Soccer legend Lionel Messi has received a salary of $674 million over the past four years

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Here are the numbers of the contract Messi signed back in 2017, via Italian reporter Fabrizio Romano: €555,237,619 over four years, with an annual salary of €138 million including variables, a €115 million “renewal fee” and a €77 million loyalty bonus.

Those numbers translate out to $674 million for the entire contract, $167 million per year, $139 million renewal fee and a $94.6 million loyalty bonus in 2020 dollars.

Compare that to Mahomes’ 10-year, $503 million deal (in reality a $450 million due to some creative accounting) or Mike Trout’s 12-year, $420 million contract, and you’ll see that the highest reaches of European soccer blow away American sports salaries. Messi’s contract is higher than the highest reaches of the biggest contract on record, and it’s only over the course of four years. The total money over the course of the contract comes out to about $320.55 per minute.

In fact, Messi’s $167 million annual income is higher than the combined salaries of Trout, LeBron James, Tom Brady and Connor McDavid this year, according to Spotrac’s numbers for yearly cash.

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