It should come as no surprise that the 10 most expensive footballers in the world are also among the best in the game. All things considered, it is the on-the-field performance that makes them the most generously compensated football player in terms of pay rates and brand endorsement adding large numbers of dollars.
Obviously, that’s the way it is football – an extraordinarily meaningful sport where a lot of dollars ride in the form of brand sponsorships and broadcasting rights across international level and national leagues.
Because of the cash riding on it and the super competitions, for example, the FIFA World Cup, football is one of the most popular sports in the world these days.
For example, the 2022 edition of the competition in Qatar is the most expensive in the entire existence of football. According to a Forbes report, Qatar has spent USD 220 billion since being selected as the host of the World Cup in 2010 on infrastructure and related developments. This figure is 15 times more than the amount spent by Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The TV broadcast rights alone for the 2022 FIFA World Cup is USD 2.64 billion and the full prize pool is USD 440 million – up from USD 400 million in 2018.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi — two of the best footballers ever — are regulars on many ‘rich lists’. However, two highly talented players like Neymar Jr and Mohamed Salah are also in the millions.
At the same time, young players such as Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland have become magnets for both clubs and advertisers with big budgets due to their astonishing form and numerous successes.
The net worth of athletes such as Messi Ronaldo or Neymar is best estimated by Forbes. The publication has an annual list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, which includes everything an athlete would have earned in the 12-month period preceding the list’s publication.
The list considers all salaries, prize money and bonuses in their playing career, as well as sponsorship deals, appearance fees, collectibles and licensing income. Also included are profits from businesses operated by the footballers.
Meanwhile, Forbes’ 2022 list of Highest-Paid Soccer (American word for football) players includes soccer players who are set to earn the most in the 2022-23 season. The Richest Football Players list is dedicated to football players and is a projection of their future earnings at the end of the season each summer.
That is why Messi sits on the top of the world’s highest paid players of 2022 but Mbappe is the richest footballer in the world in the list of highest paid football players of 2022.
Top 10 Richest Footballers in the World 2022 List
- 10. Kevin De Bruyne
- 9. Andrés Iniesta
- 8. Eden Hazard
- 7. Robert Lewandowski
- 5. Mohamed Salah
- 4. Neymar Jr.
- 3. Cristiano Ronaldo
- 2. Lionel Messi
- 1. Kylian Mbappé
10. Kevin De Bruyne
Net Earnings: $29 million
Manchester City’s midfield general, Kevin De Bruyne is all around hailed as one of the best footballers of his age.
He played for Chelsea, from 2008 to 2015. Manchester City picked him up from Wolfsburg in 2015 for a club record transfer fee of around US$82.5 million. At the time, De Bruyne’s transfer made him the second most expensive player in British football history.
“He has each of the psychological, physical, strategic and specialized ascribes expected to fit straight in,” Manuel Pellegrini, who was the Manchester City manager at that point, said of De Bruyne.
Experts have over and again wondered about the Belgian icon’s consistency in keeping up with every one of those ascribes at the most elevated level to date. Manegers such as Antonio Conte and Enthusiasm Guardiola have considered him a “complete” footballer.
De Bruyne has brought home four English premier league championships with City other than different prizes. His most recent agreement at the club is set to welcome him on-field earnings of USD 25 million for the 2022-23 season. He additionally endorses 11 brands, including Nike, Credit Karma, Therabody and Wow Hydrate, which adds one more USD 4 million to his yearly earnings.
9. Andrés Iniesta
Net Earnings: $30 million
Iniesta belongs to what can be referred to as the Glorious Era of Spanish football. His ball control, command on the field, accurate passing and imagination have made him one of the best midfielders of all time. Throughout his career, Iniesta has played a number of roles in midfield – and been successful in them, including as a winger and as a deep midfielder. In any case, he is most popular for being near invulnerable as a central midfielder alongside Spain icon Xavi.
Iniesta has enjoyed almost his entire career with La Liga club Barcelona. He started playing for the Catalan side in their junior group in 2001 and finished as one of their veterans in 2018 – the year he moved to Japanese J1 league club Vissel Kobe.
