Lionel Messi will earn a fortune as he moved to MLS side Inter Miami but it will be nowhere close to what Cristiano Ronaldo earns at Al Nassr.
Messi decided to join the Major League Soccer side Inter Miami which currently sits bottom of the Eastern Conference.
The World Cup winner will see out his contract at Parish Saint-Germain and will be moving to the MLS side from July 1, 2023.
In addition, Barcelona expressed huge interest in bringing back their legend to Camp Nou, but Lionel Messi turned it down due to financial issues.
Lionel Messi opted to join David Beckham’s Inter Miami, a team that joined the MLS in 2020, two years after it was established.
The Argentine legend did not want to join former Real Madrid foes Ronaldo and Karim Benzema in the Saudi Pro League.
Messi will still pocket a whopping salary in the States after turning down potential billions on offer in the Middle East.
Though the lucrative offer does not come close to what Ronaldo is earning at Al Nassr, it is way better than what he would have earned at FC Barcelona if he had chosen to return to his childhood club.
Lionel Messi’s contract is reportedly set to rise to a mega $150m (£119.34m) over the course of his two-and-a-half-year contract with the MLS side.
This literally means that he will make around £918k a week, which is an incredible £90.70 a minute.
However, the former Barcelona and PSG star could still rake in far more than that.
In addition to that, fashion giants Adidas, Apple, and MLS were all also hoping to entice the Argentine to lucrative commercial proposals.
Adidas reportedly proposed a profit-sharing agreement, meaning the Argentine will receive a cut of any increase in profits resulting from his MLS involvement.
MLS and Apple have reportedly considered offering Lionel Messi a share of the revenue generated by new subscribers to the MLS Season Pass, the league’s streaming package on Apple TV+.
And additionally, Futballnews understands that MLS chiefs are willing to offer Lionel Messi the option to purchase a percentage of any team in the league upon his retirement.
Meanwhile, his longtime rival still manages to earn incredibly more than the outgoing Paris Saint-Germain forward.
Ronaldo’s deal is believed to be for seven years in total, with the Portuguese taking up an ambassadorial role after retiring.
Contrary to Lionel Messi’s deal, this means that Ronaldo could pocket as much as £1.2 Billion over the course of the contract meaning he earns £5.50 per second.
Before anyone buys into the moral victory stories, Lionel Messi is an ambassador for Saudi Arabia and is adequately compensated for it.
Ronaldo will be earning just over three times more than Messi when the two take to the field at least for now.
