LONDON - Lionel Messi was denied a potentially money-spinning move away from Barcelona this month after a contract dispute but the Argentinian maestro remains the world's richest football player.
In June, Forbes had declared the Portuguese the world's first footballing billionaire on its list of the top five highest-grossing athletes of 2019. The Premier League remains the world's richest domestic football league but only two of its outfield players feature in the top 10 of the wealth table - Liverpool's title-winning striker Mohamed Salah in fifth spot and Manchester United's midfielder Paul Pogba in sixth. Pogba's team-mate, goalkeeper David de Gea is 10th.