After a disappointing season, the soccer superstar is eyeing the exit at Barcelona, but he still is on pace to reach that astronomical goal alongside Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather and, yes, Cristiano Ronaldo.



The only move Lionel Messi really needs to make to become soccer’s next billion-dollar man is none at all. If the star forward simply shows up at Barcelona’s Camp Nou in September, he will end the 2020–21 season with more than $1 billion in career earnings, a victory only three athletes before him have won.



It looks like the high-fives may have to wait. After a yearlong battle with FC Barcelona, the Argentine icon is threatening to leave the club after 16 years, ditching the final year of a contract that could make&nbsp;him the highest-paid player in what has become the world’s most lucrative sport.&nbsp;



“Globalization has made soccer, always the world&#8217;s most popular sport, also the world’s most lucrative in terms of revenue generation,” says Stefan Szymanski, author of&nbsp;Soccernomics&nbsp;and a University of Michigan professor of sport management. “In soccer, there is more or less unfettered competition on a global scale—there are no drafts, salary caps, etc.—and the best players generally go to the highest bidder.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="396" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1167251285-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45803" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1167251285-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1167251285-594x594-1-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



It’s the kind of free-market economics that until this year were the domain of independent contractors.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/2009/09/29/tiger-woods-billion-business-sports-tiger.html">Tiger Woods</a>&nbsp;was the first athlete to earn $1 billion while still competing when in 2009 he sunk $10.5 million in prize money and more than $100 million off the links, mostly through an endorsement deal with Nike.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/08/26/how-floyd-mayweather-became-boxings-1-billion-man/">Floyd Mayweather</a>&nbsp;landed the honor in 2017 after a bet on himself that removed legendary promoter Bob Arum from his corner and led to a string of self-produced pay-per-view bouts that brought in more than $25 million 12 times, including $275 million for his 2017 fight with Conor McGregor. Messi’s longtime rival&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2020/06/04/ronaldos-105-million-year-tops-messi-and-crowns-him-soccers-first-billion-dollar-man/">Cristiano Ronaldo</a>&nbsp;became the first team-sport competitor to do it when he earned $105 million during the 2019-20 season.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2014/06/12/michael-jordan-is-a-billionaire-after-increasing-stake-in-hornets/">Michael Jordan</a>, who tallied $550 million in career earnings during his 15 years playing for the Chicago Bulls and the Washington Wizards, remains the world’s only billionaire athlete, the bulk of his fortune created by a well-timed investment in the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.



Messi’s arrival in the billion-dollar clubhouse will mark a climactic chapter in what has been soccer’s most expensive sideshow since 2009, when he and Ronaldo&nbsp;first faced off on competing teams in Spain’s La Liga. The strutting and often shirtless Ronaldo&nbsp;perfected the sport’s showman brand while the media-shy Messi was hailed as the modest one, more interested in his footwork than footwear, as prolific a goal scorer as a wingman and a master at crediting teamwork.



Ronaldo, who is two years older, has become the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/08/03/social-medias-most-valuable-athletes-ronaldo-mcgregor-and-lebron-score/">world’s most popular celebrity</a>, with 443 million social followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter—and the most marketable athlete in the world, too. According to Hookit, which tracks social media sponsorship value, from January to July this year, he created $28 million in value for the brands he promoted through 275 social media posts and the 873 million engagements with them. He has a lifetime deal with Nike and a long-term partnership with Herbalife, as well as a lifestyle brand that started with his CR7 line of underwear in 2013 and has expanded to include shoes, perfume, denim, hotels, gyms and his latest offering introduced this month,&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://robbreport.com/style/accessories/cristiano-ronaldo-sunglasses-cr7-eyewear-2941551/" target="_blank">sunglasses</a>. Last season, Ronaldo earned $45 million of his $105 million off the pitch.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="396" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gettyimages-1142682752-594x594.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-40860" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gettyimages-1142682752-594x594.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gettyimages-1142682752-594x594-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Messi is no endorsement slouch either, earning about $33 million annually through endorsement deals with lifetime partner Adidas, Lays, Mastercard, watchmaker Jacob &amp; Co, Qatar-based telecom Ooredoo and his new signature lifestyle brand launched last year with Ginny Hilfiger, sister of Tommy, at The Messi Store website. Hookit reports that from January to July this year, Messi put up 117 social media posts that received 235 million likes, comments or shares, creating $22 million in marketing value for the brands he promoted.



Barcelona is planning to pay its star forward $92 million this upcoming season, about a third of that in the form of performance incentives. Messi has been consistent earning those, posting 12 consecutive seasons with at least 31 goals and hitting 700 career goals in June, joining Ronaldo as the only active player at that level.



