This is WAY Messi beat RONALDO

Messi out-did CR9 in annual income

French magazine France Football yesterday published a list of the top ten biggest money-makers in the footballing world with FC Barcelona Lionel Messi topping the list, raking in an annual income of €33 million, taking over from David Beckham (€30.4 million) with Cristiano Ronaldo third (€30 million) for the year 2009.

The list estimates Messi’s annual earnings by taking into account his €10 million basic salary, €4 million in bonuses plus another €19 million from sponsors including Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Gillette, Gatorade, Konami, Air Europa, Telefonica/Movistar, SportCenter/ESPN, Damm, Danone, Lody For Men, Storkman, Repsol YPF, SanDisk and Mirage/Seiko.

Messi was outstanding last year as Barcelona won a unique six major trophies and he was then voted FIFA World Player of the Year, as France Football’s European Footballer of the Year and as World Soccer magazine’s World Footballer for 2009.

The complete top ten Rich List is as follows:

1. Leo Messi (Barcelona, Arg) €33m;

2. David Beckham (LA Galaxy, Eng) €30.4m;

3. C Ronaldo (Real Madrid, Por) €30m;

4. Kaka (Milan, Brz) €18.8m;

5. Thierry Henry (Barcelona, Fr) €18m;

6. Ronaldinho (Milan, Brz) €17.2m;

7. Carlos Tevez (Manchester City, Arg) €15.4m;

8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona, Swe) €14.5m;

9. Frank Lampard (Chelsea, Eng) €14.2m;

10. Samuel Eto’o (Internazionale, Cam) €13.8m.

Messi did something very important to his barca, the goal that barca needs very much.