Manchester City vs Barcelona: Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero and Co set to be paid £12 for every minute of tonight's Champions League match
The facts and figures that show just how much players from Barcelona and Manchester City will be paid for tonight's game
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.When Manchester City take on Barcelona tonight in the Champions League last-16 first leg, just take a moment to appreciate the talent on display, as the likes Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Neymar and David Silva take to the Etihad Stadium.
Then cower behind your sofa at the thought of how much they’re all getting paid to play 90 minutes of football.
We’ve crunched the numbers to determine how the true value of tonight’s encounter will end up feeding back to the players via their wages.
With the two predicted starting XI’s, we’ve determined that over the course of the 90 minutes, they will collectively receive a reported £23,906.25.
In the grand scheme of astronomical wages, TV rights deals and tournament prize money, this may not seem like such a big figure to see attributed to a Champions League tie.
However, when broken down, it soon becomes easy to see just how much the world’s best footballers receive in comparison to the rest of us.
£336,000 – What Lionel Messi picks up each week in his basic salary (excluding any goal incentives).
£23,906.25 – The sum that all 22 starting players will receive collectively for playing 90 minutes.
£265.63 – How much they will earn collectively every minute.
£12 – Each player will individually receive on average £12 a minute
£7.85 – The national living wage that the majority of Premier League clubs are refusing to pay contracted staff per hour.
13p – What clubs would be paying every minute if they met the national living wage.
The graphic below shows the top 11 players on the highest weekly wage, just in case you didn't feel bad enough already.
Graphics by Zachary Boren
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments