Barcelona star Leo Messi has passed Juventus signing Cristiano Ronaldo as the highest earning player in the game.

Marca reports boasting sponsorship contracts with Adidas, Gatorade, Pepsi, Ooredoo, Huawei and Hawkers, the Argentine has numerous ways to supplement his Barcelona salary and will even be opening his own theme park in China in 2020.

Such deals equate to Messi earning 111 million US dollars in the last calendar year, according to Forbes.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, brought home 108m US dollars thanks to sponsorship from Nike, Herbalife, EA Sports, American Tourister, and his own CR7 brand of hotels, fragrances and more.

The Forbes list places Floyd Mayweather at the top of the pile thanks to the boxer's 285m US dollars worth of earnings in 2017, with Messi eighth among his fellow sports stars as well as actors and musicians.