The football market moved brutal amounts again this year with a clear protagonist. A Saudi Arabia that positioned itself as an extremely active market for players and brought in big names in this sport such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar. Inter Miami also drew up an unprecedented contract with many sponsors to convince Leo Messi that his most immediate future lies in the MLS.
The three players Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar currently occupy the first three positions in the ranking of the highest paid footballers in the world in 2023, as revealed by Forbes magazine.
Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined Al-Nassr FC in the 2022-2023 season, not only opened the doors of the Saudi market, but also broke all records with the best contract compared to all his teammates. He occupies first place in the table and earns 260 million dollars per campaign.
Moving back up to second position with total earnings of $135 million, Lionel Messi became the first Major League Soccer (MLS) player to appear in the top ten since David Beckham in 2012.
In third place is the Brazilian Neymar Jr., who left Paris Saint-Germain and joined Saudi Al Hilal, with whom he scored his first goal this October.
With an extensive list of sponsors, from Puma, to Konami and RedBull, the footballer from Sao Paulo earns 112 million dollars per season.
Mbappé, who dropped from number one in 2022 to fourth place on the current list, tops the table of players based in Europe (he has played for Paris Saint-Germain since 2017), with earnings of 110 million dollars per season.
Karim Benzema, who last season as a Real Madrid player was not in the ‘top 10’, currently, with the Al Ittihad shield on his chest, earns 106 million dollars per campaign.
Three Premier League players are among the ten highest paid: Erling Haaland ($58 million) and Kevin De Bruyne ($39 million), both from Manchester City, and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah ($53 million).
Sadio Mané, one of the most prolific footballers in Senegal’s history, who plays for Al Nassr, is in eighth place with an income of $52 million.
They are followed by Harry Kane, in his first season with Bayern Munich, and Robert Lewandowski, from Barcelona, ??with expected totals of 36 and 34 million dollars, respectively.
