Lionel Messi crosses the billion-dollar threshold: what lies behind the new financial milestone of the Argentine star
Lionel Messi, captain of the Argentine national team and Inter Miami, has crossed the billion-dollar threshold in Bloomberg's net worth estimate, Goal.com reported, citing the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. According to the available information, he has thus joined the very narrow circle of athletes whose wealth is estimated at at least ten figures in U.S. dollars, while in football he has once again found himself alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, who earlier became the first footballer in that financial category.
It is important, however, to emphasize that such estimates are not an official announcement by the player himself nor a publicly confirmed bank balance, but models that add up known salaries, bonuses, sponsorship contracts, investments, market values of assets and estimated returns, with adjustments for taxes and other costs. Bloomberg's analysis, also carried by the Spanish business newspaper Cinco Días from the El País group, states that Messi has earned more than 700 million dollars since 2007 from salaries and bonuses alone. When income from investments, commercial contracts and other business activities is added to that, his net worth is estimated above the one-billion-dollar mark.
This financial milestone comes at a time when Messi is in the final phase of his playing career, but also in a period in which his commercial value has gained new momentum after his arrival in the United States of America. In October 2025, Inter Miami officially announced that it had signed a contract extension with Messi until the end of the 2028 MLS season, thereby keeping the most recognizable name in its sporting and business strategy. According to the club's announcement, Messi then said that he was happy to remain in a project that, as he put it, had gone from a dream to reality, while Inter Miami's management presented the extension as an important step in building the club and a new stadium era.
From salaries and bonuses to a global business portfolio
Messi's wealth did not arise from a single contract, but from almost twenty years at the highest level of world football. He built his career at Barcelona, with whom he won the largest share of his club trophies, then played for Paris Saint-Germain, and since 2023 he has been playing for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer. During that period he became an eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, a world champion with Argentina and one of the most decorated footballers in history. It was precisely that combination of sporting performance and global recognizability that created the foundation for long-term income off the pitch.
According to Bloomberg data carried by Cinco Días, Messi has earned more than 700 million dollars in salaries and bonuses since 2007. That amount does not include only his most recent contracts, but also the years spent at Barcelona, the period at PSG and the MLS contract in Miami. In addition, publicly available data from the MLS Players Association show that Messi is listed in the 2026 salary guide with an annual base salary of 25 million dollars and guaranteed compensation of 28.33 million dollars. The association emphasizes that these amounts cover the contract with MLS, but do not include possible separate agreements with clubs, affiliated companies or external partners.
That note is important because Messi's American chapter is often described as one of the most innovative deals in modern football. Goal.com states that, in addition to salary, commercial elements connected with Inter Miami, media rights and partnership relationships are mentioned, including the broader MLS ecosystem and Apple's match broadcasts. The financial details of those arrangements are not fully public, which is why they should be viewed as estimates and journalistically confirmed claims, not as fully disclosed contractual items. Still, the available information clearly indicates that Messi's income in the United States is not limited only to a classic sporting salary.
Inter Miami as a sporting and business turning point
The move to Inter Miami in 2023 was a sporting decision, but also a business turning point. Instead of returning to Barcelona or accepting an exceptionally lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia, Messi chose MLS and a project in which the club's co-owners, including David Beckham and Jorge Mas, played an important role. According to Bloomberg's analysis carried by Cinco Días, after winning the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Messi rejected an offer worth around 400 million dollars a year to play in the Saudi league. In an earlier statement to Mundo Deportivo, quoted by the media, Messi said that money was neither a problem nor an obstacle for him and that, had the decision been exclusively financial, he would have gone to Saudi Arabia or somewhere else.
With Messi's arrival, Inter Miami gained an immediate sporting and market impact. According to the club's official announcement about the contract extension, Messi has been key since arriving in the summer of 2023 in winning the 2023 Leagues Cup and the 2024 Supporters' Shield, and the club states that by October 2025 he had scored 71 goals and recorded 44 assists in 82 appearances for Inter Miami in all competitions. These figures show that his value to the club was not only marketing-related, but also directly sporting.
The business value of Inter Miami has also risen sharply. Bloomberg's analysis, citing Sportico data, states that the club's value in the year to February rose by more than 20 percent and reached around 1.45 billion dollars. That growth cannot be attributed exclusively to one player, because a club's value is influenced by the market, stadium, revenues, sponsors and the development of MLS, but Messi was undoubtedly the most important individual accelerator of the club's global visibility. Since his arrival, Inter Miami has become one of the most followed football projects outside Europe, while interest in matches, sponsorships and media rights has grown significantly.
Why billionaire status in sport is no longer an exception
Messi's entry into the group of billionaire athletes is part of a broader change in professional sport. Previous generations of athletes most often reached such sums only after their careers, through ownership stakes, brands and investments. Michael Jordan is often cited as an example of an athlete whose wealth grew most outside the court, through sponsorship deals and a later stake in an NBA franchise. Roger Federer, according to business analyses, built a significant part of his wealth through investments and business stakes, especially outside tournament prize money itself.
