Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list of The World’s Highest-Paid Soccer Players 2025, recently published by Forbes, which estimates he will earn an overall $280 million ($230 million from Al Nassr during the 2025-26 season + $50 million in off-field earnings). Ronaldo’s long-time rival, Lionel Messi, takes the second spot with an overall $130 million, followed in the Top 10 by French strikers Karim Benzema ($104m) and Kylian Mbappé ($95m), then Erling Haaland ($80m), Vinicius Jr. ($60m), Mohamed Salah ($55m), Sadio Mané ($54m), Jude Bellingham ($44m), and Barcelona’s 18-year-old sensation Lamine Yamal ($43m) at the tenth spot.
Ronaldo, who is now 40 years old, joined the Saudi Pro League in 2023. The Portuguese football legend has just led Portugal to victory in the UEFA Nations League tournament. Ronaldo has taken the top spot among the world’s highest-paid football players for the sixth time in the last decade. Off the field, he continues to grow his CR7-branded businesses and his YouTube channel, UR Cristiano, which now has around 77 million subscribers.
Messi, 38, plays for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer (MLS). Yamal is the first 18-year-old to enter the top ten in the 22-year history of Forbes’ soccer list. Spain’s La Liga is the ranking’s best-represented league, with four players qualifying for the list: Mbappé (Real Madrid), Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) and Yamal (Barcelona).
Despite the age of the top three players in the ranking (Benzema is 37), five of the ten highest-paid footballers are actually 29 or younger, the largest share in the ranking since 2020.
