Messi Tops France Football Rich List
Barcelona star Lionel Messi has overtaken England’s David Beckham as the world’s richest player according to the annual survey published by France Football magazine.
The list places the Argentinian’s annual earnings at €33m surpassing Beckham’s total of €30.4m with Portugal and Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo third with income of €30m.
The list estimates Messi’s annual earnings taking into account a €10m basic salary, €4m in bonuses plus an annual €19m from personal sponsors including adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Gillette, Gatorade, Konami, Air Europa, Telefonica/Movistar, SportCenter/ESPN, Damm, Danone, Lody For Men, Storkman, Repsol YPF, SanDisk and Mirage/Seiko.
Messi was voted FIFA World Player of the Year in 2009, as well as France Football’s European Footballer of the Year and World Soccer magazine’s World Footballer.
The full top ten of the France Football Rich list reads:
1. Leo Messi (Barcelona, Arg) €33m
2. David Beckham (LA Galaxy, Eng) €30.4m
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, Por) €30m
4. Kaka (Milan, Brz) €18.8m
5. Thierry Henry (Barcelona, Fr) €18m
6. Ronaldinho (Milan, Brz) €17.2m
7. Carlos Tevez (Manchester City, Arg) €15.4m
8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona, Swe) €14.5m
9. Frank Lampard (Chelsea, Eng) €14.2m
10. Samuel Eto’o (Internazionale, Cam) €13.8m
