7 world-class footballers who took a pay cut to move elsewhere: Mbappe, Messi…

Footballers are among the highest-paid athletes in the world but contrary to popular belief, not all of them are in for it for the money.

While the players at the elite level tend to take home vast sums of money, several world-class players have accepted pay cuts over the years to move elsewhere.

We’ve taken a closer look at how much the top stars earn and have found seven examples of world-class players accepting pay cuts.

Kylian Mbappe

PSG moved heaven and earth to keep Mbappe in the French capital back in 2021. It seemed almost nailed on that he was going to sign for Real Madrid that summer until PSG offered him a deal he couldn’t refuse.

Along with calling the shots at PSG, Mbappe was taking home a mouthwatering weekly salary of £1.1million during his last two years at the club.

He’s since joined Real Madrid on a free transfer and unsurprisingly has had to take a pay cut in the process.

After penning a five-year deal with the La Liga giants, Mbappe is now taking home a weekly salary of around £500,000 – which pales in comparison to what he was earning at PSG.

However, it does have to be mentioned that along with earning half a million pounds a week, the Frenchman will also take home an extra £128million as part of his signing-on fee.

Lionel Messi

The Argentine wizard is the highest-earning player in Barcelona’s history and he was also taking home a huge chunk of change while at PSG.

After earning a reported £1million per week in the French capital, Messi accepted an 80% wage cut to join MLS outfit Inter Miami last year.

However, despite Messi’s base earnings being significantly lower, the deal to join Inter Miami did involve several other incentives such as revenue-sharing agreements with Adidas and Apple.

In other words, we’re sure his bank balance is doing just fine.

Antoine Griezmann

Plenty of world-class players have failed to live up to expectations at Barcelona over the years and Griezmann certainly falls into that category.

The Frenchman was signed for over £100million and was earning just over £600,000 per week, but struggled to showcase his best form while at Camp Nou.

He’s since got back on track with Atletico Madrid and to rejoin Diego Simeone’s team in 2022, he accepted a pay cut of over £400,000 per week.

READ NEXT: Where are they now? The 7 players Barcelona signed to replace Lionel Messi in 2021-22

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Luis Suarez

During his final season with Barcelona, Suarez was earning a weekly salary of £484,000. After being pushed out of the club by Ronald Koeman, he joined Atletico Madrid and the rest is history.

Suarez accepted almost a 50% pay cut to join Barcelona’s La Liga rivals and then fired them to the league title in his debut season. What a player.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Back in 2017, Ibrahimovic was one of Manchester United’s top earners and the Swedish forward took a significant pay-cut to join LA Galaxy in 2018.

As the MLS club didn’t have any Designated Player spots available at the time, Zlatan’s original contract in the United States was only worth £22,000 per week.

However, during his second year at the club, he became a designated player and his wage was then bumped up to just over £100,000.

READ: When a teenage Zlatan failed a trial at QPR… for telling coach to ‘f*ck off’

Alexis Sanchez

Considering his performances in a United shirt, it seems utterly bonkers that the club were once paying him £350,000 per week.

Unsurprisingly, he was forced to take a hefty pay cut to kickstart his career elsewhere. When signing for Inter Milan, Sanchez accepted a deal worth a reported £145,000 per week.

Gianluigi Buffon

The Italian shot-stopper earned just shy of £7million in wages during his solitary season with PSG. Despite being on a lucrative contract in France, the opportunity for him to return to Italy was too strong to resist.

“The return to Juve was natural. In the end, I had a wonderful year in Paris and I must say that I needed it to detoxify myself,” Buffon told Juventus TV.

When returning to the Allianz Stadium, Buffon accepted a 66% decrease in his wage packet. In fairness, the bloke was 41 years old at the time of the move and was behind Wojciech Szczesny in the pecking order.