Cristiano Ronaldo leads the Forbes list of the highest paid, Messi follows him and Lamine Yamal entered the Top 10

The Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo once again led the Forbes list of the highest paid soccer players in 2025, with $279 million dollars, while Spanish: 18-year-old Spaniard Lamine Yamal entered the Top 10 for the first time with $43 million dollars, as published by the American magazine.

The Portuguese, who has led the ranking since 2019, returned to the top in 2025 thanks to his contract with Al Nassr (Saudi Arabia) until 2027, with which he received $279 million dollars, between his salaries with the club and his sponsors. $24 million less than in 2024.

Only the American boxer Floyd Mayweather, with $299 million dollars in 2015 and $284 million in 2018, surpassed Cristiano's figures in a Forbes list, although it was not of soccer players, but of athletes.

The novelty of the ranking is Lamine Yamal, the youngest of the list, with $32 million dollars received from Barcelona and $10 million from his sponsors. Over the past year, he's doubled his social media audience to nearly 77 million followers.

Across 97 posts tracked by Two Circles, Yamal averaged more than 33 million views and interactions.

Another player wearing the number "10" on his jersey who made the list is Argentina's Lionel Messi, second only to Cristiano Ronaldo, with $130 million. At 38 years old, the 8-time Ballon d'Or winner earns more from his sponsors (70) than from football (60).

The first player to appear on the list who plays for a European club is Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, with $95 million dollars, $70 coming from football and $25 from sponsorships, in fourth place.

His compatriot Karim Benzema (Al-Ittihad) is in third place in the ranking with $104 million dollars, while Norwegian Erling Haaland (Manchester City) is fifth with $79 million,Brazilian Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid) is sixth with $60 and Egyptian Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) is seventh with $55.

The last 3 on the list, in order from highest to lowest, are Senegalese Sadio Mane (Al Nassr) with $54 million, Englishman Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) with $43 million and the aforementioned Lamine Yamal with $42.

Overall, Forbes estimates that the 10 highest-paid soccer players in the world will earn around €808 million during the 2025-2026 season; However, the top is collectively down almost 4% from 2024-2025, largely because Brazilian Neymar Jr, number 3 on last year's list (94 million), fell off the rankings entirely following his return to Santos.

LaLiga is the best represented, with 4 players (Mbappe, Bellingham, Vinicius and Lamine), followed by the Saudi Pro League with 3 (Ronaldo, Benzema and Sadio Mane), and the Premier League with 2, between Haaland and Mohamed Salah. Messi remains the sole representative of MLS.

Furthermore, 5 of the 10 highest-paid players are 29 years old or younger (the highest proportion in the ranking since 2020) and the average age of the list was slightly below 30, its lowest level in 5 years thanks to the emergence of Yamal (18) and Bellingham (22).

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