Until last week, soccer watchers were expecting the Argentine icon to sign a new&nbsp;deal on par with his current one to take him through retirement, but that was before his battle with Barcelona boiled over. The yearlong fight included a dustup over the midseason appointment of a manager that ended with his dismissal this week, a smear campaign against Messi and his wife reportedly dialed up by the club itself, and an embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich that put an early finish to Barça’s Champions League title hopes. It was the first season in 12 years that Messi failed to win a trophy and one for which he took&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2020/03/30/lionel-messis-coronavirus-wage-cut-could-cost-him-50-million/">a 70% cut in base pay</a>—$11 million—after the pandemic halted play for three months.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47209" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Where he lands—and how much he will make there—remains to be seen, although it is unlikely any club can afford to pay him the salary Barcelona can. Messi could do what Ronaldo did when he left Real Madrid&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2018/07/10/cristiano-ronaldo-takes-a-wage-cut-and-leaves-real-madrid-for-juventus/">for Italy’s Juventus</a>&nbsp;and make up for lower gross pay with a tax scheme that keeps his net pay level.



Or if Barcelona’s new manager, Ronald Koeman, can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/53827543" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bring peace back to Barcelona</a>, he could make the whole thing happen this year after all.



“He is the best player in the world, and the best player in the world you want in your team; you don’t want him playing against you,” Koeman said at a Wednesday press conference.



No matter what Messi chooses, the billion-dollar honor is his to lose. Soccer’s No. 3 earner, Neymar, has so far earned $450 million in his career and stands to make less than $100 million this season. Neymar’s Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappé will make less than half that.



