Barcelona star, Lionel Messi has attained billionaire status and named the second professional footballer to earn $1 billion in his career.

This comes after his rival, Cristiano Ronaldo was listed the first footballer to hit that hallmark. Ronaldo was marked as the third athlete to earn $1 billion in his career after professional golfer Tiger Woods and professional boxer Floyd Mayweather.

According to Forbes, the Argentine has now earned $1billion in pre-tax earnings during his career, making him the highest-earning player in 2020.

The Argentine raked $126m ($92m in salary and $34m in endorsements) tipping him into the $1 billion mark.

Messi has endorsement deals with Adidas, Pepsi, Budweiser, and AI-vision company OrCam Technologies.

Ronaldo came second in the list of highest-earning footballers for the year 2020, according to Forbes, with his total earning $117 million ($70 million in salary and $47 million endorsements).

The Portuguese striker who is the most popular athlete in the world has deals with companies like Nike, Herbalife and many more.

In third place is Paris Saint-Germain winger Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, known as Neymar, who is set to earn $96million. The Brazil international recently switched to Puma after his deal with Nike came to an end.

See full list below;