Leo is the king here too/ beyond 28 clubs! Lionel Messi's salary was revealed

Lionel Messi is at the top of the salary chart of the American Football League by a huge margin; The total guaranteed income of this player reaches 28.3 million dollars.

According to "Sports Three", Lionel Messi makes a difference even when it comes to money. Lionel Messi is by far the highest paid soccer player in the American Football League, and his guaranteed annual salary is more than all the players of the league's 28 clubs combined.

Lionel Messi has an annual base salary of $25 million in 2026 and a total guaranteed salary of $28.3 million in 2026, according to the American Football League Players Association salary guide. This figure includes base salary, certain guaranteed bonuses, marketing bonuses and broker's wages for the duration of the contract. This amount does not include performance related bonuses or other agreements that Lionel Messi may have directly with the club.

This comparison shows the dimensions of the difference. Lionel Messi alone exceeds the guaranteed total earnings of all footballers in 28 of the 30 clubs in the American Football League.

One of the clearest examples is the Philadelphia Union club. The entire composition of this club has about 11.7 million dollars in guaranteed income, which is less than half of Lionel Messi's figure of 28.3 million dollars.

Only the total salary of the two clubs alone is more than the figure received by this Argentinian player. Inter Miami are at the top with around $54.6 million guaranteed receipts and Los Angeles FC with around $32.6 million. Atlanta United is about $27.9 million below Lionel Messi.

Additionally, in the case of Inter Miami, Lionel Messi accounts for about half of the team's total guaranteed earnings.

This gap can also be seen in the comparison of Lionel Messi with other big salaries in the American Football League. Los Angeles FC's Son Heung-min is second with a guaranteed salary of $11,152,852, while Lionel Messi's Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul is third with $9,688,320.

Therefore, 39-year-old Lionel Messi is paid more than twice as much as Son, and even more than the combined guaranteed contracts of both players.

The difference with the average player is even greater. By examining the data of 911 football players, the average guaranteed income was determined to be around $686,000. The average of this amount is about 350 thousand dollars, which puts Lionel Messi in a completely different dimension within the salary structure of these competitions.

Lionel Messi's salary does not represent his total wealth

The $28.3 million figure represents Lionel Messi's guaranteed income in the American Football League, but it is not equivalent to all of the Argentinian player's earnings.

The American Football League Players Association itself explains that these figures do not include amounts from individual contracts with clubs or their affiliates. It also does not include certain performance bonuses because they are not guaranteed.

Commercial agreements and sponsorship should also be added to these items. For this reason, the salary officially recorded by the American Football League is only a part of the economic dimensions of Lionel Messi in the United States.