Lionel Messi, The Businessman

We talked about Virat Kohli in the last article of this series. You can read that here. Let’s shift to a different sport, more specifically, the “GOAT” of that sport, at least one of the few contenders for that spot.

Leo Messi has won everything there is to win in the sport he plays, from Olympic medals to league titles. He’s won the coveted “Ballon d’Or” award a record 7 times, 2 more than anybody else in football. Here’s a glimpse.

While we can talk (or debate) about his GOAT status some other time, let’s come to the topic we’re interested in, the finances.

The 35-year-old football star has been No. 1 on Forbes’ Highest-Paid Athletes list twice (in 2019 and 2022), and ranked second in 2023. His on-field earnings were $65 million in 2022. And like most sports stars, his off-field earnings compare well with his salary, the number standing around $60 million in 2023 for the former.

He played for FC Barcelona for more than 15 years, starting when he was a teenager. In his last few years with the Spanish team, a contract leak showed that he was earning more than $150 million per year according to Forbes. He joined the French team Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, where he reportedly made more than $60 million over two years.

Messi endorses a number of brands, which earns him a considerable fortune by itself. His most famous associations are with brands like Adidas, PepsiCo and Budweiser. He also entered into a partnership with fan engagement platform Socios last year, which is estimated to pay him around $20 million every year. He also has his own clothing brand, with a retail store in Barcelona. The store was opened at the heart of Barcelona and sells premium clothes under the brand name Messi.

The global superstar also has a sprawling real estate portfolio, with properties in Spain, Argentina and the USA. All of these houses are worth millions of dollars. He also owns a hotel chain named MIM Hotels. The chain has properties in major tourist sites like Ibiza and Mallorca among other places.

And most probably, his best deal is the one he has gotten with his decision to join the US-based team Inter Miami. He will reportedly be earning more than $50 million every year there, and this does not include the revenue-sharing agreements with companies like Apple, Adidas and Fanatics.

Lionel Messi has earned over $1 billion cumulatively through the sport of football and the deals he is part of. He has a net worth of around $600 million. As we always do, let’s look at things we can learn from his journey to the top, since only looking at what he earns gets us nothing.

One, if you didn’t already know, Messi was diagnosed with Growth Hormone Deficiency at the age of 11. While diseases are out of our control, working hard in spite of them seems to be the decision most successful people make. Leo Messi and his family persisted with football training, even when it meant a financial setback due to the medications. And fortune did favour the bold, FC Barcelona signed him a few years later and agreed to pay for the required treatments. So if the guy can overcome an impediment to his body’s growth to become a star in a sport that requires power, endurance and speed, in addition to being prone to tackles from players most of the time larger than him, maybe our problems can be tackled too, no pun intended.

Two, you need to have people you trust at places and positions that can affect your finances. In his case, he has his brother and sister to overlook the hotel chain and retail store. Especially when money is involved, it becomes paramount to have trustable people at the helm since you can’t look over everything yourself, and that goes double for someone who has to travel and play around the world, round the year.

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