Lionel Messi has leapfrogged Cristiano Ronaldo in the best paid footballer stakes during 2017 according to the latest figures released.

The Barcelona new captain boast of lucrative sponsorship contracts with Adidas, Gatorade, Pepsi, Ooredoo, Huawei and Hawkers, this shows that the Argentine international has other ways to supplement his Barcelona salary and has a project in China a theme park which will be opened in 2020. All these deals equate to Messi earning 111 million US dollars in the last calendar year, according to Forbes.

On the other hand, Portuguese ace Cristiano Ronaldo brought home 108m US dollars thanks to sponsorship from Nike, Herbalife, EA Sports, American Tourister, and his own CR7 brand of hotels, fragrances and more.

The Blaugrana handed a new contract to their talisman in November, 2017 to increase his annual wage to over $80m with Ronaldo recently joining Juventus to move closer to his rival's pay packet.

                                                                                        View most accurate soccer predictions...