Less than 24 hours after news broke that Cristiano Ronaldo had left Italy’s Juventus to join England’s Manchester United, the superstar striker became the best-selling player on sporting goods site Fanatics. He has outsold other top players who have recently changed teams, including the NFL’s Tom Brady in 2020; LeBron James, from the NBA, in 2018; and MLB’s Bryce Harper in 2019.
But his most flavorful win may be that of outselling soccer rival Lionel Messi, who had announced he was leaving Barcelona just weeks earlier to join Paris Saint-Germain.
It’s the selling power that comes from being the world’s most famous athlete, with more than 500 million followers on Facebook (149 million), Instagram (344 million), and Twitter (94.3 million), and it’s helped him. to regain first place. In this year’s Forbes ranking of the world’s highest-paid soccer players.
Ronaldo is expected to earn US$125 million gross in the 2021-22 season, with US$70 million in salary and bonuses for his return to United. Between 2003 and 2009, he won three consecutive Premier League titles and one Premier League title. Champions. The remainder comes from personal sponsorships and partnerships with brands like Nike, Herbalife, and Clear and its ever-expanding portfolio of CR7 brands, including perfume, underwear, eyewear, hotels, gyms, and more.
Only three other active athletes earn more commercially: Roger Federer ($90 million), LeBron James ($65 million), and Tiger Woods ($60 million). And there’s no sign Ronaldo is slowing down as the 36-year-old continues to outperform many of his opponents in Europe, most of whom are ten years his junior – Ronaldo marking his return to Manchester’s Old Trafford United by hitting the back of the net twice. He now has four goals in three games this season in the best league in the world.
With these figures, he snatches first place from his lifelong rival, Lionel Messi, 34, who, after 21 years at Barcelona, and a year of coming out of drama soap opera, jumped to PSG, where he was will pay US$75 million and stays in second place on the list with US$ 110 million.
This summer, Messi was forced to leap after the Spanish league cracked down on FC Barcelona’s wage bill, forcing the club to end negotiations with its six-time player of the year, who had played in the Barça since I was 13 years old. He will top off his PSG paycheck with an estimated $35 million in endorsements from Adidas, Pepsi, watchmaker Jacobs & Co, and Budweiser, which he acquired last year on a three-year deal.
The ten highest-paid soccer players have gross earnings of $585 million this season, up from $570 million last year. Salary and bonus make up the bulk of the total ($415m) and are up a modest 2.6% from last year as most clubs remain wary of uncertainty around strains. They are emerging from Covid-19.
In May, UEFA, the governing body for football in Europe, released a report saying its top-tier clubs were facing a massive $8.5bn pandemic-related revenue loss, slowing the movement of players. Important. Still, the big jumps to the top of the list show the lucrative spending power of the best players in world football.
To compile the list, Forbes has spoken with clubs, player agents, commercial sponsors, and soccer experts worldwide. All figures are converted to US dollars using current exchange rates and include salaries (before taxes) for the 2021-22 season, bonuses, and endorsements. Transfer fees are excluded.
The top ten of the ranking
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
Age: 36
Country: Portugal
Team: Manchester United
Total earnings: $125 million
After Ronaldo finished last season with Juventus as the top scorer in Serie A and won the European Championship best player award, Manchester United announced he would return home to Old Trafford, where he previously played from 2003 to 2009, scoring 118 goals in 292 games for United.
Throughout 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 all three countries.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Earlier in September, the 36-year-old set a record as the all-time top goalscorer in international football when he hit the back of the net for the 110th time in his country’s World Cup qualifying victory against Ireland. . Ronaldo has earned more than $1 billion in pre-tax career earnings, the first team sport athlete in the world to reach that milestone.
2. Lionel Messi
Age: 34
Country: Argentina
Team: PSG
Total earnings: $110 million
It was the end of a glorious era when Barcelona announced that Messi would not continue with the club due to financial obstacles in La Liga. During his 21 years with the only team he knew, Messi scored 672 goals and 268 assists on his way to 35 titles and 78 awards (including a record six Ballon d’Or trophies for the sport’s best player).
He also pocketed $875 million in salary and bonuses and another $350 million in endorsements for a total of more than $1 billion over his career. His new salary at PSG is a cut of what he would have earned if he had stayed at Barça, but it keeps him as the highest-paid player in the sport on the pitch, along with Neymar, whom he meets again in Paris after being teammates in Catalan from 2013 to 2017.
3. Neymar Jr.
Age: 29
Country: Brazil
Team: PSG
Total earnings: $95 million
Neymar swapped playing in Messi’s shadow at Barcelona for PSG in 2017, for a record transfer fee of $263 million, and helped lead the club to its first Champions League final last year. This May, the 29-year-old signed a four-year contract extension to remain in the French capital until 2025 and remain among the highest paid on the team. He then helped the club court Messi, which led to his eventual meeting with him.
