Highest-Paid Soccer Players 2026: Messi Hits A New High But Can’t Touch Ronaldo

Forbes Daily Briefing · Oct 27, 2026 · 6m

This summer represented a bit of a changing of the guard on the soccer pitch, as exemplified by Spain’s winger Lamine Yamal, who hoisted the World Cup trophy at age 19 by beating Argentine legend Lionel Messi—the very man who had bathed him when he was an infant for a now-viral photoshoot in 2007. But while Yamal is already reaping the rewards of his star turn on American soil, he and the rest of soccer’s new generation still have a long way to go to close the financial gap on Messi and his Portuguese rival Cristiano Ronaldo, two of the greatest money-making machines the sports world has ever…