The 20 highest earning footballers: Lionel Messi beats Cristiano Ronaldo again to top football rich list
In the recently released survey by France Football, the magazine revealed the names of 20 of the highest earning footballers in the world right now, with Barcelona forward Lionel Messi topping the list for the fifth time in the last six years with a total earning of £48 million.
Messi takes home a staggering annual salary of £26 million as Barcelona’s highest earning player in addition to his high profile endorsement contracts with Turkish Airlines, Electronic Arts and Adidas.
He is followed by rival Cristiano Ronaldo who raked in £40m last year, £10m less than what he did earlier. On the third place is Barcelona’s Neymar with a take home earning of £26.8 million last year, making him the highest earning footballer under the age of 25.
The 20 highest-earning footballers in the world:
| Position |
Player
|
Club | Net Earning (€) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 65 million |
| 2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 54 million |
| 3 | Neymar JR | Barcelona | 36.5 million |
| 4 | Thiago Silva | Paris Saint-Germain | 27.5 million |
| 5 | Robin Van Persie | Manchester United | 25.6 million |
| 6 | Gareth Bale | Real Madrid | 23.8 million |
| 7 | Wayne Rooney | Manchester United | 22.5 million |
| 8 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Paris Saint-Germain | 21.5 million |
| 9 | Sergio Agüero | Manchester City | 21.2 million |
| 10 | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern Munich | 20.2 million |
| 11 | Eden Hazard | Chelsea | 20 million |
| Yaya Toure | Manchester City | 20 million | |
| 13 | Angel Di Maria | Manchester United | 18.5 million |
| Radamel Falcao | Manchester United | 18.5 million | |
| 15 | Iker Casillas | Real Madrid | 17.8 million |
| 16 | David Silva | Manchester City | 17.3 million |
| Cesc Fabregas | Chelsea | 17.3 million | |
| 18 | David Luiz | Paris Saint-Germain | 17.2 million |
| 19 | Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | 17 million |
| 20 | Mario Götze | Bayern Munich | 16.9 million |