Messi receives the highest salary in the world, almost double Ronaldo's

According to L'Équipe's annual study, the top 10 highest-paid footballers in Europe have been selected. Of these 10, 5 play in Spain, 2 in France, 2 in England and only 1 in Italy.

Modern footballers' salaries are astronomical, but according to L'Equipe's list, Messi's is simply staggering. The Barca superstar signed a new contract in November 2017 that put him at the top of the list with a salary of £7.3 million (€8.3 million). This is almost double the salary of his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who earns £4.1 million (€4.7 million) a month before tax.

In what is little surprise, third is Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann, who earns £2.9m (€3.3m) a month after renewing his contract ahead of the 2018 World Cup this summer.

Paris Saint-Germain's Neymar sadly ranked fourth with reported monthly earnings of £2.7m (€3.-6m) while Luis Suarez ranked fifth with a monthly salary of £2.5m (€2.9m).

The highest paid faces in football

Real Madrid's Gareth Bale (£2.2m), Philippe Coutinho (£2m), Alexis Sanchez (£1.97m), Kylian Mbappe (£1.5m) and Mesut Ozil (£1.4m) complete the top 10.

Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski failed to make the top 10 list with reported monthly earnings of £1.2m (€1.33m).

L'Équipe also released a list of Ligue 1's top earners, and unsurprisingly, the top five are all PSG players. Neymar and Mbappe are the top two, with Edinson Cavani (£1.3m), Thiago Silva (£1m) and Angel Di Maria (£1m) rounding out the rest.

The French newspaper also reported that Mbappe's monthly salary increased by £160,000 (€180,000) between his first and second seasons at the Paris club following his move from Monaco.