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Messi Earns £20m per year To Surpass Ronaldo As World’s Highest Paid Football Player

Lionel Messi has signed a restructured contract extension with Barcelona that makes the Argentina international the world’s highest-paid football player.

Barcelona had originally announced the deal on Friday and says it was officially signed on Monday.

The Catalan club says Messi “was very motivated by the deal.”

The 26-year-old Messi will earn £16 million per season with further incentives able to drive the deal up to £20 million per year until the contract ends in 2017-18 – surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo’s deal with Real Madrid. Messi also has a buy-out clause of £203 million.

Messi’s previous contract ran through the 2017-18 season and was worth a reported £13 million per season.

Messi’s deal comes two days after Barcelona lost its Spanish league title to Atletico Madrid following a 1-1 draw between the teams at its Camp Nou Stadium.

A statement on the club’s website said: “FC Barcelona would like to announce that Leo Messi and the club signed a revised contract this afternoon.

“The signing took place in the presence of Leo Messi, his father Jorge Messi and the club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, as well as the sporting vice-president Jordi Mestre and the club CEO, Antoni Rossich.

“During the signing, which was made in the presidential box at the Camp Nou, Leo Messi repeatedly expressed his excitement about the new deal.”