Arace: Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe are more relatable when they turn backs on Saudi money
Babe Ruth, who in 1920 hit more home runs than 14 of the other 15 teams in Major League Baseball, said a lot of great things, including “If it wasn’t for baseball, I’d either be in the penitentiary or the cemetery.”
In 1930 or ‘32 (historians differ), Ruth demanded that his $80,000 contract be extended. When writers suggested that was an outrageous ask given that it was the height of the Depression and the figure represented a salary greater than that of Herbert Hoover, the president of the United States, Ruth responded:
“What the hell does Hoover have to do with this? Anyway, I had a better year than he did.”
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In round numbers, Ruth made $165,000 over the course of his 22-year playing career, which ended in 1935. That’s around $3.7 million in today’s dollars, which sounds like a healthy enough figure – but it wasn’t a fraction of Ruth’s value as a gate attraction. Baseball’s reserve clause, which rendered players virtually powerless, was not abolished until 1975. Then came free agency.
LeBron James has earned more than $430 million in salary through 20 seasons, according to spotrac.com. Last year, he famously became the first active NBA player to surpass $1 billion in net worth, a figure that includes earnings from his off-court business interests, according to Forbes.
Not bad.
Lionel Messi is another net-worth billionaire (although, like LeBron, he’s still worth about half as much as Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods). Messi’s last contract with Paris St. Germain paid him $82 million over two seasons. When it was up, he was offered a multiyear contract by a Saudi Arabian team, a contract that was reportedly worth $400 million a year.
Messi turned it down and signed with Inter Miami. Good for him. How much money does one man need? If you’re earning 1% interest on $1 billion, that’s $10 million a year (more than $27,000 a day). And if you’re Messi, that doesn’t even include the salary you’re drawing from Miami and whatever you’re making on the side from Adidas, Gatorade, Pepsi and the rest.
What is Messi’s deal with Inter Miami? It’s not well-defined, not publicly, but the owner of the team has indicated that it is worth $60 million a year, including salary, a stake in the team and a signing bonus. It does not include what his lawyers are negotiating with Apple, which owns MLS’s international broadcast and streaming rights, and Adidas, one of Messi’s longtime business partners and another a major MLS sponsor.
Suffice, there is more to come, given that Messi’s landing in Miami makes Beckham’s landing in LA look like a paddleboard excursion when it comes to the potential impact of soccer on the world’s largest economic market.
Cristiano Ronaldo, whose supermodel ex-girlfriend has been romantically linked with Tom Brady (net worth $287.5 million, or in the range of his supermodel ex-wife), took the Phil Mickelson (net worth: $300 million, before gambling debts) route and grabbed the Saudi Arabia blood money.
Ronaldo’s contract with Al-Nassr is worth $220 million a year; his net worth might be over $1 billion, although there are lesser figures floating around on the web. Hopefully, Ronaldo and Lefty won’t be chopping up any journalists, but if Mohammed bin Salman gives them the order – and MBS has done it before – they can come after me. My wife can use the insurance money (net worth: a used car). And I have a very good lawyer (Randy Kilbride, a constitutional scholar).
Which brings us to Kylian Mbappe, 24, who is oft touted as the best soccer player in the world right now. Some of this has to do with the fact that Messi is 35. Anyway, the Saudi team that offered Messi and failed has reached out to Mbappe and to his current club team, Paris Saint-Germain: $775 million to Mbappe, for just for one year, and $332 million in transfer feet for PSG.
Grand total: $1.07 billion, which is close to LeBron’s net worth.
PSG wants the money. Mbappe is meh.
Mbappe’s current contract, with an annual payout of $92 million, is in its final year. He can turn down Al-Hilal – and it looks like he will. PSG is treating him as some kind of pariah, but PSG should have been better prepared, given that Mbappe’s wishes have long been clear. Mbappe has always wanted to play for the team he rooted for as a kid, Real Madrid. Now he’s in a position to do so on a free transfer next year. He doesn’t seem to need $775 million in the interim. For him, that’s not the point. That could change. I hope it doesn’t. How much does one person need? What does one stand for during this brief time on Earth?
I root for Messi, who is on a New World mission in this, the final leg of his playing career. I root for Mbappe to hold firm, and to avoid being Brooks Koepka, even for a year. Following a dream, and playing for your favorite team, is something all of us can relate to. It makes Mbappe a name rather than a number.
The money is crazy, but it has always been thus. According to Peter T. Struck, Chair of the Classical Studies department at the University of Pennsylvania, “The Greatest of All Time” was Gaius Appuleius Diocles, a chariot racer in ancient Rome who amassed 35,863,120 sesterces over a 20-plus year career.
In today’s money, that’s around $15 billion – or 17,000 times Babe Ruth’s net worth when he died in 1948.
Diocles went to the big Circus Maximus in the sky in 146 AD.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Following dreams won't cause Kylian Mbappe or Lionel Messi to starve
