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

Lionel Messi (Getty Images)

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.

Lionel Messi earns a reported £336,000-a-week (Getty Images)

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