The 21st World Cup is ready to go in Russia, and while the United States squad won’t be participating, the tournament certainly doesn’t lack starpower.
Big names like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba, and Neymar all will be competing for their nations this summer, hoping to bring home a title before heading back to their pro teams. Another thing those guys have in common? They bring home the big bucks. With the soccer world descending on Russia for a month for the biggest tournament in the sport, we put together a list of the top-earning players in the World Cup.
The earnings for each player are ranked from the Forbes.com list of the world’s highest-paid soccer players of 2018. That list was compiled by using salary numbers, endorsement deals, and sponsorship deals to estimate total earnings for the 2017-18 year, which for the purposes of the list ran from June 1, 2017 to May 31, 2018.
Here are the top earners.
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