Lionel Messi Tops Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar as World's Highest-Paid Footballer

Lionel Messi's annual earnings of €74 million (£59.3 million) saw him top Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona team-mate Neymar as the world's highest-paid footballer in 2015. 

According to France Football (h/t AFP via Fox Sports), Ronaldo earned €67.4 million (£54 million), while Brazilian Neymar took in €43.5 million (£34.8 million) to keep the top three the same for the third year running.

The report explained that the estimates took into account "players' pre-tax salaries, sponsorship revenues and various bonuses."

It is little surprise that Neymar's earnings are significantly less than Ronaldo and Messi's, as it was recently alleged that his contract with Barca returns €5 million (£4 million) a year, per Football Leaks (via the Sun's Toby Gannon).

Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Forbes reported Messi's annual salary from the Catalan giants as $51.8 million (£36.2 million) and Ronaldo's as $52.6 million (£36.8 million) at Los Blancos.

However, the 24-year-old Brazilian is undoubtedly in line for a much improved contract with Barca and is reportedly in talks over a new deal up to 2021, per Spanish radio station COPE (via Goal.com).

Messi, 28, was crowned the world's best player for 2015 back in January as he picked up a fifth Ballon d'Or, winning the gong back off Ronaldo, 31, for the first time since 2012—Unibet provided the full voting breakdown:

It was Neymar's first time in the Ballon d'Or's top three and surely not his last. He has shown this season that he is the heir apparent to Ronaldo and Messi as the world's best player, netting 21 times and providing 10 assists so far in the La Liga campaign, per WhoScored.com.

He and Messi are also still on for a remarkable second consecutive treble.

Despite a recent slip up in form in La Liga, Barca still lead the Spanish top flight by three points. They are also in the Copa del Rey final and Bleacher Report's Dean Jones and Sam Tighe are confident they will advance past Atletico Madrid to the Champions League semi-finals:

Yet more glory for Barca domestically and in Europe this term would see Messi and Neymar, once again, rewarded handsomely with bonuses to boost their 2016 earnings.

Per France Football's report, Paris Saint-Germain's Angel Di Maria was the top-earning player in France in 2015 following his summer move from Manchester United, with the Argentinian eclipsing even Zlatan Ibrahimovic by taking home €24 million (£19.2 million).

Similar earnings for former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho made him the highest paid coach of the year ahead of Bayern Munich's Pep Guardiola and Fabio Capello—most recently in charge of Russia.