In football, the picture has changed because of the explosion of revenue from television rights, sponsorships, global content sales and ever-larger contracts in leagues outside Europe. Cristiano Ronaldo became a symbol of that new era after moving to Al-Nassr, where enormous contractual sums in the Saudi league changed market expectations for the most famous players. Messi reached a similar financial threshold in a different way: through a combination of long-term earnings in Europe, sponsorship contracts, investments and an American business model that allows him to participate in the growth in value of the project in which he plays.
In May 2026, Forbes published a new list of the world's highest-paid athletes, on which Messi is once again among the best-paid in the world, while Ronaldo retained the top spot. Although individual amounts differ depending on methodology, the trend is clear: the most famous footballers no longer earn only through salary, but through a system that includes media rights, their own brands, long-term sponsorship contracts, stakes in clubs and investments in other sectors. That is why estimating someone's net worth becomes more complex and more dependent on market assumptions.
Business interests outside the football pitch
For years, Messi had the profile of an athlete who was considerably more restrained than Ronaldo in public marketing, but his business network has gradually expanded. Goal.com states that family members and advisers have played an important role in managing his business interests, while Bloomberg's analysis highlights investments in real estate, hospitality and consumer products. In recent years, the public has most often mentioned real estate projects, hotels, the El Club de la Milanesa restaurant, the Mas+ by Messi sports drink and other business activities connected with his name.
According to Goal.com, at the end of 2024 Messi listed a real estate investment vehicle on the Spanish capital market valued at 232 million dollars, which includes luxury hotels and commercial properties. Such moves point to a strategy by which income from his playing career is gradually being converted into assets that should create value even after the end of professional football. A similar pattern has already been seen among other sports stars who redirected part of their earnings into real estate, stakes in companies, brand licensing and ownership structures in sports organizations.
In the football sector, Messi has also begun building a portfolio of interests, according to media reports. Goal.com mentions his connection with the Uruguayan project Deportivo LSM, linked to Luis Suárez, and the purchase of the Spanish club UE Cornellà. Such information should be viewed as part of a broader trend in which former and active top footballers increasingly do not remain only ambassadors or coaches, but become investors, co-owners and strategic partners in clubs and sporting projects.
An estimate of wealth is not the same as officially disclosed assets
Although the news that Messi had crossed the billion-dollar threshold attracted great attention, estimates of the wealth of famous athletes should be read with caution. Net worth is not the same as total career earnings, because it includes the value of assets, investments, cash, stakes and potential rights, but also deductions for taxes, costs, liabilities and market changes. In the case of athletes who operate through private companies and family structures, a large part of the data is not publicly available, so estimates rely on known contracts, business registers, market values and conversations with industry sources.
That is why different figures appear in media reports. Forbes had previously listed a lower estimate of Messi's net worth in its profile, while the newer Bloomberg methodology, according to texts carried by Goal.com and Cinco Días, places his wealth above one billion dollars. The differences do not necessarily mean a contradiction, but reflect different methodologies, points in time and assumptions about the value of private investments, stakes and future income.
For the public, therefore, the general picture is most important: according to new business estimates, Messi has entered a financial category that until recently was reserved for only a few global sporting icons. That status further confirms how much football as an industry has changed. At the highest segment of the market, a sporting career is no longer only a source of salary, but a platform for ownership, investments, media and long-term commercial value.
Sporting legacy and financial future
Messi's financial story cannot be separated from his sporting legacy. With Argentina he won the 2022 World Cup, with Barcelona he marked one of the most successful periods in the history of club football, and in the United States he became the face of the new growth of MLS. According to Inter Miami, his contract until 2028 ties him to the club in a period in which further development of the Miami Freedom Park project, the club's new stadium and commercial center, is expected.
For MLS, keeping Messi is important also ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which is being jointly organized by the United States of America, Canada and Mexico. Although Messi has not publicly confirmed all the details of his plans for his national-team future, his presence in American football in the years leading up to the tournament further increases interest in the league and the market. Inter Miami therefore sees Messi not only as a player, but also as a central figure in the club's commercial development.
Ultimately, the news that Lionel Messi has crossed the billion-dollar threshold according to Bloomberg's estimate shows how the economics of elite sport have changed. His career began as a story about a talent from Rosario and Barcelona's early decision to invest in a boy from Argentina, and today it continues as an example of a global sports brand that has value on the pitch, in the media, in the sponsorship market and in investment portfolios. That does not change sporting debates about his place in football history, but it clearly shows that Messi, along with trophies and records, has also become one of the most important business phenomena of modern sport.
Sources:
- Goal.com – report on Bloomberg's estimate of Messi's net worth and the business context of his entry into the billionaire club (link)
- Cinco Días / Bloomberg – analysis of Messi's wealth, salaries, investments and comparison with other billionaire athletes (link)
- Inter Miami CF – official announcement of Lionel Messi's contract extension until the end of the 2028 MLS season and club data on his performance (link)
- MLS Players Association – MLS player salary guide for 2026 and explanation of the guaranteed compensation methodology (link)
- Forbes – list of the world's highest-paid athletes for 2026 and context of global sports earnings (link)