Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest earning player in the world, ahead of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, according to the latest study revealed by Forbes.

Nowadays, players earn incredible amounts of money and top performers like Ronaldo, Messi, Suarez et al are richly rewarding by their respective clubs and sponsors for being the best players in the world. They are enormous social media stars with global name recognition.

These players help “monetize the huge, real-time social media networks that their respective teams represent”, and as a result they’re making much more money than people in other professions.

Forbes have taken into account the revenue and operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, player trading and disposal of player registrations) figures are for the 2014-15 season, converted into U.S. dollars based on the average exchange rate for that period.

Here is the list of top 10 highest earning players (2014-15) in the world: 

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) $82.1 mil

2. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) $76.5 mil

3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG) $37.1 mil

4. Neymar (Barcelona) $36.3 mil

5. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) $34.4 mil

6. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) $25.8 mil

7. Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) $24.4 mil

8. Luis Suarez (Barcelona) $22.8 mil

9. Eden Hazard (Chelsea) $22.2 mil

10. Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea) $20.8 mil

Ronaldo pockets at least $5m more than what Messi earns at Barcelona. However, the Catalan giants have more representatives in the top 10 than their arch-rivals Madrid.

Gareth Bale, who joined Madrid for a world record fee from Spurs in 2013, finds himself in the fifth position. In comparison, the MSN trio all feature in the top 10 list, with Neymar and Suarez holding the 4th and 8th positions respectively.

PSG’s world class striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is on 3rd, but it remains to be seen whether he can hold on to that position next season, as the Swede striker is likely to move away from Parc des Princes in the summer.

Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney, who reportedly earns around £300k-per-week, is at 6th ahead of Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero.

Chelsea duo Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas have also made the top 10 list, with the Belgian winger earning as much money as Barcelona’s Suarez.