Study Finds Messi Nearly Twice As Valuable As Ronaldo

Lionel Messi is worth nearly twice as much as Cristiano Ronaldo, according to a study released by the CIES Football Observatory.

Messi's valuation is $270 million, while Ronaldo comes in at $142 million.

Ronaldo scored 55 goals in 45 appearances for club and country last season while Messi, who struggled with injury for brief spells, netted 36 times in 39 appearances.

In the ninth edition of this report Luis Suárez is ranked as the third most valuable player in the world at $132 million, then comes Chelsea’s Eden Hazard ($61.2 millions ) and Barca’s Neymar ($80.6 million) to round out the top five.

Gareth Bale and Radamel Falcao had significant drops in value from last year.