Lionel Messi is playing explosively for Inter Miami this season. That was clearly concretized with the star who won the Golden Ball title 8 times scoring 9 goals and had 10 assists in MLS 2024. Along with his explosive performance, Messi also took home the title. Champion on the MLS salary rankings.
According to statistics published by the MLS Players Association, the superstar of Inter Miami Club and Argentina National Team regularly pockets a salary of 20.45 million USD per year. Toronto striker Lorenzo Insigne ranked second with a salary of 15.44 million USD/year. Messi’s teammate, Sergio Busquets, ranked third on the list of Top 10 players with the highest salary in MLS with a salary of 8.77 million USD/year.
A detail worth mentioning is that the star duo Busquets and Messi alone account for 70% of Inter Miami’s total salary budget, a record number in MLS. Meanwhile, Messi’s other teammates at Inter Miami such as Luis Suarez or Jordi Alba only receive a salary of 1.5 million USD/year, a very low number compared to their previous contracts in Europe.
Also according to statistical results of the MLS Players Association, Inter Miami ranks first in the list of clubs that pay players the most in the American professional soccer league. The total salary that Inter Miami paid to its players this season reached 41.7 million USD, double that of many teams in MLS, such as Toronto (31.4 million USD), Chicago Fire (25 million USD). .1 million USD) or Nashville (21.4 million USD). Surprisingly, MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew only ranked 21st on this list with a total salary paid to its players of 15.19 million USD/year.