Lionel Messi Matches Huge Cristiano Ronaldo Achievement in Soccer’s Ongoing G.O.A.T. Battle

There’s more to this longstanding rivalry than goals, assists and trophies.

Both players have become billionaires while still active on the field. | Chris Arjoon/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images/Sergio Mendes/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have spent 20 years pushing each other to greatness and now the Inter Miami superstar has caught up to his great rival to become soccer’s second billionaire.

Ronaldo’s wealth was first reported by Bloomberg to have surpassed $1 billion in the fall of 2025, firmly propelled over the 10-figure threshold by his earnings playing in Saudi Arabia, where a world-leading $235 million annual salary from Al Nassr is tax free.

According to Forbes in 2026, the Portuguese is expected to earn $300 million this year overall. It makes him the highest-paid sportsperson in the world, underpinning a net worth of $1.2 billion.

But Messi has achieved billionaire status, too. Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.1 billion, despite being paid considerably less than Ronaldo from his contract with Inter Miami.

In 2026, Messi is Major League Soccer’s highest earner, guaranteed $28.3 million. Inter Miami Jorge Mas revealed to Bloomberg in March this year that, through other mechanisms including his ownership shares in the club, Messi gets paid up to $80 million annually.

Forbes estimates that Messi’s billion-dollar fortune has been built “primarily from cash accumulation and appreciation throughout his career,” as well as team equity included in his contract. Messi would have become a billionaire faster had he followed Ronaldo to Saudi Arabia over the U.S., having been given a choice when his Paris Saint-Germain contract ended in 2023.

Messi and Ronaldo are the first active players across team sports to become billionaires. Other soccer players have achieved this only in retirement. Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham was given the billionaire tag last month—becoming the U.K.’s first billionaire sportsman—13 years after his career on the pitch ended and driven by post-playing business deals.

Ex-Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini has made almost all of his alleged $14 billion net worth in retirement, having traded soccer for biochemical entrepreneurship when he quit pro sport in 2019. Meanwhile, estimated valuations for the agency, AxisStars, that former Premier League striker Louis Saha co-founded in his retirement exceeded $5 billion in 2025.

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Who Will be Soccer’s Next Billionaire?

Kylian Mbappé has billionaire potential. | M Gracia Jimenez/Soccrates/Getty Images

Among active players, the next soccer billionaire could well be Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappé, based on a number of factors. The Frenchman is already the 12th highest paid athlete in the world in 2026—and fourth in soccer, according to Forbes, set to bank $95 million this year alone.

His net worth at the age of 27 is estimated at around $250 million. In a sport that is the planet’s favorite and only getting richer, and in which careers and earning potential are being extended, he could have another decade or more as one of the faces of soccer worldwide.

This generation was once billed as a Messi-Ronaldo-like battle for supremacy between Mbappé and Erling Haaland. But while the latter is certainly a fierce rival on the pitch, he is less than two years younger and has a wealth of around one-third the size.

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