surprise last minute switch.
If nothing else, it was an unambiguous illustration of the immensity of the kind of selling power that Ronaldo boasted, from being the world’s most popular athlete with more than a combined half-billion followers across official accounts on Facebook, where he has 149 million, Instagram about 344 million and Twitter, the lowest with about 94.3 million followers.
These figures consistently rank comparatively higher than other superstars’ in the sports world and they place the five-time Ballon d’Or winner within the followership sphere of entertainers. In fact, there is an element of entertainment in the heroics that Ronaldo is capable of on the field of play in leading the forward line of both club and country. This was partly why it was easy for him to reclaim the top spot on this year’s Forbes ranking of the highest-paid soccer players in the world, again from rival Messi.
The ranking which is conducted by Forbes, with their long experience and reputation in compiling these records, consist of a summation of research that include reaching out to the players’ clubs, their agents, commercial sponsors and worldwide soccer experts. To allow for comparisons, all the figures are converted to U.S. dollars using the current exchange rate and include salaries (pretax) for the 2021/2022 season, bonuses and endorsements. Transfer fees are excluded because such fees do not accrue to the footballers.
Ronaldo was able to reclaim the top spot with the deal that brought him back to the EPL, which saw the Portuguese set to earn $125 million before taxes this season. $70 million of that entire sum will come from salary and bonuses. The rest will accrue to the striker from personal endorsements and partnerships with brands, including Nike, Herbalife, Clear and his ever-expanding CR7-branded portfolio that includes perfume, underwear, eyewear, hotels, gyms and more. In the entire sporting community of wealthy brokers, only three other active athletes are set to make more commercially in the 2021 calendar year: the $90 million recovering tennis maestro Roger Federer, $65 million basketballer LeBron James and $60 million of also-recovering golf legend, Tiger Woods.
After Ronaldo finished last season with Juventus as the top goal scorer in Serie A and won the award for the best player in the European continental Championship, Manchester United announced he was returning to Old Trafford, where he previously played from 2003 to 2009, scoring 118 goals in 292 games. Over his 18-year career, he has won 32 major trophies, including five UEFA Champions League titles, the UEFA European Championship for his native Portugal and seven league titles in England, Spain and Italy, making him the first player to win titles in the three countries.
As THEWILL reported, in early September, Ronaldo set a record as the greatest male goal scorer of all time in international football when he hit the back of the net for the 110th time in his country’s World Cup qualifying win against Ireland. Ronaldo has made over $1 billion in career earnings before taxes, the first team-sport athlete in the world to hit that milestone.
To Manchester United’s advantage, the 36-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down. Already showing exactly why the Old Trafford faithful were celebrating when he re-signed with the club, he has so far scored in all the three matches he has played, with four goals to his credit already. He has proven to have enough in the tank to still outperform most of his opponents in Europe, a good number of whom are decades younger. Ronaldo has also brought an infectious winning mentality with him and younger players of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United squad can gain from the plentitude of his experience.
Away in France and down from his previously leading position at the top of the wealthy football ranking, Messi is not used to playing second fiddle to anyone, yet there is not much the 34-year-old can do about the circumstances that have become his reality. After lifting his first-ever senior international trophy in the colours of his football-loving country, he was prepared to continue his record-extending 21 years at Barcelona until it proved impossible due to the financial impediments that stood against the club.
Ligue 1 side PSG swiftly swooped into the picture and very quickly reached a transfer deal with the Argentine, whose status as a free agent made it easier and cheaper to negotiate the transfer from Spain to France where he will be paid $75 million this season. Although, $5 million more than what Ronaldo will earn as salary, Messi’s total earnings of $110 million was how he ended up in the uncharacteristic second place. That means Messi’s PSG paycheck will be added to an estimated $35 million in endorsements from the likes of Adidas, Pepsi, watchmaker Jacobs & Co. There is also a fresh endorsement that Messi picked up last year, for a three-year contract, with Budweiser.
