Messi Topples Beckham On Football Rich List

By Anifowose George

Dimunitive Argentine soccer wizard Lionel Messi is grabbing global media headlines these days for his peerless soccer artistry. On the field, he leaves a trail of bewildered defenders who in the past weeks have been made to look like school boys with his blisterring runs, dribbles and relative ease at which he outwits opposing defence.

Off the field, he has been earning plaudts from fans, critics and colleagues with a raging argument steaming about who is the greatest all time player owing to a sucessive haul of hatricks against Valencia and Real Zaragoza respectively. Even rivals’ fans have no choice but to give honour to whom it due; on the scale of his performances in recent weeks, Messi is indeed worthy of the honours and accolades that have been coming his way. Not even the inspiration form of Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney could overshadow Messi’s incomparable talent.

The 22-year-old Argentine forward, who scored a second successive La Liga hat-trick in Barcelona’s 4-2 win over Real Zaragoza on Sunday, has ended Beckham’s two-year reign as the world’s best-paid footballer, according to figures released this week by France Football.

Messi pockets an estimated £29.6 million annually, closely followed by Beckham at £27.3m, while Real Madrid hotshot Cristiano Ronaldo sits in third place with his estimated earnings having hit the £27m mark.

Self- styled ‘ special –one’ Jose Mourinho whose team Inter Milan last week knocked Chealsea out of the champions league is the world’s top earning coach with an annual earning of £11.7m a year.

Messi was also ranked as the fourth highest-earning sportsperson in the world, behind golfers Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, and basketball star LeBron James.

Here’s a full list of highest earning footballers

Lionel Messi (Barcelona) £29.6m
2. David Beckham (LA Galaxy/Milan) £27.3m
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) £27m
4. Kaka (Real Madrid) £16.9m
5. Thierry Henry (Barcelona) £16.1m
6. Ronaldinho (AC Milan) £15.5m
7. Carlos Tevez (Manchester City) £13.8m
8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona) £13m
9. Frank Lampard (Chelsea) £12.8m
10. Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan) £12.4m

Full list of highest earning managers

1. Jose Mourinho (Inter) £11.7m
2. Roberto Mancini (Manchester City) £10.8m
3. Luiz Felipe Scolari (FC Bunyodkor) £8.5m
4. Juergen Klinsmann (ex-Bayern Munich) £8.1m
5. Fabio Capello (England) £7.5m
6. Guus Hiddink (Russia) £7.1m
7. Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United) £6.5m
8. Pep Guardiola (Barcelona) £5.8m
9. Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) £5.7m
10. Louis Vaan Gaal (Bayern Munich) £5.4M