A nine-time La Liga champion and four-time UEFA Champions League winner for Barcelona, Iniesta was similarly instrumental in Spain’s Euro 2008, Euro 2012 and 2010 FIFA World Cup titles.
Out of his total extended income for the 2022-23 season, Iniesta is set to make USD 25 million as on-field salary. His off-field net earnings has been estimated at US$5 million. In September 2022, he launched his athletic apparel brand Capitten in Japan.
8. Eden Hazard
Net Earnings: $31 million
A talented midfielder and winger, Hazard is possibly Belgium’s most important player. He began his career with Ligue 1 club Lille before moving to Premier League club Chelsea in 2012. La Liga giants Real Madrid bought him in 2019 for USD 112 million – the highest the club has ever paid for a footballer.
He is one of the few exceptional footballers to have won leagues in three unique nations – Ligue 1 title for Lille in France, Premier League twice for Chelsea in UK, and La Liga twice for Real Madrid.
Hazard has captained the Belgian national team since around 2015 and led it to its best ever performance as a third-place finisher at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Under him, Belgium also topped the FIFA Men’s Rankings in 2018 and held the position for four consecutive years, until it was ousted by Brazil in 2022.
But his performance at Real Madrid has been very disappointing. He has been troubled by injuries and health concerns in the four seasons he has played. His exhibitions at the public level have also been similarly affected during this period.
However, Hazard is probably the most extraordinary footballer in this current reality. His estimated on-field earnings have been set at USD 27 million and his off-field earnings will be around USD 4 million.
7. Robert Lewandowski
Net Worth: $35 million
The Polish striker is the top goalscorer for his country with 77 goals. Interestingly, he scored his first World Cup goal in the match against Saudi Arabia in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Lewandowski currently plays for Barcelona, who bought him in mid-2022 for around USD 45 million.
But even though he is widely regarded as one of the world’s best strikers of the current generation, Lewandowski was not an instant sensation like Messi, Ronaldo or Mbappe. In fact, he spent the first few years of his senior career in the lower leagues in Poland. He later joined top-flight club Lech Poznań in 2008, with whom he won the Polish Cup in 2010.
His incredible performances at Lech Poznan brought him on the radar of Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund, who signed him up in 2010. After four seasons, he joined Bayern Munich – the club with which he set many records, won many trophies and eventually became one of the top goalscorer in the German league.
His accolades include 10 Bundesliga titles and four German Cup championships apart from several other top honours. Apart from the win, he also set five Guinness Book of World Records for scoring five goals in a match against Wolfsburg in 2015.
The captain of the Poland national team is a Nike ambassador, promotes the Polish sports supply company 4F, and has his own clothing line called RL9. Along with his wife, Polish karate champion Anna Lewandowska, he owns Foods By Ann, which sells its RL9 coffee brand, among other drinks and snacks. He is also very active on TikTok, where he often entertains his over 26 million followers with his dance moves.
Lewandowski has also been an ambassador for Huawei since 2015. He ended the agreement earlier in 2022 after reports emerged that the Chinese multinational technically supported Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. It reportedly cost him around USD 5 million at his end of the deal.
Overall, his off-field earnings are estimated to be around USD 8 million for the 2022-23 season. The remaining part of his total earnings for the season is in the form of on-field salary of USD 27 million.
6. Erling Haaland
Net Earnings: $39 million
According to Forbes, Haaland’s off-field income is only US$4 million from his association with corporates like Samsung, Viaplay and Hyperice. However, the publication noted that Haaland could sign a deal worth $18 million for any shoe brand following the end of his contract with Nike in early 2022.
This means that his net worth will touch several crores at once. By then, nearly all of his 2022-23 earnings will be in the form of on-field salary of $35 million.
The Norwegian, who is the son of famous Premier League footballer Alfie Haaland, initially played in the Norwegian and Austrian leagues and won the Austrian Bundesliga for Red Bull Salzburg.
Borussia Dortmund signed him in 2020 and Haaland, renowned for his incredible power, finishing and speed, has become a goal scoring machine for the German club. He was instrumental in helping Dortmund win the German Cup in the 2020–21 season.
