The highest paid footballers in the world right now are Cristiano Ronaldo & Leonel Messi have switched positions and are wearing new jerseys, but their salaries are the same, with a combined $235 million in the 2021-22 season. Cristiano Ronaldo left Juventus on 27, Aug 2021 to join Manchester United. Lionel Messi, who had announced his departure from Barcelona to join Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
In the 2022 season, Cristiano Ronaldo will earn $125 million before taxes, with $70 million coming from salary and bonuses for his return to Manchester United. The remaining $55 million comes from personal endorsements and partnerships with companies like Nike, Herbalife, Clear, and his ever-expanding CR7-branded portfolio. Commercially, only Roger Federer ($90 million), LeBron James ($65 million), and Tiger Woods ($60 million) earn more.
Lionel Messi has left Barcelona to join Paris St-Germain, where he will earn $75 million in the 2021-22 season. Lionel Messi’s PSG salary will be supplemented with an estimated $35 million in endorsements. Messi was forced to leave after Spain’s La Liga tightened restrictions on FC Barcelona’s wage spending. Lionel Messi has been with Barcelona since he was 13 years old and is the most expensive player in the world. Here’s a list of 10 Highest paid footballers in the world right now:
Who Were The 10 Highest Paid Footballers In The World 2022
The top 10 highest-paid soccer players are expected to accumulate pretax remunerations of $585 million this season. Salary and bonus make up the bulk of the total and are up a modest 2.6% from last year. Most clubs continue to be cautious in the face of emerging Covid-19 strains. UEFA said its top-flight clubs were facing an $8.5 billion pandemic-related revenue loss.
PSG now has three of the world’s top five highest-paid players, including Neymar, JR who is ranked third with $95 million, and Kylian Mbappe, who is ranked 4th with $43 million. Mohamed Salah, 29, of Liverpool, rounds out the top five with $41 million. Andres Iniesta, returns as the only player from a non-European club this year, landing at No. 7 with $35 million after signing a two-year contract extension with Vissel Kobe in Japan, his club since leaving Barcelona in 2018. All figures are in US dollars and include pretax salaries, bonuses, and endorsements for the 2021-22 season. Fees for transfers are not included.
| Rank | Player | Team/Club | Salary in 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CRISTIANO RONALDO | AL-NASSAR | $125M |
| 2 | LIONEL MESSI | PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN (PSG) | $110M |
| 3 | NEYMAR JR | PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN (PSG) | $95M |
| 4 | KYLIAN MBAPPE | PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN (PSG) | $43M |
| 5 | MOHAMED SALAH | LIVERPOOL | $41M |
| 6 | ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI | BARCELONA | $35M |
| 7 | ANDRES INIESTA | VISSEL KOBE | $35M |
| 8 | PAUL POGBA | MANCHESTER UNITED | $34M |
| 9 | GARETH BALE | REAL MADRID | $32M |
| 10 | EDEN HAZARD | REAL MADRID | $29M |
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) – $125 Million.
After finishing last season as the top goalscorer in Series A and winning the award for best player in the European Championship with Juventus, Manchester United announced he would return to his Old Trafford, where he previously played from 2003 to 2009, scoring 118 goals in his 292 games. He has won 32 significant trophies in his 18-year professional football career, including five UEFA Champions League titles, the UEFA European Title for his local Portugal, and seven league titles in Britain, Spain, and Italy, making him the principal player to win titles in every one of the three nations.
In early September, the 36-year-old broke the record for the most goals scored in international soccer history when he scored for the 110th time in his country’s World Cup qualifying win over Ireland. Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s first team-sport athlete to earn more than $1 billion in career earnings before taxes.
2. Lionel Messi (Paris Saint Germain) – $110 Million.
When Barcelona announced that Lionel Messi would not be returning to the club due to financial difficulties in La Liga, it marked the end of an era. Lionel Messi scored 672 goals and had 268 assists in his 21 years with the only team he ever knew on his way to 35 titles and 78 awards (including a record 7 Ballon d’Or trophies for the sport’s best player). Lionel Messi also earned $ 875 million in salary and bonuses and $ 350 million in endorsements during his career, for a total income of more than $ 1 billion. His new salary at PSG is less than what he would have received if Messi could have stayed at Barça, but it keeps him as the sport’s highest-paid player on the field, alongside Neymar.JR, with whom he reunites in PSG after being teammates in Barcelona from 2013 to 2017.
3. Neymar JR (Paris Saint Germain) – $95 Million.
Neymar left Barcelona to join PSG in 2017 for a record $263 million transfer fee, and he helped the club reach its first Champions League final last year. The 29-year-old signed a four-year contract extension in May to stay in Paris until 2025 and remain among the highest-paid players on the team. He then assisted the club in courting Messi, which resulted in their eventual reunion. After leaving Nike early due to a reported assault allegation by a Swoosh employee, Neymar signed a shoe deal with Puma that has celebrated his flashy style. In March, he debuted a “creativity collection” of brightly colored shoes and clothing.
Last November, the social media sensation he is the fourth-most-followed athlete on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with 310.4 million followers – left TikTok and signed a deal to create video content exclusively for Triller as an ambassador. Neymar Jr. has signed an exclusive streaming deal with the Facebook Gaming community. His first official stream as a Facebook Gaming content creator took place on December 17, 2021.
4. Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint Germain) – $43 Million.
This past spring, the 22-year-old Frenchman Kylian Mbappe declined a contract extension with PSG that would have raised his salary to match Neymar’s and kept him with the club until 2024. His current contract with PSG expires after the 2021-22 season. PSG hopes that signing Lionel Messi will entice the three-time Ligue 1 Golden Boot winner to stay, but it may be time for him to go beyond and claim the bright spotlight that is rightfully his to inherit. Kylian Mbappe has more career goals than Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi did at his age. He is also earning more than they did when he was his age, thanks in part to commercial sponsors recognizing his potential earlier on.
Last year, EA Sports gave him the solo cover of FIFA 21, making him one of the youngest people to have done so. This year, it was announced that he will return as the face of FIFA 22, making him the first person to have back-to-back covers since Cristiano Ronaldo.
5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) – $41 Million.
Mohamed Salah and Liverpool are in talks to keep the star striker at Anfield for the next two years, with two years remaining on his current contract. On and off the field, he’s established himself as a legend. Since joining Liverpool from Roma in Italy in 2017, he has been among Liverpool’s and the Premier League’s leading goal scorers. Last October, he scored his 100th goal for his club, becoming the fastest in the club’s history to do so. No other Premier League player has scored more goals in the same amount of time. He has also emerged as an important face of Muslim athletes in the game. According to a recent academic study, after Salah joined Liverpool, hate crimes in the city fell by 16%, and Liverpool fans cut their rates of posting anti-Muslim tweets in half when compared to fans of other top-flight clubs.
6. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) – $35 Million.
Robert Lewandowski is captain of the Poland national team and plays as a striker for Barcelona club Bayern Munich. His contract with Bayern Munich expires in 2023. Lewandowski is regarded as one of the best strikers of all time, as well as one of the most successful players in Bundesliga history. Throughout his senior football career, he has scored over 500 goals for the club and Poland country. He’s vying for the title of the best player in the world not only on the field, but also off it: he’s launched his clothing brand, RL9, to go along with endorsements from Nike, Huawei, and Head & Shoulders, among others.
7. Andres Iniesta (Vissel Kobe) – $35 Million.
Andres Iniesta signed a two-year contract with Vissel Kobe in Japan in 2018, ending a 22-year career with Barcelona. Since then, the club has won the Emperor’s Cup in 2019, qualified for the AFC Champions League for the first time, and won the Japanese Super Cup in February 2020. On his 37th birthday in April, he signed a contract extension that will keep him with the club until 2023.
8. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) – $35 Million.
Paul Pogba’s future at Manchester United was uncertain a year ago. However, following the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo and his French international teammate Raphael Varane, reports indicate that he is considering signing a contract extension. The 28-year-old is halfway through a ten-year shoe contract with Adidas worth an estimated $45 million. Paul Pogba is regarded as one of the best football midfielders in the history of France’s national team. Paul Pogba recently assisted France in winning the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
9. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) – $32 Million.
Bale is one of the highest-paid soccer players in the United Kingdom. Gareth Bale was loaned out to Tottenham last season after clashing with Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane. Zidane’s departure at the end of the 2020-21 season, after the club failed to win a single trophy, paved the way for Gareth Bale to return to the Bernabeu for the final season of his current contract. Since proudly displaying a banner that reads, “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order.” Following his country’s qualification for Euro 2020, Bale has been linked to a career on the links. Since 2020, he has been an ambassador for TaylorMade, even taking part in a full-day fitting with the golf club manufacturer on YouTube.
10. Eden Hazard (Real Madrid) – $29 Million.
In 2019, Real Madrid paid Chelsea $118 million to sign Eden Hazard to a five-year contract worth $26 million per year, putting him on par with Gareth Bale. However, the Belgian international footballer has struggled in his first two seasons with the club, missing a total of 59 games. Carlo Ancelotti, the manager of Real Madrid, recently questioned his ability to play two games in a row. The media is reporting that the club is attempting to offload him as soon as January 2022. Eden Hazard is a McDonald’s brand ambassador in his home country of Belgium and has endorsement deals with Nike and Nissan.
Read also: Who is better? Zinedine Zidane or Michel Platini?
FAQs About Highest Paid Soccer Players In 2022
Q. Which footballer has the highest salary in 2021-22?
In the latest Forbes rankings, Manchester United’s newest signing Cristiano Ronaldo has surpassed seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi to become the World’s highest-paid footballer of the 2021-22 season. Before taxes, the Portuguese superstar is expected to earn $125 million in the 2021-22 season.
Q. Who gets paid more Messi or Ronaldo?
According to Forbes, Manchester United star, Cristiano Ronaldo has surpassed Lionel Messi as the world’s highest-paid soccer player, earning approximately $125 million.
Q. What is Ronaldo’s salary in 2021-22?
According to reports, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Salary is 2.65 crores GBP in the 2021-2022 season.
Conclusion
This is our exclusive list of the top 10 highest paid footballers in the world for the 2022 season. We hope you enjoyed reading our article about the highest-paid footballers in 2022. This article has been updated based on the official announcements of footballers’ salaries for the 2021-22 season made by www.forbes.com. Please leave your thoughts in the section below. The information on this page is subject to change at any time. Our website makes no guarantees about the accuracy of the information.
