Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo has once again claimed the top spot on Forbes’ highest-paid footballers list for the 2025-26 season, marking his sixth time leading the ranking in the past decade. Recently hailed as football’s first billionaire by Bloomberg, the 40-year-old Ronaldo is estimated to rake in a total of $280 million in earnings, surpassing his closest competitor Lionel Messi by a significant margin. Messi, who earns $130 million, predominantly from off-field ventures, trails behind Ronaldo. Following closely is French footballer Karim Benzema, earning $104 million annually from his lucrative deal with Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.
Another notable player within the top 10 is Senegalese forward Sadio Mane, Ronaldo’s teammate at Al Nassr, who secures the eighth spot with an estimated annual income of $54 million. The representation of Saudi clubs in the top 10 has slightly decreased compared to the previous year, with Neymar’s departure from Al Hilal back to Santos resulting in a drop in his earnings from $110 million to $38 million, primarily sourced from off-field endorsements.
Despite the English Premier League’s financial prowess, with record-breaking summer transfer spending exceeding £2.6 billion ($3.5 billion), only two players from the league make it to the top 10: Erling Haaland from Manchester City in fifth place and Mohamed Salah from Liverpool in seventh. La Liga from Spain boasts the highest number of representatives in the top 10, with Real Madrid contributing Kylian Mbappe (fourth), Vinicius Jr (sixth), and Jude Bellingham (ninth). Additionally, Barcelona’s rising star Lamine Yamal secures the tenth spot with an annual income of $43 million.
Forbes projects that the combined earnings of the world’s top ten highest-paid soccer players for the 2025-26 season will reach an estimated total of $945 million.