Despite Cristiano Ronaldo being a walking brand, Lionel Messi topped Forbes’ list for the highest paid soccer players in 2020. Christina Settimi of Forbes reported that the top ten wealthiest soccer players are anticipated to rake in a combined $570 million with Messi and Ronaldo receiving roughly 42 percent of the money.
The figures include salaries, endorsements, bonuses and are all pre-tax. Tax won’t be factored into what Messi and Ronaldo could buy with their money. Before getting into all the fancy-schmancy items that the sport’s top players could buy, here is Forbes’ list of the highest paid soccer players.
Top 10 Highest Paid Soccer Players 2020
1. Lionel Messi
Total: $126 million
Salary: $92 million
Endorsements: $34 million
2. Cristiano Ronaldo
Total: $117 million
Salary: $70 million
Endorsements: $47 million
3. Neymar
Total: $96 million
Salary: $78 million
Endorsements: $18 million
4. Kylian Mbappé
Total: $42 million
Salary: $28 million
Endorsements: $14 million
5. Mohamed Salah
Total: $37 million
Salary: $24 million
Endorsements: $13 million
6. Paul Pogba
Total: $34 million
Salary: $28 million
Endorsements: $6 million
7. Antoine Griezmann
Total: $33 million
Salary: $28 million
Endorsements: $5 million
8. Gareth Bale
Total: $29 million
Salary: $23 million
Endorsements: $6 million
9. Robert Lewandowski
Total: $28 million
Salary: $24 million
Endorsements: $4 million
10. David de Gea
Total: $27 million
Salary: $24 million
Endorsements: $3 million
Not surprisingly, all of the top ten highest paid players are from Europe’s biggest leagues with three from the Premier League, three from LaLiga, two from Ligue 1, one from Serie A and one from the Bundesliga. I would also like to point out that Bale has to be the most expensive bench warmer in history.
Now on to the money splurging. Messi and Ronaldo are great people who often make large donations to charities and those in need. Just this year the two superstars both gave over $1 million to help fight Covid-19. For the sake of this article, we will be assuming that they are ready to spend everything on themselves in one go. Here are some of the most expensive things Messi and Ronaldo could buy.
Private Helicopters
If Messi and Ronaldo wanted to take to the skies in style, they could have their own little fleet of private helicopters. The Sikorsky S-92 helicopter price varies but can cost $18 million.
#Sikorsky S-92 #ExecutiveHelicopter is a popular choice for the #VIP #Royals and #StateLeaders, 128 sqft.19 passengers. 629 miles, 174 mph. pic.twitter.com/jjwcXDFcBU
— Uber Luxury (@UberLuxury1) November 18, 2016
If the two soccer stars went all in, they could each have six for themselves.
Super Yacht
With the pay Messi and Ronaldo are receiving this year, they both have the funds to become the captain of Planet Nine.
The 73.2m Planet Nine has been listed for sale at €85M, making it the world's 5th most expensive yacht #superyacht #news #yacht #luxury https://t.co/fPKNxS1ZAN pic.twitter.com/IDkPpfTpnV
— CSTLuxury (@CSTLuxury) February 2, 2018
Private Jets
With some of the lower end private jets costing $3 million, Messi and Ronaldo could buy their own little air force. If you don’t include the cost of fuel, captains, etc., each player could have nearly 20 private jets.
Both players actually own private jets. Ronaldo didn’t bite at the $3 million minnow and went for a jet that was over $20 million.
Cristiano Ronaldo has just spent €19 million on the world's most luxurious private jet https://t.co/pSusEE6ELc pic.twitter.com/S1uC16emq1
— Complex UK (@complex_uk) November 12, 2015
Messi is also flying in style.
Messi's private Jet:
INTERIOR
A kitchen, Two bathrooms, 16 seats that can be folded to make eight beds.EXTERIOR
Brand number 10 signature number on the tail, His name, his wife's and their three children's names written on the steps. pic.twitter.com/AanOzIymw5— Barça Worldwide (@BarcaWorldwide) July 12, 2019
Little Caesars Pizza
I do this every time when writing about players making loads of money. I have no clue what $126 million looks like. I am familiar with what Lil Steezys pizza looks like.
If Messi spent all of his earnings from 2020 on pizza alone, he could buy 21 million Hot-n-Ready pizzas. With the area of each 14-inch pizza being approximately 154 square inches, Messi’s pizza party would cover over 3 billion square inches. This translates to the area of about 292 soccer fields worth of pizza.
Now that is some pizza pizza.