-Christina Settimi, Forbes Staff

TOPSHOT-FBL-EUR-C1-BARCELONA-NAPOLI

The Next Billion-Dollar Athlete: Lionel Messi Closes In

Paris Saint-Germain has <a href="https://en.psg.fr/pro/article/neymar-jr-signs-with-paris-saint-germain" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">officially signed Neymar</a> to a 5-year playing contract, ending a saga that had consumed the summer transfer market. The club will present the 25-year-old superstar at the Parc des Princes on Friday at 1:30 p.m. local time.
FC Barcelona had released the Brazilian earlier this afternoon, announcing it accepted a $263 million (€222 million)  buy-out payment in full in an online <a href="https://www.fcbarcelona.com/football/first-team/news/2017-2018/fc-barcelona-communique-on-neymar-jr-buyout-clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a>. This came just hours after La Liga offices said it originally rejected that payment, <a href="http://www.espnfc.com/soccer-transfers/story/3171271/la-liga-refuses-to-accept-psg-cash-for-barcelonas-neymar" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ESPN FC reported</a>. No reason was immediately known, though speculation was Barca requested UEFA to investigate how PSG could finance the transfer under fair pay rules.
Neymar informed his former club of his desire to go to the French capital just yesterday, the Catalonian club confirmed the on its <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2725222-barcelona-confirm-neymars-desire-to-leave-amid-psg-talk-demand-eur222m-fee" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">website</a>. In that same statement the club also reminded him it expects to be paid his buy-out clause in its entirety. The player was relieved from practice until the matter was resolved.
The fee PSG paid is a new transfer record, more than double the previous $120 million <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbymcmahon/2017/07/31/neymars-move-to-psg-will-set-a-world-record-and-trigger-more-high-priced-transfers/#47bb246e31f7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Manchester United paid for Paul Pogba</a> one year ago, and 3.5 times what <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2013/06/05/neymar-ranks-ninth-on-list-of-soccers-most-expensive-player-transfers/#1eec8042372d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Barcelona paid to acquire Neymar</a> from Brazilian team Santos just four years ago.
<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2017/07/13/full-list-worlds-50-valuable-sports-teams-2017/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Full List: The World’s 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams 2017</a>
In addition, PSG confirmed it signed Neymar to a 5-year contract through June 2022 (five months before the World Cup in club owner&#8217;s country of Qatar) and is estimated to pay him $350 million in salary and bonus before-tax. All told the Parisian club is on the hook for a cash outlay in excess of $600 million for the winger’s services.
It is easy to see why Barca, which <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/07/18/fc-barcelona-posts-highest-revenue-in-the-history-of-sports-at-770-million/#5b55df77e825" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">posted a record $770 million in revenue</a> last year and is worth $3.64 billion as the second most valuable soccer club in the world, questioned how PSG could complete this transfer in compliance with UEFA Financial Fair Play rules. The Ligue 1 runner-up only generated $92 million in operating income and is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/teams/paris-saint-germain/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">worth $841 million</a>. FFP limits club losses and contributions owners can spend to sign players.
But as my colleague <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2017/07/22/oil-money-would-finance-neymars-move-to-paris-saint-germain-from-barcelona/#68a33a246c1f" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mike Ozanian reports</a>, PSG owners Qatar Sports Investments’ influential oil money may have something to do with it. After the Qataris purchased the club they <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/sports/soccer/with-paris-saint-germain-qatar-is-a-player-in-french-sports.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pumped an additional $340 million</a> into it to recruit high-profile players, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Success followed. Since then, it has claimed the Ligue 1 title four times and was runner-up once. Financial disparity followed too. <a href="https://www.globalsportssalaries.com/GSSS%202016.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Per Sporting Intelligence’s annual Global Sports Salaries Survey 2016</a>, PSG now leads the league in salary cost, paying an average $5.5 million per player, 21.5 times the average pay at Nancy, the club with the smallest average team salary. It’s the widest discrepancy in any major sport league in the world.
<a href="http://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbol/fc-barcelona/20170729/43183276749/neymar-china-qatar-barcelona-psg-clausula.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mundo Deportivo reported</a> QSI was willing to pay Neymar $350 million to be an ambassador for the 2022 World Cup to circumvent any FFP issues. Suspicious minds wondered if the Brazilian would then turn around and pay his own buy-out clause and save PSG the financial responsibility. What&#8217;s know as of now is Neymar&#8217;s &#8220;legal representatives&#8221; presented payment to Barcelona, and it is up to UEFA to investigate the transaction.
Regardless, Neymar now quadruples his take-home pay for his work on the pitch. Last season he made $15 million in salary and bonus from Barca. Combined with the $22 million he made in endorsements from the likes of Nike, Gillette, and Panasonic among others, he ranked <a href="https://www.forbes.com/pictures/5924841ba7ea434078d44dcf/2-lionel-messi-barcelona-/#652a80c922ce" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">No. 3 among the world’s highest paid soccer players</a> with total earnings of $37 million last year.
Read More: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2017/05/26/the-worlds-highest-paid-soccer-players-2017-cristiano-ronaldo-lionel-messi-lead-the-list/#15dbdd94210e" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The World&#8217;s Highest-Paid Soccer Players</a>
Now this move could see his total earnings skyrocket to $93 million, and could propel him ahead of teammate and record 5-time FIFA player of the year <a href="https://www.forbes.com/pictures/5924841ba7ea434078d44dcf/2-lionel-messi-barcelona-/#652a80c922ce" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lionel Messi,</a> who earned $80 million last season, and possibly ahead of reigning and 4-time player of the year Real Madrid <a href="https://www.forbes.com/pictures/5924841ba7ea434078d44dcf/1-cristiano-ronaldo-real-/#19aa1c63730a" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cristiano Ronaldo</a> who earned $93 million in the top spot among the sport’s highest paid. He could also leapfrog into the top 5 <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2017/06/09/ronaldo-lebron-top-worlds-highest-paid-athletes-2017/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">world’s highest paid athletes</a> with Ronaldo and the NBA’s LeBron James, right behind Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor, who each stand to bank an obscene 9-figure amount from their August 26 spectacle.
Nike could influence where he lands among athletes richest. It is already rumored the company was involved in his talks with PSG. Both athlete and club have sponsorship deals with the Swoosh.
Sources previously confirmed to Forbes that Neymar was looking to renegotiate this boot contract, noting his 7-figure annual haul is below market value, especially considering how often the international superstar pitches the brand to his 165 million followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. According to <a href="http://www.hookit.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hookit</a>, which tracks the social engagement of athletes, he generated $124.5 million in media value for his sponsors across social media during 2016. That was second only to Ronaldo, who generated $937 million in value for his sponsors promoting them to his 277 million social media followers.
It would come as no surprise if a renewed shoe deal announcement comes on the heels of Neymar’s club contract. For perspective, LeBron and Ronaldo are the only two active athletes with lifetime deals with Nike, both worth upwards of $1 billion. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Christina Settimi</a>, FORBES STAFF

Neymar Signs With PSG, Set To Become World’s Highest-Paid Soccer Player Ahead Of Messi And Ronaldo