In 2022, he joined Premier League club Manchester City in a transfer worth around US$62 million. He cemented his name as one of the greatest Premier League players of all time in less than 10 games. He is the first player in league history to score three consecutive hat-tricks in home games and is the top scorer in the 2022-23 season.
5. Mohamed Salah
Net Earnings: $53 million
Salah is regarded as one of the best footballers in Africa. The Egyptian forward plays for Premier League club Liverpool and has won a league title, a FIFA Club World Cup, an English FA Cup, an English Super Cup, a UEFA Super Cup and a UEFA Champions League.
He is a two-time Swiss Super League champion for FC Basel, the club he played for from 2012 to 2014. Salah briefly played for Chelsea and Fiorentina, before joining Liverpool in 2017 from Serie A club Roma in a move worth around $44 million. .
In July 2022, Salah signed a new three-year contract with Liverpool, becoming the club’s highest-paid player, earning around $423,000 per week. It is set to contribute USD 35 million to its on-field earnings in the 2022-23 season.
Salah is one of Adidas’ biggest brand ambassadors. His global reputation, particularly in the Arab world and Africa, and his positive image as a unifying force across cultures have played a large role in corporates signing him up for brand endorsements. Forbes estimates that he is set to earn USD 18 million from the field this way.
4. Neymar Jr.
Net Earnings: $87 million
Brazilian forward Neymar Jr. set the world record for the highest transfer in football history in 2017 when he signed from Barcelona to Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) for US$263 million.
Forbes ranked him fourth in the list of the world’s highest paid athletes of 2022. According to the publication, his income stands at USD 70 million from PSG salary and bonuses between 1 May 2021 and 1 May 2022.
According to the publication, he earned USD 25 million at the same time as his off-field earnings, including endorsements from brands like Puma and Red Bull. According to the publication, Neymar is now set to make USD 55 million in off-field earnings and around USD 32 million from that.
Brazilian footballers also joined the national team for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He suffered an injury in the first match, which ruled him out of the rest of the group stage of the tournament.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo
Net Earnings: $100 million
Ranked third on Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid athletes for 2022, Ronaldo is arguably the world’s most famous soccer icon. The Portuguese striker is still troubling opponents on the pitch with great speed and great accuracy at the age of 37, when most footballers would have gone into retirement mode.
With no signs of slowing down, Ronaldo continues to be one of the biggest brand magnets and sought-after stars in his sport. His reputation is further cemented by the fact that he is the world’s most followed personality on Instagram with over 500 million followers.
Ronaldo has won nearly every trophy in the world of football, including five Ballon d’Ors – football’s highest individual honor. He is the first footballer to win the Premier League, La Liga and the Serie A League Cup. He also captained Portugal at the 2016 Euro Cup Championship.
Ronaldo is the world’s top goalscorer, male or female, with over 110 international goals. He scored over 700 goals for the clubs he played for throughout his career, taking his total to over 800 goals.
He endorses brands such as Nike, Herbalife, Livescore, Armani, TAG Heuer and Clear Shampoo and Talabat and Jacob & Co. He also has his own highly successful fashion brand CR7 and has invested in the hospitality sector with the Pestana CR7 chain of hotels.
In 2020, he became the third active player and the first athlete from a team sport to become a billion dollar athlete. He was the third richest athlete on the 2022 Forbes list, with a net worth of US$115 million.
Forbes estimates that he will earn around US$100 million during the 2022-23 period, with US$40 million from off-field earnings and the rest from off-field contributions.
However, the speculation began before Ronaldo officially parted ways with Manchester United in November 2022, just a year after returning to the Premier League club he first played for from 2003 to 2009. The development comes days after Ronaldo strongly criticized the club’s system. , team manager Erik ten Haag and most of its players.
Saudi Arabian football club Al Nasr recently offered Ronaldo US$225 million and there are rumors that he may accept a three-year deal after the World Cup. If he does, he can top the list of highest paid footballers and athletes in the world.
Whatever happens on the club front, pundits point out that the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is Ronaldo’s last chance to lift the only major trophy that has so far eluded him. And has already etched his name in the history books by becoming the first footballer to score in five World Cup tournaments in his first match for Portugal.
