Lionel Messi Becomes $1 Billion Sporting Billionaire After Inter Miami Move

4 articles · Updated · Bloomberg · May 22

Lionel Messi has joined Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the few active athletes to reach a $1 billion fortune, adding a new financial milestone to his career after moving to Inter Miami.
The milestone caps a rise that began when Barcelona signed him as a teenager and agreed to fund growth-hormone treatment that his local club, Newell’s Old Boys, had deemed too costly.
That early bet helped launch a career that brought Messi and Barcelona sustained international success, turning a medical gamble into one of football’s most valuable investments.
Messi’s billionaire status underscores how elite football stars now convert on-field dominance into wealth on a scale once rare even among the world’s top athletes.

As Messi's wealth soars, what does his boyhood club's struggle reveal about the economic realities of modern football?

Is Inter Miami's billion-dollar valuation a sustainable model or a bubble that will pop when Messi retires?

Barcelona's medical gamble on a young Messi paid off. Do modern super-clubs still make such profoundly human investments?