Neymar
Following an early exit from his Nike contract over an allegation of assault by a Swoosh employee, Neymar signed a shoe deal with Puma that has celebrated his flashy style. In March, I debuted a “creative collection” of shoes and clothing in bold color schemes. Last November, the social media sensation, he is the third most popular athlete on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, with 284 million followers, left TikTok and signed a deal to create video content exclusively as an ambassador for Triller.
4. Kylian Mbappe
Age: 22
Country: France
Team: PSG
Total earnings: $43 million
Last spring, the 22-year-old Frenchman turned down a contract extension with PSG that would have given him a boost to bring him on par with Neymar’s pay and keep him at the club until 2024. The 2021-22 season is his last. In his current contract. PSG hope that signing Messi will be an incentive for the three-time Ligue 1 Golden Boot winner to negotiate a stay, but it may be time for him to venture further and reclaim the spotlight that is rightfully his. must inherent
Mbappé has racked up more goals in his career than Ronaldo or Messi had at their age. He is also earning more than they did at his age from him, in part because commercial sponsors have recognized his potential from him before him. Last year, EA Sports gave him the solo cover for FIFA 21, making him one of the youngest ever to do so. This year, he announced that he will return as the face of FIFA 22, making him the first since Cristiano Ronaldo to have consecutive covers.
5. Mohammed Salah
Age: 29
Country: Egypt
Team: Liverpool
Total earnings: $41 million
With two years remaining on the 29-year-old’s current contract, Salah and Liverpool are in negotiations to keep the star striker at Anfield. He has come to be a legend on and off the pitch. Since he arrived from Roma in Italy in 2017, he has been among the top scorers for Liverpool and the Premier League. Last October, he marked his centenary for his club, becoming the fastest to do so in their history.
No other Premier League player has scored more in the same amount of time. He too has become the face of Muslim athletes in sports, and an important one at that. A recent academic study found that after Salah joined Liverpool, hate crimes in the city dropped by 16% and Liverpool fans halved their rates of posting anti-Muslim tweets relative to fans of Liverpool. other top clubs.
6. Robert Lewandowski
Age: 22
Country: Poland
Team: Bayern Munich
Total earnings: $35 million
The 33-year-old’s contract expires in 2023, and his performance as German player of the year is sparking rumors of suitors. The last time he failed to score for Bayern was in February; He is currently on a 19-goal streak and this month became the first Bundesliga player to score in 13 consecutive home games. He is aiming for the title of best player in the world not only on the pitch, but also off it: he launched his clothing brand RL9, adding to his earnings from endorsements from Nike, Huawei and Head & Shoulders, among others.
7. Andres Iniesta
Age: 37
Country: Spain
Team: Vissel Kobe
Total earnings: $35 million
Iniesta moved to Japan on a two-year deal with Vissel Kobe in 2018 after a 22-year career with Barcelona ended. Since then, the midfielder has helped the club win the Emperor’s Cup in 2019, qualify for the AFC Champions League for the first time and win the Japanese Super Cup in February 2020. Last April, on his birthday 37, signed a contract extension to keep him with the club until 2023.
8. Paul Pogba
Age: 28
Country: France
Team: Manchester United
Total earnings: $34 million
Ten months ago, Pogba’s future at United was uncertain. But since the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo and his French international teammate Raphael Varane, reports suggest he is leaning towards signing a contract extension. The 28-year-old is in the midst of a ten-year shoe deal with Adidas worth an estimated $45 million.
9. Gareth Bale
Age: 32
Country: UK
Team: Real Madrid
Total earnings: $32 million
After clashing with his manager Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid, Bale was loaned out to Tottenham last season. Zidane’s resignation at the end of the 2020-21 season after the club failed to win a trophy paved the way for the 32-year-old to return to Bernabeu for the final season on his current contract.
He then proudly displayed a banner that read ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order”. After his country qualified for Euro 2020, she has been linked to a possible post-football career in golf. He has been endorsing TaylorMade since 2020, even participating in a YouTube quiz with the golf club maker.
10. Eden Hazard
Age: 30
Country: Belgium
Team: Real Madrid
Total earnings: $29 million
In 2019, Real Madrid paid Chelsea $118 million (€100.55 million) to sign Hazard to a five-year deal that puts him on par with Gareth Bale with a $26 million annual paycheck. dollars (22.16 million euros).
But the Belgium international has struggled, missing 59 games in his first two seasons with the club. Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti recently questioned his ability to play in two consecutive games. There is a rumor that the club is trying to get rid of him, already in January. Off the pitch, Hazard is the model for McDonald’s in his native Belgium and has deals with Nike and Nissan.
