Forbes\u2019 annual earnings survey for the period May 1, 2025 to May 1, 2026 places seven footballers among the world\u2019s 50 highest-paid athletes. Soccer accounts for seven entries on that list, two fewer than the number of NFL players featured and far fewer than basketball, which has 19.<\/p>\n
At the top of the sport, Cristiano Ronaldo leads all athletes with $300 million in total earnings. Around $235 million of that came from his contract with Al Nassr, with $65 million from endorsements, including deals with Binance, Herbalife, Lego, Nike, Therabody and Whoop. Forbes\u2019 breakdown equates his Al Nassr income to roughly $5.77 million per week, $822,000 per day, $34,000 per hour, $566 per minute and about $9 to $10 per second.<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi is second among footballers and third among all athletes with $140 million. His income is split roughly evenly between Inter Miami and off-field earnings. His endorsement portfolio includes adidas, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Apple, Beats by Dre, Epic Games, Hard Rock Cafe, Lowe\u2019s, Mastercard and Panini. He also owns a clothing line, a beverage brand and a hotel chain.<\/p>\n
Karim Benzema is a surprise top earner at $104 million, with about $100 million from Al Hilal and the rest from endorsements, primarily through adidas.<\/p>\n
Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 earned $95 million, with around $70 million from Real Madrid and $25 million from endorsements including Dior, Electronic Arts, Hublot, Nike, Oakley and Sorare.<\/p>\n
Erling Haaland is the highest-paid player in the Premier League with $80 million, of which approximately $60 million came from Manchester City and $20 million from brand deals such as Beats by Dre, Breitling, Dolce & Gabbana, Electronic Arts, Marriott International, Midea, Nike, Supercell, Unilever and Visa.<\/p>\n
Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior earned $60 million, mainly from a Real Madrid contract worth about $40 million and $20 million in sponsorships. Mohamed Salah rounds out the seven with $55 million; roughly $35 million came from wages and bonuses at Liverpool and $20 million from endorsements including adidas, Pepsi and Vodafone.<\/p>\n
These figures underline football\u2019s commercial reach across contracts and sponsorships during the 2025\u201326 evaluation window.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forbes’ 2025 list shows seven soccer stars among the top earners, led by Ronaldo and Messi. 2025\/26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1148,172],"tags":[983,1162],"class_list":["post-14010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highest-paid-players","category-epl","tag-agents","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}