• Exclusive: Leo Messi's pharaonic contract that ruins Barcelona

  • Clause in July. 39 million for his loyalty even if he leaves

  • Context: A contract made on its knees to take Barça from glory to ruin

  • Opinion: the price of happiness

  • Attempt to leave - what the contract says about the burofax

To find out the salary of

Stephen Curry

, the highest paid player in the NBA, a simple Google search is enough: he earns $ 45,780,966.

The same happens with the more than 4,000 athletes in the four major North American leagues.

Base salaries, incentives, transfer bonuses ... Before the exclusive EL MUNDO on

Leo Messi's

contract

there have been critical voices with information that they consider private.

However, in the most serious leagues in the world it is public from day one.

The salary cap, a concept that LaLiga de futbol Española introduced in 2013, is the equal base of the NBA, the NFL, the NHL and the MLB.

The four calculate this limit in a similar way: they make a global budget for the competition for the season, distribute it between teams and players according to the labor agreement (in the NBA, for example, 51% of the income is for the players) and they divide it equally among all teams.

That is the big difference with Spanish football, where the salary limit of the powerful is infinitely higher than that of the humble.

There, all the same.

The salary cap defines the transfers that the teams can afford, the contracts that the players aspire to and also the trades that the franchises can make.

Therefore, knowing the salary of the players is essential to understand what is happening in the League.

It allows fans and journalists to evaluate the signings of their teams and understand market movements.

It is one more part of the debate and it comes naturally.

To the last penny

LeBron James

, for example, has never received incentives or contract bonuses like those triggered by Messi.

The NBA limits the salary of its great stars with the so-called

maximum contracts

, which are calculated as a percentage of the salary limit and cannot be exceeded with any extra remuneration, neither financial nor in kind.

As the parties involved immediately reported, the amount of the contract extension he signed with the Lakers last December is $ 85,655,532 for two years.

Not a penny more, not a penny less.

In the NBA, players who do not have a

maximum contract

can receive incentives.

As in the case of Messi, they are divided between probable and unlikely, and although the exact details that they must comply with (games played, prizes, etc.) are not always known, the total amount they represent is known.

Also of the premiums for signing, transferring or transfer.

And as in the rest of the American leagues, it is also common for contracts to have a portion of guaranteed income or a deadline for termination.

And let it be known, because it affects the salary limit and team decisions.

Patrick Mahomes

, the

quarterback

of the Kansas City Chiefs, the current champions of the NFL and who this Sunday will play the Super Bowl again, signed a contract of 503 million for 10 seasons in 2019.

Websites like

Sportrac

offer the details of his contract (and those of all the players): the 10 million signing bonus, the incentives, the guaranteed amount (141,481,905) and until the day of each season in which he must be paid the rest.

Every detail of these contracts and the salary situation of the teams is public.

And nobody is surprised.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Super bowl

  • Leo Messi

  • sports

  • FC Barcelona

  • NBA

  • Lebron James

  • basketball

  • soccer

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See links of interest

  • Messi contract

  • 2021 business calendar

  • Leganés - Lugo

  • Real Betis - Osasuna

  • Sabadell - UD Logroñés