Messi’s switch to the Parc des Princes means that PSG now has three of the world’s five highest-paid players, including the 29-year-old Neymar, who is unchanged from last year at number three spot once again and the 22-year-old Kylian Mbappe, who is just after Neymar. The remaining of the cast of football’s wealthiest sees Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah round out the top five.
In the over two decades with the only team he ever knew, Messi scored 672 goals and had 268 assists on his way to 35 titles and 78 awards with a record six Ballon d’Or trophies for the sport’s best player. The “Little Magician” also pocketed $875 million in salary and bonuses and another $350 million from endorsements for a total of more than $1 billion over the length of his career. Earning nothing like his previous salary, what he will take home at PSG still keeps him as the sport’s highest-paid player on the pitch, along with Neymar, with whom he reunites in Paris after being teammates in the Catalan capital from 2013 to 2017.
As the third on the hierarchy, Neymar sought to escape playing in Messi’s shadow in Barcelona with a switch to PSG in 2017. It was a record $263 million transfer fee that brought that move to life. It also helped take the club to its first Champions League final last year, but stopped short of their ultimate target of being Champions of Europe. As Les Parisiens still have their eyes squarely locked on winning the UEFA Champions League, they re-signed the Brazilian in May on a fresh four-year contract extension to stay in the French capital until 2025 and remain among the highest-paid on the team.
While that contract put an end to rumours of him joining Messi at Barcelona at the time, Neymar instead started to court Messi on behalf of PSG, which among other financial bottlenecks, led to their eventual reunion in Paris.
The 29-year-old Brazilian has made quite the fortune for himself with his move away from Messi’s shadow. After an early exit of his contract with Nike over a reported assault allegation from a Swoosh employee, Neymar signed a shoe deal with Puma that has celebrated his flashy style. This March, he debuted a “creativity collection” of shoes and apparel in loud colour schemes. Last November, the social media sensation, as the third-most-popular athlete on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, with 284 million followers, left TikTok and signed a deal to make video content exclusively as an ambassador for Triller.
Still in Paris and with a transfer debacle surrounding his continued stay at PSG, Mbappe is the third top Les Parisiens player to make the hierarchy. Of the three, he is the one whose stay in Paris is shrouded in uncertainty and it appears money is not the only factor involved because this past spring, the 22-year-old Frenchman turned down a contract extension in Paris that would have given him a bump to put him on par with Neymar’s pay and kept him with the club until 2024.
He has now entered into the last season on his current contract with no sign yet that he will remain by accepting an extension. PSG had hoped the signing of Messi was enough to incentivise the Ligue 1 three-time Golden Boot winner to negotiate to stay, but Mbappe may be thinking it is time for him to venture beyond and claim the bright spotlight that is rightfully his to inherit. And, he has every right to be ambitious as he has already amassed more career goals than either Ronaldo or Messi had at his age.
Commercially, Mbappe is also making more than they were at his age, too. In part, this has come about because commercial sponsors have recognized his potential earlier on. Last year, EA Sports gave him the solo cover of FIFA 21, making him one of the youngest to ever do so. This year, it announced he will be back as the face of FIFA 22, making him the first since Cristiano Ronaldo to get back-to-back covers.
Another player from the English Premier League made it in fifth place: Liverpool Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah with a total sum of $41 million. Barcelona had another former player, midfielder Andres Iniesta, in the list as well. Iniesta, now with J-League side Vissel Kobe in Japan, is the only player from outside Europe who makes the list. Iniesta is tied for sixth place with Poland’s Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich on $35 million. The rest of the top 10 include French Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba on $34 million and the Real Madrid duo of Wales’ Gareth Bale on $32 million and Belgium’s Eden Hazard, $29 million.
In total, the ten highest-paid soccer players are expected to collect pretax earnings of $585 million this season, up from last year’s $570 million. Salary and bonus make up the bulk of the total, which is $415 million, and are up a modest 2.6% from last year as most clubs continue to be cautious in the face of uncertainty around emerging Covid-19 strains. In May, UEFA, Europe’s governing body of soccer, released a report that said its top-flight clubs were facing a whopping $8.5 billion pandemic-related revenue loss, putting a damper on major player movement even if top player pay saw an uptick.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
