Comparing the lives and career stats of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is its own full time sport. Who is better? Who has scored the most crucial goals in the most crucial games? Is one of them the greatest soccer player of all time? Who has the hotter wife? Who has the higher net worth? [Answer for now: Lionel Messi with $600 million vs Cristiano Ronaldo with $500 million]. Who makes the most money, on and off the field every yersa?
On that last question – who makes the most money – if the rumor becomes true, Lionel Messi just scored an absolutely definitive answer once and for all.
According to a number of inside sources close to the negotiations, Lionel Messi is on the verge of finalizing a deal that would pay him $400 million PER YEAR to play for a Saudi Pro League team. Let me repeat that and make it bold. Lionel Messi is about to sign a contract that would pay him a salary of…
$400 Million PER YEAR
(Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Doubling Ronaldo
If Messi's deal comes to fruition, on a per-season earnings basis it will nearly double the 2.5-year, $535 million deal that Cristiano Ronaldo accepted in December from a Saudi Pro League team called Al Nassr.
On a per-season basis (since there's a half year included), Ronaldo will be earning a base salary of $210 million per year from Al Nassr.
At the time he signed his deal in December, Ronaldo's $210 million per year salary was enough to SMASH the record for the largest sports contract of all time. Whose record did Ronaldo Smash? Lionel Messi's. Lionel's previous record-setting contract was a 4-year $675 million deal with Barcelona that worked out to $168.5 million per year.
But wait. There are more mind-blowing stats.
- Saudi Pro League teams play just 30 games per season. So on a per-game basis, at $400 million per year, Lionel Messi will be earning $13.3 million PER GAME.
- Earning $400 million will mean Lionel will earn Michael Jordan's entire NBA career earnings in about 3 months.
- If he's paid monthly, his MONTHLY paycheck will be $33.33 million.
- That's about $1.1 million per day.
- That's $47,000 per hour.
- That's $770 per minute.
- That's $13 every single second that ticks by, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Leaving Paris
Lionel is already earning $30 million per year to be a tourism ambassador for Saudi Arabia. News of his potential blockbuster Saudi Pro League deal comes after his current team, Paris Saint-Germain, announced it had suspended Messi for two weeks after he traveled to Saudi Arabia without permission. Lionel and his wife recently spent several days traveling to a number of exotic locales in Saudi Arabia.
Lionel had previously indicated that he would be open to remaining with Paris Saint-Germain, but after the suspension he is done with the club. I don't know. Something tells me that had PSG never suspended him, Messi would have been "done with the club" when he was offered $400,000,000 PER YEAR to play 30 games somewhere else…
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