Top 10 Highest Paid Footballers in the World

#1 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - €8,300,000/Month

FC Barcelona v Olympique Lyonnais - UEFA Champions League Round of 16: Second Leg

Lionel Messi is a 31-year-old right winger who currently plays for Barcelona in La Liga. He has also represented Argentina's national team 129 times, since making his debut back in August 2005. Messi is the current Captain of the side.

For years now, Messi has been battling with Cristiano Ronaldo for the title of the "best player in the world", and still, nobody can separate them. They are footballers who operate on a different level entirely from everybody else, with stats that are simply unbelievable to read. For instance, Messi has scored 169 goals in 167 games for Barcelona over the past five seasons -- truly staggering.

Messi transferred from Newell's U19 squad to Barcelona's youth academy in the summer of 2000, when he was 13 years old. By the time he was 15, he was training with Barcelona's U17 team; the following summer, he was bumped to the U19s; and six months after that, he was given a chance in Barcelona C.

His tenure with Barcelona C lasted less than a month, such was the speed he was progressing at, and he was promoted to Barcelona's B team. Eventually, in the summer of 2005, at age 17, Messi made his first start for Barcelona's senior team -- the rest is history.

Messi has never played for another club besides Barcelona and is unlikely to now that he's entered his 30s. It would make sense for him to stay with the club he began at, and go down in history as a club legend.

Lionel Messi's staggering €8,300,000 monthly salary can be broken down to €2,075,000-per-week in wages.