FIFA Ballon d'Or nominees Neymar Jr of Brazil and FC Barcelona (L), Lionel Messi of Argentina and FC Barcelona (C) and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Real Madrid (R) attend a press conference prior to the FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala 2015 at the Kongresshaus on January 11, 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Photo by Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images)
The study estimates the income of the world’s highest-paid players by adding their estimated gross salaries and income from image rights to bonuses earned last season.
As a result, the publication calculates Barcelona star Messi’s total annual income as 131 million euros ($141 million).
That puts the Argentine ahead of Ronaldo, with the Portuguese forward second on the list with 118 million euros of estimated income.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Brazil star Neymar, who moved to France from Barcelona for a world record transfer fee in 2017, is third on the list with total pay of 95 million euros, way ahead of Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale.
The Welshman is fourth on the list with 38.7 million euros.
Meanwhile, according to the magazine, Atletico Madrid’s Diego Simeone is the best-paid coach with total wages of 40.5 million euros, way ahead of Antonio Conte at Inter Milan on 30 million euros and Pep Guardiola at Manchester City on 27 million euros.
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