Quote Originally Posted by Rjk View Post
The article isn't saying that Messi isn't one of the greatest players in the world.
It is saying that they've calculated that in terms of what he does on the pitch he's worth ~ 200k per week to his club, and he gets double that.
None of the other players mentioned get close to a calculated value of 200k so clearly he's an amazing player.

Where this model falls down is it doesn't consider the commercial side of the game.
Messi is one of the most marketable assets in the game.
You want to see the best player in the world - you watch Barcelona.
You want to wear the best players kit - you buy a Barcelona shirt.

If players were anonymous and their faces pixelated so nobody knew who was who then maybe Messi would be overpaid, but when you consider the other revenues that he generates then perhaps not.

Also some of the overpaid players on there are guys at the end of their career, who's output may be starting to drop off. Which is probably accurate that they are overpaid now, but with some of these players, if you want to have them at their peak you have to accept that you'll be overpaying them in 2 or 3 years time.
It falls down when it says Granit Xhaka is the 2nd most underpaid player when he earns more than 100k a week. It's complete guff.