These are the ten highest-paid footballers in the world

Nice work if you can get it.

There are few things that incite envy more than learning how much money other people are earning and as you might suspect, the best footballers in the world do pretty well for themselves. As they do every year, France Football have released a list of the highest-earning footballers in the world and it’s fair to say they won’t ever be short a few bob for the rest of their lives. France Football ranked the players from earnings made through club salaries, endorsement deals and performance bonuses, with every one of the top ten making in excess of €20 million per annum (that's about £16m to you and me) Not surprisingly, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo top the pile in a top ten in which only four clubs – Barcelona (4), Paris St Germain (3), Real Madrid (2), and Bayern Munich (1) – are represented. Not a single Premier League player makes the list, though that is due to the fact that English clubs did not take part in the survey. If they had, according to France Football, Wayne Rooney would have been ninth on the list.

The highest-paid footballers in the world

1. Lionel Messi, Barcelona (Collated annual salary €74m / £59m)
2. Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid (€67.4m / £54m)
3. Neymar, Barcelona (€43.5m / £35m)
4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG (€28.5m / £23m)
5. Thiago Silva, PSG (€26.5m / £21m)
6. Angel di Maria, PSG (€26m / £20.6m )
7. Gareth Bale, Real Madrid (€24.5m / £19.4m)
8. Thomas Muller, Bayern Munich (€23.6m / £19m)
9. Andrés Iniesta, Barcelona (€21.5m / £17.1m)
10. Luis Suarez, Barcelona (€20.3m / £16.1m)