(Los Angeles) Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappé will be the highest-paid football player on the planet this season, including his salary with his club and his income from advertising contracts, according to the annual Forbes ranking , released on Friday.
Posted at 3:02 p.m.
The French striker, world champion in 2018 with the Blues, should earn 128 million dollars, before taxes and agent fees. A record for this sport, according to the specialized media.
For the first time since 2014, it is neither the Argentinian Lionel Messi, Mbappé’s teammate at PSG and second on this list with 120 million dollars, nor the latter’s eternal rival, the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) , third with 100 million, who are enthroned among the richest footballers.
The two superstars were already in their thirties when they each crossed the $100 million annual income mark for the first time in 2018. Mbappé, for his part, achieves this by far, at just 23 years old.
This top three alone accounts for more than half of the record total of $652 million in revenue, comprising the ten highest earners in world football. Last year the Top 10 accumulated 585 million dollars. The increase is 11%.
Mbappé, who decided in May to extend to PSG until 2025 (the last season is optional), after having considered leaving for Real Madrid, will receive in the current financial year 2022/2023 around 110 million dollars between his salary and part of his signing bonus, believes Forbesciting industry experts.
Haaland interferes
This amount is added to the 18 million dollars of income outside the field, with its various partnerships (Nike, Dior, Hublot, Oakley, Panini, the FIFA video game). He also created a production company, Zebra Valley, and invested in the field of “NFT” (“non-fungible token”, which associates a digital object with an unforgeable certificate of authenticity, guaranteeing to its sole holder the property official).
By way of comparison, the Frenchman is, on these lands annexed to the sponsorship, still far from the income of Ronaldo (60 million dollars) and Messi (55).
But his already immense popularity should allow him to close this gap. And his influence is such that he made the French Federation bend, to renegotiate the terms of the agreement governing the exploitation of the image rights of the players of the France team.
The player had himself explained that he wanted “a right of inspection over (his) name and what he is associated with”, ensuring that he wanted to “manage” his career “as (he) sees fit, with (his) values”.
One phenomenon that cannot hide another, the talented Norwegian of Manchester City, Erling Haaland, 22, interfered in the 6e place in the ranking, with a salary, bonuses included, of 35 million dollars, to which are added 4 million from sponsorship contracts.
With Mbappé, they are the only players under 30 to appear on the current list, announcing its inevitable rejuvenation in the years to come.