Lionel Messi's Eye-Watering Contract Dwarfs American Sports Stars

Lionel Messi's contract situation has been a long-running saga at Barcelona, with returning president Joan Laporta finally offering the Nou Camp icon a new deal recently.

However, as it stands, the 33-year-old could still leave the club for free in the summer, which will have alerted the biggest clubs across the continent to his availability.

Until then, though, the Argentina international will be playing on his current deal, which isn't too bad itself. According a leak released Spanish publication El Mundo, Messi is earning a whopping $673,919,105 (£487,479,385) over the whole of his four-year contract if all conditions are met.

American lending company Titlemax has taken this number, and compared it with the top-earning US athletes. It turns out that on a per-match basis, Messi is wiping the floor with the basketball, baseball, and American Football stars.

The Barcelona captain brings in $3,743,995 (£2,707,975) for every match that he plays in, while next on the list is Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes with $2,619,791 (£1,894,856).

While Messi hasn't been breaking quite as many records as he ages on that hefty wage packet in recent seasons, the forward still has a healthy 23 goals and eight assists in 28 La Liga appearances this season.

His performances, as always, have been key for the Blaugrana, with manager Ronald Koeman surely thankful to his star player for digging the team out of the terrible form they started the campaign in.

However, is he really worth this much cash?