Cristiano Ronaldo Beats Messi, Tops the Highest Paid Footballers Chart

- Cristiano Ronaldo recently lost FIFA The best Award to Robert Lewandowski

- The 35-year-old won his second straight Serie A title this year

- The Portuguese beats Lionel Messi, Neymar, seven others to become the highest-paid player in 2020

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Embattled Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil has been shortlisted among the top ten football stars in the outgoing year.

The 2014 World Cup winner has been frozen out of Arsenal squad across all competitions this campaign with Mikel Arteta backing his decision up.

However, the 32-year-old's income in the year 2020 stands at £23 million (R451 068 418,97) - about £700,000 (R 13 725 866,00) better than Paul Pogba's earnings in the year under review.

Though this windfall might come to an end in the summer when his current deal with the North Londoners expires.

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Meanwhile, Juventus forward, Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest-paid footballer this year having earned a total of £88.5 million (R1 742 014 197,24).

The 35-year-old beats his arch-rival, Lionel Messi (£83.4m or R1 636 937 599,11 ) to the summit of the chart with about £2.4 million or R47 106 117,96

Brazil and Paris Saint Germain forward Neymar Jr completes the top three chart with annual pay of £76.6m or R1 504 744 188,00.

Liverpool forward is next to the former Barcelona attacker but the gap in their earnings is extremely wide.

The Egyptian goal king takes home £28.2 million every year - about a £48.4m difference between the third and fourth as reported by The Mirror.

French striker Kylian Mbappe wrapped up the top five highest earners in the outgoing year with £27.1 million. Barcelona star Antoine Griezmann came 10th on the log with £21.4m.

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1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) - £85.8m

2. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - £83.4m

3. Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain) - £76.6m

4. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) - £28.2m

5. Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain) - £27.1m

6. Andres Iniesta (Vissel Kobe) - £23.7m

7. Mesut Ozil (Arsenal) - £23m

8. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) - £22.8m

9. Oscar (Shanghai SIPG) - £22m

10. Antoine Griezmann (Barcelona) - £21.4m

Briefly.co.za also reported that Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has been crowned the 'king of assists' in the last decade, having set up his teammates 136 times in the period under review. The 32-year-old finished at the top of the chart after beating his countryman Angel di Maria (108), Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil (106) and Bayern Munich star Thomas Muller (103) to the record

Edinson Cavani, Robert Lewandowski and Luiz Suarez complete the top five goal scorers in the same period.

Apart from that, the Argentine scooped two UEFA Champions League titles, two UEFA Super Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups in 2011 and 2015. Ronaldo won four of UEFA's elite championshipS between 2014 and 2018 - and he remains the most successful in the history of the competition with five titles in total.

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