2. Lionel Messi
Net Earnings: $120 million
Messi is considered by many to be the greatest active footballer in the world. He has long been a mainstay of the Argentina national team and Barcelona. Messi joins PSG in the summer of 2021 with the La Liga club having won almost all the gold in his trophy cabinet. And he immediately proved to everyone again why he is respected by millions of fans around the world by winning the 2021 – 22 French league season as well as the French Super Cup.
Messi is a record seven-time winner of the prestigious Ballon d’Or and the first footballer to receive the Laureus award for player of the year, which he shared with Formula 1 legend Lewis Hamilton.
For goals, Messi, who plays as a forward, is the top scorer in La Liga history with 474 goals and the most international goals by a South American male footballer with 90. Overall, Messi scored more than 785 goals in his senior career. working life
Messi became the world’s highest-paid athlete for the first time in 2019 on the Forbes list. In 2022 he topped the list again with a total income of $130 million. The Argentine is one of the six billionaire athletes in the world today, with Forbes estimating his career net worth at US$1.15 billion.
According to Forbes estimates, he will become the second highest paid footballer in the 2022-23 season with an income of around USD 120 million. About $65 million of that will come from his salary at PSG. The rest, USD 55 million, includes off-field income including endorsements from brands such as Adidas, Budweiser, Gatorade, Konami, MasterCard, Pepsi and PUBG Mobile.
All eyes are on Argentina at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, especially as Messi has already said it is “definitely” his last. As for his future at club level, ESPN, citing sources, have reported that he will not be able to join Beckham’s Inter Miami CF and will remain at PSG for at least one more season until 2024.
1. Kylian Mbappé
Net Earnings: $128 million
Forbes has suggested that the young French striker will be the world’s highest-paid footballer in the 2022-23 season. His on-field earnings are estimated at US$110 million – more than all but Messi combined.
He is set to earn USD 18 million from brand endorsements like Dior, Panini, Hublot, Oakley and Nike.
Mbappe is widely regarded as one of the best attackers in the game. His incredible speed destroys any defensive formation of the opponent. His extremely accurate finishing is equally matched by his intelligence inside the box.
The young footballer has only appeared in two FIFA World Cups so far and is the top scorer among active players for his country in the mega tournament. In the 2018 edition of the tournament, he became the youngest French goalscorer in World Cup history, the second teenager after Pelé to score two goals in a World Cup match, and the second teenager after Pelé to score in a World Cup final.
Mbappe has won three of the last four Ligue 1 Player of the Year awards and won five league titles as a player for Monaco and PSG.
Top Ten Richest Footballers 2022 – Info
| Rank | Name | Age | Total Earnings | On-field Earnings | Off-field Earnings | Team | Nationality | Instagram Followers |
| 1 | Kylian Mbappé | 23 | $128 million | $110 million | $18 million | Paris Saint-Germain | France | 74.8 million |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | 35 | $120 million | $65 million | $55 million | Paris Saint-Germain | Argentina | 383 million |
| 3 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 37 | $100 million | $40 million | $60 million | Manchester United | Portugal | 508 million |
| 4 | Neymar Jr. | 30 | $87 million | $55 million | $32 million | Paris Saint-Germain | Brazil | 188 million |
| 5 | Mohamed Salah | 30 | $53 million | $35 million | $18 million | Liverpool | Egypt | 54.2 million |
| 6 | Erling Haaland | 22 | $39 million | $35 million | $4 million | Manchester City | Norway | 20.9 million |
| 7 | Robert Lewandowski | 34 | $35 million | $27 million | $8 million | FC Barcelona | Poland | 31.4 million |
| 8 | Eden Hazard | 31 | $31 million | $27 million | $4 million | Real Madrid | Belgium | 27.2 million |
| 9 | Andrés Iniesta | 38 | $30 million | $25 million | $5 million | Vissel Kobe | Spain | 40.7 million |
| 10 | Kevin De Bruyne | 31 | $29 million | $25 million | $4 million | Manchester City | Belgium | 19.7 million |
