Of the billion income, 800 million is in salary, the rest other income from football such as sponsorship income.
Juventus' Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo is second on the list with just over 1 billion in revenue and PSG's Brazilian star Neymar is third (842 million).
The top trio is in a class of its own.
Neymar earned more than twice as much as the four, the French club friend Kylian Mbappé, who had SEK 368 million in revenue.
The Premier League continues to be the richest league, but only three PL players are on the players' top ten list.
Liverpool's top scorer Mohamed Salah is in fifth place (324 million), Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba sixth (298) and United goalkeeper David de Gea tenth (237).
Messi, who was not allowed to leave Barcelona during the summer, is now playing his last year on the contract.
He learns to stay at the top of the football list because he has a loyalty bonus of the equivalent of SEK 728 million to expect.
In total, the ten most well-paid football players earned SEK 4.97 billion.
CLIP: Messi back in training after turbulence (7/9)
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Messi back in training