Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé… Who are the highest paid footballers in 2024?

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will probably never win the Ballon d’Or again. On the other hand, the two football superstars continue to earn a lot of money.

This Thursday, the magazine Forbes published the ranking of the ten highest paid footballers of the current year. Three of the first four places are occupied by players playing in Saudi Arabia.

With a salary estimated at 202.6 million euros by the American economic magazine, to which are added his extra-football income (59.8 million euros), Cristiano Ronaldo comes well ahead. The 39-year-old Portuguese international actually earns more than double that of his eternal rival Lionel Messi. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner is the only one in this Top 10 to earn more money through sponsorship contracts ($75 million) than through his club ($60 million).

Two French people in the Top 5

Neymar completes the podium. Two French people follow, Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappé. Note that Forbes did not take into account the possible 55 million euros that the captain of the France team could recover at the end of his legal battle opposing him to Paris Saint-Germain.

The ten highest paid footballers in 2024 according to Forbes

Cristiano Ronaldo (around 262.4 million euros) Lionel Messi (around 124.3 million euros) Neymar (around 101.3 million euros) Karim Benzema (around 95.8 million euros) Kylian Mbappé (around 82.9 million euros) Erling Haaland (around 55 million euros) Vinicius Jr (around 50.6 million euros) Mohamed Salah (around 48.8 million euros) Sadio Mané (around 47.9 million euros) Kevin de Bruyne (around 35.9 million euros)