Home / News / Lionel Messi beats out Cristiano Ronaldo in the one stat that truly matters: piles and piles of cash

Lionel Messi beats out Cristiano Ronaldo in the one stat that truly matters: piles and piles of cash

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At last, some stats that definitively show Lionel Messi is far ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo: the France Football rich list.

The survey has Messi as the sport’s top global earner, with an estimated 65 million Euros last year ($71m). Nearly half of Messi’s money comes from endorsements, FF reports, with wages totaling 36m Euros before tax. It’s the fifth time he’s topped the list, one year fewer than David Beckham’s all time record.

Of course, he’s worth every cent of that sum, which is roughly what it would cost to buy about 14,000 hand-pumped water wells in Africa, serving seven million people. Or one Ángel di María. Or build a hospital in Haiti capable of serving 200,000 people and run it for five years. Or pay Gareth Bale’s wages for nearly three years. #capitalism.

Clearly not earning enough from his underpants business, Ronaldo’s second with 54m Euros, with Neymar, Thiago Silva and Robin van Persie rounding out the top five but way behind the front two. Of course, Silva’s presence means that Zlatan Ibrahimović isn’t France’s top earner, which is kind of interesting. Zlatan’s surviving as best he can on only 21.5m Euros, good for eighth place.
Iker Casillas is the best-paid goalkeeper with a no-longer justifiable 17.8m Euros, just behind on-loan Manchester United wastrel Radamel Falcao, with 18.5m Euros – are we sure those weren’t tears of joy?

The coaching figures are more interesting, though. José Mourinho makes 18m Euros, ahead of Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola. Arsène Wenger is in fourth place – a position his team knows all too well – and Louis van Gaal rounds out the top five.

But Fabio Capello in sixth, getting 9m Euros a year from Russia? For what, exactly? Failing to win a game at the World Cup, then drawing at home to Moldova in the Euro 2016 qualifiers? No wonder the Russian federation said they couldn’t afford to pay him.

And seriously, Russian folks, 8.5m Euros for Andre Villas-Boas at Zenit St Petersburg? After he got kicked out of Chelsea and Tottenham in short order? His reputation took such a hit, he’d probably have worked for free, as opposed to 550 times the average Russian wage.

The list claims that David Moyes (7m Euros) is getting 1.5m Euros more at Real Sociedad than Luis Enrique is at Barcelona.

As for Sven-Goran Eriksson (Shanghai SIPG) in eighth, with 8m Euros, ahead of Sir Jurgen Klopp? Well. Let’s just say that appears on the generous side for a peripatetic chancer of a gaffer who got fired by Leicester City after only 13 games in 2011, and by Mexico after about 10 minutes.

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