Cristiano Ronaldo Tops Forbes Top 10 Highest Earners In Football

Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Manchester United sets him among the top-four Forbes’ highest-earning footballers in 2021.

At United, he will earn £91.5m pre-tax in the 2021-2022 season. Of this amount, £91.5m is from his salary and bonuses

He joins Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) golden player Lionel Messi set to earn £80.5m in the 2021-22 season.

Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe – the last trio being PSG players – are among the top four highest-paid footballers for Forbes.

Neymar will take home £69.5m for the season followed by Mbappe with £31.5m for the season.

Mbappe still makes it to Forbes top 10 highest earners in football while at PSG although his heart is at Real Madrid.

Talks for his transfer in the last summer transfer window flopped after PSG remained non-responsive to Real’s £171 m – up from the initial £145 m submitted earlier.

Mbappe hoped to move to Real in January on a free transfer but PSG’s sporting director Leonardo has spoken against it.

The PSG boss says Mbappe’s future is not much of a concern for the French Ligue club because he doesn’t see “him leaving at the end of this season”.

Leonardo says that Mbappe has a deeply intricate relationship with PSG, thus, his future in Spain is bleak.

Nevertheless, he is among the top three earners at PSG.

Ronaldo still stands out as the highest-earning athlete globally in regard to sponsorship deals. He nets £40 million from earnings on sponsorships.

In the sporting world, only three other athletes make more money commercially than the Portugal captain.

They include tennis play Roger Federer with £66 million, basketball star LeBron James £48 million and Tiger Woods £44 million.

This season though, the top 10 highest football earners will take home a cumulative sum of £428 million a drop from £471 million last season.