Soccer is renowned as the most popular sport on the planet, which makes many of their players amongst the richest ever in their countries. On the other hand, tennis is known to pay extremely well after soccer and golf due to its tremendous following and strong ecosystems in Europe, United Kingdom, the Americas and some Asian and African countries too. Novak Djokovic and Lionel Messi are considered the GOATs of tennis and football respectively.
The reason behind that is their ability to consistently win when in action and market themselves extremely well when not over the years. Soccer and tennis run on the same capitalist-like principle largely – ‘The more one wins on merit, the more one earns.’ Yet, many would be surprised to know that Lionel Messi was largely challenged by Novak Djokovic when it comes to year-by-year salaries at one point in time.
Did Messi earn only $6.8 million more than Djokovic from 2011-2016?
The answer to this question seems to be a yes. If we begin with Lionel Messi, the Argentine and then FC Barcelona superstar, was earning an estimated $17.64 million in annual salary as per the contract he has signed with the LaLiga club. This was during the period of 2008-2013.
But it would perhaps be safe to say that Lionel Messi’s peak years in his younger days with Barcelona coincided largely with Novak Djokovic in tennis. This was between 2011 and 2016. So if 2011 and 2012 are taken and just fixed salary, then Messi earned a total of approximately $35.28 million.
Now a footballer’s contract is much more complex considering that it is a team sport and the increasing commercialisation of it over the years. On the other hand, a tennis player’s income valuation is simpler as they need to lay their hands on guaranteed prize money in every tournament promised to them. The only variable is perhaps the bonuses a player earns from tournament organisers or their country’s tennis association if they do exceedingly well.
As a result, only Lionel Messi’s fixed salary is being compared here to Novak Djokovic’s total prize money winnings per year. So Djokovic actually announced himself as a tennis biggie in 2011 with 3 Grand Slam wins. Those largely contributed to his overall prize money coming up to a whopping $12.62 million. While in 2012, the 23-time Grand Slam champion topped that by taking home approximately $12.8 million. The total adds up to $25.42 million.
Although Novak Djokovic was nearly $10 million behind Lionel Messi at that stage, tennis was also getting richer for the big winners as much as football was for its superstars respectively. The period of 2013-2016 is where the comparison gets incredibly fascinating. Lionel Messi renewed his contract with Barcelona in 2013, worth an estimated $14.75 million per year respectively until 2018.
So for the following 4 years, Lionel Messi ended up earning $59 million in just fixed salary as he grew into virtually an undefeatable monster on the field and led his team to several title wins in the LaLiga, Europe and the world. And it was during that time when Novak Djokovic went past Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer as the man to beat in world tennis. In 2013, the Serbian legend earned another $12.45 million.
Novak Djokovic went from strength-to-strength, earning $14.27 million in 2014. His blockbuster season till date was in 2015 when he won 3 Grand Slams and lost just 6 matches. It fetched him a mouthwatering $21.15 million in a single season, something unheard of before in men’s tennis as most players just end up with that prize money when they retire after years of playing.
Although Novak Djokovic struggled in the last quarter of 2016, he managed to pocket another $14.14 million that year due to a terrific start to the season. Now, adding up all of Djokovic’s salaries above from 2013, it had reached $62.11 million by then. That’s an unthinkable $3.11 million more than Lionel Messi did during that period.
It is still quite an accomplishment for Novak Djokovic as not even the great Roger Federer could do it. Federer and Messi is normally considered an apt comparison due to their billion dollar earnings if endorsements are also added. But coming back to Messi and Djokovic’s salaries from 2011 to 2016, the former was only leading the latter by a mere $6.8 million roughly. The competition would have only heated up until….
Lionel Messi 2017 Barcelona deal beat Novak Djokovic winnings
Novak Djokovic had just one poor year in the 2010s, which was bound to arrive at some point. Djokovic realised how brutal a sport tennis, especially when playing in singles is, in 2017. He only could earn a meagre $2.12 million in prize money with the resurgence of Federer and Nadal and his own injuries.
Although Djokovic did rebound in style in 2018 and 2019 to earn a cumulative $29.34 million, Messi had overtaken him by a much wider margin by then. In 2017, Messi received a contract extension which was largely due to the football legend being disgruntled with the club’s management and the team’s inconsistent form. It is largely believed that Barcelona were trailblazers in offering Messi a never-heard-of-before fixed salary per year worth $114 million to keep him from leaving the club.
As a result, from 2017-2019, Lionel Messi had earned $342 million. This amount was nearly 11.5 times more than Novak Djokovic did in that period. So overall, if the 2011-2016 period is also taken of both the players, Messi (with nearly $436 million) trumped Djokovic (approx. $119 million) by almost 3.5 times.
