Featured Links

67 Fun Soccer Drills For Coaches, Easy To Teach. Click Here to Download

Play Great Soccer - #1 Instructional Program - Coerver Coaching DVDs

Messi's Buyout Clause & New Salary

If you're a team who wants to buy Lionel Messi from Barcelona, you'll have to come up with $430 million to do so. Barca have upped the buyout price, just to protect what is their key asset.

Getty Images

This is an asset they don't want to sell, so they're sending a message to all those clubs, Manchester City and Real Madrid being the two main ones who could potentially try to purchase Messi at some point, that the price has doubled.

Last year, the buyout price was $215 million, but with the signings of Kaka and Cristiano and Barcelona's own purchase of Ibrahimovic, their hefty transfer fees, it made sense to show what they think their little genius is worth.

Along with raising the buyout clause, Barcelona have also increased Messi's salary, so he's the highest paid player on the team. Since Barca signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Inter Milan, they needed to give Messi a raise, otherwise Ibrahimovic would have been the highest paid player. Some say Messi has a clause in his contract stated that he's always the highest paid player on the team. That's a nice stipulation to have in a contract. And, one deserved by Messi. Messi is now said to earn $13.5 million per season.

Over at Real Madrid, they've realized that their new asset, Cristiano Ronaldo, needs to be insured. Actually, they just want to insure his legs for the tune of $150 million. Makes sense though, when you've paid that much money for a player. But how does it work exactly, what if he gets injured walking to the soccer field, does that still count or does he have to be playing in a game for Real Madrid?

How does Messi's yearly salary compare to some other world soccer stars and professional athletes?

Top Earners: All Sports

This list from Forbes includes money from salaries, bonuses, prize money, endorsements and licensing income. For one thing, looks like Tiger is making more than double than Kobe, Michael and Raikkonen, not bad for a golfer.

1. Tiger Woods: $110 million
2. Kobe Bryant: $45 million
3. Michael Jordan: $45 million
4. Kimi Raikkonen: $45 million
5. David Beckham: $42 million
6. LeBron James: $40 million
7. Phil Mickelson: $40 million
8. Manny Pacquiao: $40 million
9. Valentino Rossi: $35 million
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: $34 million

Top Earners: Soccer

And then SI has the highest paid soccer players including endoresments - these of course don't take into account the new salaries of Kaka and Cristiano at Real Madrid.

1. David Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy/AC Milan): $42.7 million
2. Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona): $37.7 million
3. Ronaldinho (AC Milan): $25.8 million
4. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United): $24.1 million
5. Thierry Henry (FC Barcelona): $22.4 million
6. Kaká (AC Milan): $19.9 million
7. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan): $19.9 million
8. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United): $17.8 million
9. Frank Lampard (Chelsea): $17.1 million
10. John Terry (Chelsea): $15.4 million