Lionel Messi is one of the best players the world has ever seen, and it comes as no surprise that the Barcelona player is one of the highly-paid (in terms of weekly wages) footballers on the planet. However, according to International Journal of Computer Science in Sport (IJCSS) report, Messi is the most overpaid player in the world.
This might come as a surprise to many as the Argentine has helped Barcelona get a number of trophies during his current span in La Liga. He is said to have scored 376 goals for Barcelona, and it is his skills on the pitch, which bamboozles defenders, that has helped him win a number of individual awards as well.
He has won the highest individual award, Ballon d'Or five times in the past, establishing himself as one of the greatest that has ever played the beautiful game. Still, the IJCSS is not convinced that Messi justifies his salary.
The IJCSS had a detailed look into the wages that the player earns, and they chose 2016 as the base year from top Europe leagues. A number of variables including age, position, club among others were used to come to a conclusion, which stated that Messi was being paid much more than what he actually deserves as salary from Barcelona.
The report goes on to state that he earns 50% more.
"A player such as Lionel Messi receives a weekly wage of €550,000 given that part of it is sponsorship, merchandise sales, image rights, and other incomes outside the scope of wins or performance on the field," Goal quoted from a report.
"Using pattern recognition, Messi's predicted salary computed based on the performance and wages of the current football players in the major football leagues would have been about 50% less, although according to the method he would still be the world's highest paid player."
Irrespective of whether the report is right or wrong, looking at how Messi dominates world football with his skills, Barcelona will not be perturbed with it. As long as Barcelona win titles and Messi score goals, the club management will be more than happy.
