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Money can buy you many things, but it can’t buy you an international trophy.

Despite banking more than any other footballer in the period between June 1, 2018, to May 31, 2019, you can’t help but feel that Lionel Messi is a little down in the dumps.

It probably doesn’t help that, on top of Barcelona losing the dramatic Champions League semi-finals to eventual champions Liverpool, and then losing the Spanish Cup final to Valencia, Argentina were trounced 2-0 by Colombia in their Copa America opener.

Anyway, Forbes has run the numbers, and Messi comes out on top. Here’s how:

For the second year in a row, Messi takes the top spot among the World’s Highest-Paid Soccer Players, with earnings of $127 million. Thanks to the contract extension he signed in November 2017 that commits him to Camp Nou through June 2021, he hauled in $92 million in salary and bonuses before taxes, a 9.5% bump over what he made on the pitch last year.

Part of that increase came by way of performance-incentive pay. The 32-year-old striker topped La Liga’s charts for both goals (36) and assists, marking his fifth season of 35 or more goals. It was also his sixth season in which he scored 50 or more goals across all club competitions. He shone brightly in the club’s run-up to quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League, with the Argentine the top goal scorer of that competition, hitting the back of the net 12 times in 10 appearances.

Throw in some sizeable sponsorship deals like Mastercard and PepsiCo, as well as high-end watchmaker Jacob & Co., and it all adds up.

In second place (footballing wise, too, as far as I’m concerned) is Cristiano Ronaldo, who earned $109 million and took something of a pay cut to join Juventus:

His current four-year playing contract pays him a gross annual salary of $64 million and contains no bonus or incentives, per sources close to the deal. But hold back your tears for him.

Under the Italian tax code, Italian-sourced income, like the salary Ronaldo earns playing for Juve, is taxed at an ordinary top rate of 43%. Outside earnings are treated differently, though, and are subject only to a single, flat tax of about $115,000.

This structure bodes well for Ronaldo, a walking billboard who pitches products head to toe and earned $44 million last year doing so, almost entirely outside of Italy. It also softens the blow he was dealt this past January when he pleaded guilty to tax fraud in Spain for concealing income from commercial image rights earned between 2010 and 2014 and was ordered to pay a $21.6 million fine.

Forbes also estimates that if Ronaldo keeps his contracted wages and sponsorship deals up for another season, he will join Tiger Woods and Floyd Mayweather as the third active athlete to crack the $1 billion mark in career earnings.

Rounding up the top three is Neymar Jr., who made $105 million last year:

His transfer from Barcelona to the French capital stands as the most expensive in the world at $263 million, and his five-year, $350 million total in salary and bonuses will keep him near the top of this list through June 2022.

If a report by state-owned public television station France 2 is to be believed and his contract contains a behavior clause bonus, the 27-year-old Brazilian striker may not see all of that money. In the past three months, he’s made international headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Most recently, Neymar Jr. has been accused of rape (so too has Ronaldo), although he looks set to remain at PSG by virtue of the fact that only a handful of teams can afford his services.

The rest of the top 10 are as follows:

10. Antoine Griezmann – Total: $27.7M

9. Oscar – Total: $29M

8. Mesut Ozil – Total: $30.2M

7. Kylian Mbappé – Total: $30.6M

6. Alexis Sanchez – Total: $30.8M

5. Andres Iniesta – Total: $32.5M

4. Paul Pogba – Total: $33M

Some of those footballers really are stealing a living at the moment.

[source:forbes]