September 22, (THEWILL) –Â Latest released figures for football’s top earners show that Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has returned to number one on the Forbes rich list ahead of erstwhile archrival of football prowess Lionel Messi.
Ronaldo is reportedly seJUt to earn about $125 million this year in total. An estimated $70m of that sum will come from the new deal the Portuguese forward penned with his new club Manchester United while about $55 million will accrue to the 36-year-old from commercial endorsements and brands.
The report states that Swiss tennis icon Roger Federer, American basketball star LeBron James and golf legend Tiger Woods will be the only sportsmen to earn more from commercial interests than the five-time Ballon d’Or winner from Portugal.
As for the Argentine ace, Messi dropped down to second in the table with combined earnings of $110m. The bulk sum has about $75m coming from his Paris Saint-Germain contract, after the Barcelona legend tearfully parted company with the Catalan club over financial bottlenecks.
Messi’s new Ligue 1 PSG side posted some massive hitters and money spinners as a pair of teammates of the 34-year-old forward, Brazilian Neymar and Frenchman Kylian Mbappe were third and fourth highest earners with $95 million and $43 million respectively.
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.
This year’s pre-tax earnings of the 10 highest-paid football players is $585 million, which is up from last year’s $570 million according to the Forbes report that detailed these figures accordingly.
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.
