REVEALED: Lionel Messi’s earnings as best paid MLS player of all time

It’s been almost four months since Inter Miami announced the biggest signing in Major League Soccer history; Lionel Messi.

The 36-year-old former Barcelona forward, who was offered €400 million [£344m] a year to join Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal, decided to sign a two-year deal in Fort Lauderdale worth a reported $54 million (£41m].

That base salary, however, could potentially rise to around $62 million (£47m), according to The Express, who have posted a breakdown of that sum.

Messi, who has been in Miami for 17 weeks, takes home a sum of around £918,369 a week, which is the equivalent to:

£131,196 a day
£5,466 an hour
£91.11 a minute
£1.52 a second
A long-term partnership with Adidas also contributes to these sums. Messi’s deal with the sportswear brand is worth a reported £18 million a year, reportedly second only to Neymar, who is said to be paid £32 million by Puma.

The above report also suggests those above numbers could also increase with a potential deal involving a share of the streaming revenue between MLS and Apple.

If those details are accurate, then Messi will have already netted $20.4 million [£16.6m].

Back in October, the MLS Players Association shared information on player wages for the third year running as part of a collective bargaining agreement that runs until 2027.

Messi topped the list, of course, while Toronto forward Lorenzo Insigne and Chicago Fire winger Xherdan Shaqiri completed the top three with total salaries of $15.4 million and $8.1 million respectively.

Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez of LA Galaxy ($7.44 million) and Federico Bernardeschi ($6.3 million) both make the top five.

Lionel Messi’s teammate, Sergio Busquets ($1.75 million) and Jordi Alba ($1.25 million) do not feature in the top ten, although Gerardo Martino’s side lead the wage bill with $39.419 million in “guaranteed compensation”.