Highest paid footballers: Messi earns more than 3 million pounds a month more than Ronaldo

Lionel Messi is the highest paid footballer in Europe, beating Cristiano Ronaldo by more than 3 million pounds a month.

French publication The Team has published its annual report on the best football salaries and it is not surprising to see the two stars at the top of the list.

However, some may be shocked by the order of the names that follow, as well as by some inclusions in the group.

The list is composed entirely of Premier League, Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 players. The Bundesliga is the only top five to have no top 10 representatives.

Messi is in the lead, as Barcelona's talisman and La Liga's current top scorer earn 7.3 million pounds sterling ($ 9.5 million) a month before tax.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who is in Juventus' first year, is in second place with a salary of 4.1 million pounds, a little more than half of what his former rival wins.

Although many may expect Neymar to be left behind, the star of Paris Saint-Germain is in fourth place with a gain of 2.7 million pounds per month.

The third place goes to Antoine Griezmann, the star of Atletico Madrid and France, who won the sum of 2.9 million pounds sterling thanks to the new contract that he signed with the club after to have decided to snub Barcelona.

Messi's team mate, Luis Suarez, completes the top 5 by winning £ 2.5m to lead the line in Barcelona.

Real Madrid's Gareth Bale is sixth on the list, earning £ 2.2m at Bernabeu and is the only Real Madrid representative in the top 10.

Barcelona has three. In addition to Messi and Suarez, Philippe Coutinho is seventh on the list, since he earns £ 2 million from the contract that he signed with the La Liga club in January 2018.

The first representative of the Premier League is Alexis Sanchez, the Manchester United striker, who earns about 2 million pounds a month at Old Trafford.

The PSG is once again represented on the list. Teammate Kylian Mbappe collected £ 1.5m.

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Another Premier League player completes the top 10, as Mesut Ozil earns 1.4 million pounds a month with Arsenal.

The player who wins the most in the Bundesliga is Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich, who lost a monthly salary of 1.2 million pounds.

Neymar and Mbappe were almost joined by Edinson Cavani, who earns £ 1.3 million. In fact, the five highest paid players in Ligue 1, according to The Team are at PSG, Thiago Silva and Angel Di Maria complete this top five with around 1 million pounds a month.