It would be fair to say that Lionel Messi isn't short for money.

It's credit to the Argentine that he remains such a humble figure in the sport, despite raking in lucrative amounts of money through his contracts with Barcelona and Adidas.

The fact of the matter is that football is the most popular sport worldwide and with Messi boasting a total of five Ballon d'Or trophies, he's a good bet for being the best player in the game.

As a result, you'll find Messi's face plastered over every last bit of Barcelona merchandise and endless amounts of advertising if they've managed to bag themselves a sponsorship deal.

Bearing all of this in mind, the 32-year-old was recently named the highest-paid sportsperson in the world, unseating Floyd Mayweather - who's even nicknamed 'Money' - in the process.

Messi named richest sportsperson

Messi was clocked at a staggering $127 million in total earnings by Forbes, seeing him edge out the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James and Tiger Woods.

Forbes' senior editor remarked: “The global impact of soccer is clearly reflected in earnings in 2019, with the top three athletes on the list being Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar."

We're sure that Messi will be far too focused with business on the pitch, but it's an interesting study nonetheless and now Forbes have decided to widen their net this week. 

Fourth highest-paid entertainer

That's because the American publishing juggernaut have now named: 'The World’s Highest-Paid Entertainers 2019' and there are plenty of big names flying the flag for sport.

With his aforementioned pot of $127m, only a triumvirate of Taylor Swift, Kylie Jenner and Kanye West are stopping Messi from leading a club with $37.5m as the admission fee.

Take a look at the full top ten down below and any sportspeople that have qualified for the top 30:

1. Taylor Swift

2. Kylie Jenner

3. Kanye West

4. Lionel Messi

5. Ed Sheeran

6. Cristiano Ronaldo

7. Neymar

8. The Eagles

9. Dr. Phil McGraw

10. Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez

11. Roger Federer

14. Russell Wilson

16. Aaron Rodgers

17. LeBron James

23. Stephen Curry

Yes, that officially means Messi is better paid than Drake (25th), Kim Kardashian-West (26th), Beyonce Knowles (20th), Rihanna (36th) and Eminem (57th) just to name a few. 

Many would expect that the music industry would blow sports completely out of the water, but Messi is rubbing shoulders with some absolute juggernauts of entertainment.

It goes to show that the global appeal of football is almost unconquerable and while three celebrities have managed to top the man himself, it's still a remarkable achievement nonetheless.

Do you think Messi is the greatest athlete in history? Have your say in the comments section below.