Messi expands business off the field and becomes football’s second billionaire

Bloomberg — When Lionel Messi was a teenager, he received a life-changing offer to join FC Barcelona’s youth team. Drafted informally on a napkin, the contract included an unconventional clause: a commitment to pay for the young football player’s growth hormone treatment.

His local Argentine team, Newell’s Old Boys, had just set aside the expense as too big a gamble on an unproven player.

But for Barcelona, ​​it was perhaps the best money ever spent: The therapy proved effective and Messi’s career soared, leading the Spanish team to international glory.

Off the field, he has also just reached another major milestone, becoming a rare sports billionaire. Messi, 38, has earned more than $700 million in salary and bonuses since 2007, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

Adjusting for taxes, market performance and income from investments and sponsorships, his net worth has surpassed the $1 billion mark, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That puts him alongside longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese striker who became the sport’s first billionaire after joining Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr FC in 2023, as one of the world’s richest athletes.

While Ronaldo’s flamboyant personality has long proved a magnet for advertisers, from petroleum products to sportswear, Messi’s marketing machine in the early years of his career sometimes struggled to match his talent on the pitch.

However, more recently – under the guidance of his father Jorge – his business career has blossomed. A huge salary from current team Inter Miami, alleged TV revenue-sharing deals, real estate holdings and even a stake in an Argentine restaurant chain helped put him in the 10-figure club.

This could easily have happened before.

Many Messi watchers were surprised when the player, who had just led Argentina to victory in the 2022 World Cup, turned down a huge contract worth $400 million a year to play in the Saudi Pro League.

Instead, he opted to join Inter Miami, while Ronaldo signed his own Saudi contract in 2023, worth over $200 million per year.

“Money was never a problem for me, nor an obstacle at all,” Messi said in an interview with Mundo Deportivo that year. “If it was about money, I would have gone to Saudi Arabia or somewhere else.”

Historically, athletes who have earned $1 billion or more have done so largely through investments. Roger Federer earned more than $130 million in prize money during his playing career, but a deal to buy a 3% stake in Swiss running shoe brand On in 2019 became the biggest source of his wealth after the brand’s shares soared.

Michael Jordan, despite being one of the highest-paid NBA players of his time, earned less than $100 million in career salary, with a stake in the Charlotte Hornets and endorsement deals contributing the majority of his wealth.

However, a recent increase in salaries for top athletes, especially in football, has allowed the sport’s biggest stars to earn $1 billion or more in salaries alone.

The Miami deal also brought innovative benefits for Messi, including an unusual equity option that gives him the right to buy a stake in the club, in which retired English star David Beckham is already a shareholder.

While it is unclear what role – if any – Messi has taken on his American team since joining, Inter Miami’s fortunes have been on the rise.

The club’s value rose by more than a fifth in the year to February, and reached around $1.45 billion, according to Sportico. They are currently the most valuable football team in the US, ranking 16th globally and ahead of teams like Newcastle United.

Agreement with Apple

Messi’s move to the US also opened up other innovative ways of paying. During initial contract negotiations, the US Soccer League and Apple discussed a revenue-sharing agreement that would see Messi earn a portion of sales from new subscriptions to Apple TV+’s MLS Season Pass streaming package, according to The Athletic.

Jorge Mas, owner of Inter Miami, said that subscription to the streaming service doubled in the months after the player joined.

But, in an interview earlier this year, he indicated that Messi’s total annual payment to the club is between US$70 million and US$80 million, taking into account the player’s equity rights and remuneration.

Bloomberg was unable to independently verify the financial details of Messi’s deal with Apple.

Attempts to contact the Messi family through a press officer were unanswered. From a purely sporting point of view, the move to Inter was seen by some fans as a step down, following a well-trodden path of experienced stars to less celebrated footballing nations willing to pay for brand-name talent.

Before his move, Messi – considered by many to be the best player of all time – spent two years at French powerhouse Paris Saint Germain and, before that, led Barcelona to several Spanish and European titles. He has also won more Ballon d’Or titles than any other player.

But even when he became a star at the Catalan club in the 2000s, it took a while for his salary to really take off: When he signed a contract extension in 2009, Spanish media reported he was earning around $12 million a year. As salaries have inflated, last season ten of the team’s players were earning more than that per year, according to data from analytics provider Capology.

Messi has spent more than half his life in Spain and still maintains strong roots in Barcelona, ​​but is rarely interviewed by media outside of Argentina. Widely acclaimed in his home country, especially after winning in 2022, he struggled in his early years, partly due to his shyness and also because many fans made harsh comparisons with Diego Maradona.

This is something he is struggling with to this day. In an interview with an Argentine streaming service earlier this year, he described himself using a local term for a socially awkward person, adding that he becomes restless when daily plans change and that watching TV at home alone is among his favorite pastimes.

Off-field business

Messi relies heavily on his father Jorge for much of his off-field dealings, and turns to him as an agent, business manager and advisor. Alfonso Nebot Armisen, a little-known Spanish banker, has run his private investment firm since 2009.

At times, however, his businesses attracted the attention of Spanish tax authorities, along with other colleagues, including Ronaldo.

A decade ago, he was found guilty, along with Jorge, of defrauding the Spanish government of around 4 million euros between 2007 and 2009, due to income obtained from image rights that went to shell companies. He was sentenced to prison time and fines, but ultimately avoided prison.

Since then, he has been diversifying. In December 2024, he listed a REIT on a small Spanish exchange, valued at US$232 million. The company, Edificio Rostower Socimi, owns several hotels and other commercial properties.

He is also expanding the business into consumer goods: in 2024, he launched the Más+ by Messi sports drink in partnership with Mark Anthony International SRL, the drinks group behind Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

He also joined Argentine restaurant chain El Club de la Milanesa, which specializes in the type of breaded steak that is a staple in the Latin American country and one of Messi’s favorite dishes, as an investor – in part to help with its international expansion.

Like Ronaldo, and perhaps with an eye on his post-playing days, he is also building a portfolio of football clubs, with the recent announcement that he was acquiring Spanish fifth division team Cornella, as well as his stake in Deportivo LSM, the Uruguayan team he co-owns with his friend and former teammate Luis Suárez.

Messi’s family also founded and runs a lower division club called Los Leones in his hometown of Rosario.

There may be more to come when Messi starts thinking about retirement, according to comments he made at a business forum in Miami last year.

“Football has an expiration date,” he said. “Business is something I enjoy and am learning about.”

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