On May 2, it will be exactly half a century since a bunch of highly talented African footballers led Portuguese giants Benfica in the thrashing of Real Madrid 5-3 to retain the European Cup.
It was a dynamic team with an African heart. The captain was from Angola, the goalkeeper, midfield general and striker were all from Mozambique. Arguably, the most talented of all, nicknamed The Sacred Monster, was a midfield genius who had fought his way up from the streets of Maputo. Another of the players rejoiced in the name, The Black Panther. A dream for an advertising copywriter or a public relations executive, surely?
In June, it will be two years since the FIFA World Cup kicked off in South Africa. Since then, there has been a lot of talk about how Africa could sell itself, its football and folklore. After all, the football fans of the continent appear to buy enthusiastically into the plastic razzmatazz around European football, with its endless programs and promos on satellite TV. At football grounds across Europe, there are statues and pictures of the famed players of the past, many of whom may not have even made it into the Benfica team that mauled Real Madrid in 1962.
<div id="attachment_690" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-690" class="size-large wp-image-690" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/DSC00350-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="356" />Captain José Águas and Mário Coluna celebrate beating Barcelona in 1962</div>
The question is: why doesn’t Africa celebrate its heroes and rich history with such vigor?
Now, any advertising wizard worth their salt, with a yen to market African football, could do a lot worse than start with the story of the four African musketeers of Benfica in 1962. What a quartet they were: José Águas, the captain, was born and bred in Luanda; goalkeeper Alberto da Costa Pereira was born in the tiny Mozambique port of Nacala and learned his football at Ferroviario in Maputo; Eusébio—The Black Panther—dribbled his way through the dust of the streets of Maputo to an international career with Portugal, scoring 733 goals in 745 competitive games.
Last, but certainly not least, the tough and intelligent midfield schemer, Mário Coluna. Like Eusébio, Coluna learned to fake, dribble, trap and pass on a patch of sand in the Maputo township of Mafalala—a piece of ground that survives until this day and is still full of barefoot youngsters kicking a ball. I can almost hear an advertising executive thinking about this one.
A Portuguese sports journalist dubbed Coluna ‘O Monstro Sagrado’—The Sacred Monster—because he said the player was both terrifying and beautiful. Surely, only a Latin romantic, a journalist to boot, could have come up with a name as evocative.
Coluna, who had the sleek and robust physique of a light-heavyweight boxer, scored one and laid on another on the night Benfica trounced Real Madrid in Amsterdam. He outwitted Real, who had legends Puskás and Di Stéfano in their side. The year before, Coluna had scored with a blinding long-range volley as Benfica beat Barcelona 3-2, in Bern, to win the cup for the first time. Coluna celebrated, stripped to his waist, with trophy in hand, alongside his captain and fellow African, Águas. It is a picture that hangs in pride of place on the wall of his Maputo home to this day.
In the prime of his career, Coluna went on to lead the famous Magricios, considered to be one of Portugal’s finest teams, to the 1966 World Cup in England. In that famous team were two more men from Mozambique, Vicente and Hilário. In those days, colonial Portugal saw Mozambique and Angola as its overseas provinces and players from these countries were considered Portuguese. All were African right down to their boots.
Eusébio was top scorer in the tournament, with nine goals. Arguably, Portugal should have won the World Cup for the first time in their history in 1966. The team suffered through a touch of home town favoritism from the organizers. The semi-final against England was supposed to have been played in Liverpool, but was switched by the English organizers to Wembley in London at the last minute—despite the fact that it had been agreed it was unfair to allow the home country to play all of its games at the national stadium. It meant Portugal had to travel down by train overnight.
“We didn’t get any sleep on the train. We were so tired when we got to London, we could hardly play,” Coluna once told me in the suburbs of Maputo.
Despite this, England won by a 2-1 whisker, with Eusébio scoring a penalty in reply.  Just imagine the indignation and weeks of headlines if a similar trick had been pulled in 2010.
Which brings me back to my point; when I read the other week that Eusébio had been ill in hospital in Lisbon, it occurred to me how little we hear of these former legends, while the television in the corner prattles on about other players not fit to lace their boots.
All of the Africans mentioned above made it when football was a game for men-of-men—hard men-of-men, for that matter. Coluna, who played 677 times for Benfica, showed me a huge, ugly scar below his right knee, a souvenir of a night in Rome in 1968 when an Italian defender crushed his ligaments. The referee didn’t even caution the defender, such was the violence of the game in those days.
“The doctor said I would never play again, but I knew better,” Coluna told me.
On top of that, most of these African soccer heroes lived lives steeped in the game. Coluna used to pinch his dad’s socks to make a ball to kick around the Maputo streets. His father, shopkeeper José Mário Esteves Coluna, was a goalkeeper and founder of Coluna’s team, Desportivo de Maputo. He died, from a heart attack, while watching his beloved club in 1959.
Coluna came back to Mozambique in 1975 and coached a small town club, Textafrica in Chimoio, for the country’s first ever championship in the newly independent nation. He served with distinction as a parliamentarian and football administrator. Benfica still sends him a pension in euros.
My point is that African footballers like these should be celebrated by the continent as a way to market the game and encourage the youth of the continent to excel in it. Their names and deeds should be used in advertisements, splashed over posters and plastered on the sides of buses.  Statues should be built and their names known the length and breadth of the continent.
When you have a compelling human interest story attached to a name like The Sacred Monster or Black Panther, who needs an advertising copywriter to write a catchy slogan to market the game?

Tag: Barcelona

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The Next Billion-Dollar Athlete: Lionel Messi Closes In

Neymar Signs With PSG, Set To Become World’s Highest-Paid Soccer Player Ahead Of Messi And Ronaldo

Selling The Sacred Monster And Black Panther Should Be Easy