Messi Became the Highest Paid Football Player in the World

The famous sports newspaper L’Équipe has put Lionel Messi at the top of the list of the 10 players participating in European championships and having the highest salaries last week. His annual salary is more than 125 million euros per year. Let’s remember how his career started. But first, try your luck and find a bride who also loves football.

2003-2004

The only drawback for Leo in the first year of training in the Spanish club was the lack of a family: his mother, sister, and brothers were forced to return to Rosario. His father remained with Leo, but the longing of the city where his happy childhood passed in the circle of a large Argentine family didn’t leave him. But his passion for football outweighed all the difficulties: new country, lack of language, difficulty in communication, fear that his illness wouldn’t allow him to fulfill his dream of playing football. Messi overcame all this thanks to his persistent nature. Three years later, he made his debut in the youth team in a friendly match with Porto, and a year later, he played in the official match with Espanyol. In 2004, the guy earned already 10 thousand dollars a week – he was only 17 years old. By this time, he had already completed the treatment, thanks to which his skills had increased significantly. The club’s shareholders were pleased that they were not mistaken by spending the money on him.

2005-2014

On the day of his 18th birthday, a new contract was signed with him, allowing Leo to become the highest paid footballer among young players. He earned 1 million 200 thousand dollars in 2005. And just three months later, Lionel was named the top sportsman of the youth world championship, which affected his income: the amount was doubled. After a couple of years, the club’s board of directors re-reviewed his contract and doubled his salary, and a year later, the income of a 21-year-old player approached $8 million. The terms of his contract were corrected several more times, and a significant change occurred in 2014 when the club management offers him $20 million. The deal was called unprecedented in world football at that time. Shareholders could afford it because the club became the leader among other football clubs. In 2010, he became the owner of the Golden Ball. Ten years later, the income of Leo was four times more than US President Obama.

2015-since now

Last year, Leo earned $104 million. Western media write that he beat the record of the highest-paid players in the world. Cristiano Ronaldo was the only person Messi couldn’t outdo in earnings. Real Madrid paid Ronaldo five million more. However, the situation has changed very soon: the media revised the ratings and counted the dollars in the accounts of the participants of the 2018 World Cup. In the new ranking, the Portuguese lost in price last year. The eternal confrontation of two famous football players was followed by their fans with interest. Messi scored his 100th goal with Barcelona, and in January 2018, the 400th ball from Messi got into the gate of the Espanyol team. Of course, it brought additional income because he started receiving offers for cooperation with sports campaigns. The deal with Barcelona was concluded until 2021. Together with the team, he made it one of the most successful clubs: Barcelona won the Spanish championship eight times, won the National Cup five times, won the Champions League four times. By the way, the contract established 700 million euros of compensation for the forward. No wonder that Messi earns more than the rest of the footballers having such success.