The following article contains information about Argentine professional footballer Lionel Messi’s earnings, brand endorsement deals, investments and notable charity work.
Also read: Cristiano Ronaldo: Sponsors | Net Worth | Investments | Charity Work
Also read: Top 10 richest active male footballers in the world in 2022
Stanley, an American brand of reusable food and beverage containers, announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Lionel Messi in November 2024.
As part of the deal, Stanley released the co-branded “Messi x Stanley 1913”, introducing new performance-based, built-for-life innovations within the collection in “Messi GOAT Pink”.
Fortnite, an online video game and gaming platform developed by Epic Games and released in 2017, roped in the Argentine as part of a collaboration deal.
Released in December 2024, the “Lionel Messi Fortnite” collection includes two distinct outfits, each tailored to showcase different facets of Messi’s personality.
Messi first joined forces with Adidas back in 2006. In February 2017, this relationship turned into a lifelong commitment when Messi signed a lifetime deal with the brand. The deal reportedly fetches Messi £18 million every year.
Online cryptocurrency exchange BitGet announced a collaboration with Messi in October 2022.
According to the official press release on the BitGet website, the agreement entails offering “Messi fans a unique opportunity to explore Web 3.0 and the potential of trading crypto on the exchange.”
Since 2013, Messi has been an ambassador for the American beverage giant, frequently appearing in its ad campaigns.
In early 2014, PepsiCo’s potato chips brand Lay’s launched a major global integrated marketing campaign featuring Lionel Messi. Ever since then, Lay’s has done various advertising campaigns across different continents featuring the Argentine football legend.
eFootball is a football simulation video game series developed and published by Japanese company Konami. It was previously called Pro Evolution Soccer or PES. Messi has served as the cover star for several of the series’ instalments over the years.
Despite its eFootball rebrand, Messi can be seen on the video game series’ promotional content.
In September 2020, global brewing giant Anheuser-Busch struck a partnership with Lionel Messi for its beer brand Budweiser.
In May 2022, Messi featured in a 1m20s ad film released by American financial services provider Mastercard ahead of the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League final, in which he starred both as an adult and a younger version of himself.
The Davie, Florida–headquartered global theme restaurants chain signed Messi as a worldwide brand ambassador in June 2021 on a five-year deal. The two kicked off the deal with a gift exchange, with Hard Rock regaling Messi with an electric guitar specifically designed for him, and the Argentine reciprocating the gesture by sending back a replica of one of his Ballon d’Or trophies.
As it was announced as the Official Global Beer Sponsor of the 2024 Copa América, Anheuser-Busch’s light beer brand Michelob Ultra also announced its onboarding of Messi as a brand ambassador.
Messi, along with his current club Inter Miami CF, jointly announced a multi-year deal with American home improvement retail company Lowe’s.
Messi thus became a member of Lowe’s “Home Team”, the Mooresville, North Carolina–headquartered company’s roster of celebrity athletes who act as its brand ambassadors, which also boasts the likes of Travis Kelce, Christian McCaffrey, Dak Prescott, and Bryce Young.
The Culver City, California–headquartered American multinational consumer audio products manufacturer roped in Messi as a brand ambassador in July 2024.
PepsiCo’s sports-themed beverage Gatorade was once a brand partner of Lionel Messi. He shared the role of Gatorade’s brand ambassador with other sporting icons such as Usain Bolt, Elena Delle Donne, Jabari Parker, Dwyane Wade, and PV Sindhu.
In 2018, Messi was roped in as a brand ambassador by Chinese dairy product brand Mengniu. Messi was largely involved in the brand’s “Born for Greatness” campaign.
In September 2020, Messi signed a three-year ambassadorship agreement with Israel-based eyecare brand OrCam Technologies.
“Messi10 by Cirque du Soleil”, presented by Rakuten, is a film directed by Agustina Macri, featuring Lionel Messi, Afo Verde, Charles Joron, Jordi Puntí, José Manuel Pinto, and Martin Riedel.
In December 2019, Miami, Florida–based global cruise company Royal Caribbean unveiled Messi as an “icon” of its “Icon of the Seas” cruise ship, which would later debut in Miami in January 2024.
Messi initially partnered with Qatar-based international telecommunications company Ooredoo in 2013. Over the years, he featured in multiple campaigns for the brand spread across different media platforms.
The Scarborough-based fashion brand announced a collaboration with Messi in November 2021, launching the “Messi x SikSilk” collection. Maria Sol Messi, Leo’s younger sister, was a major driver behind the collaboration.
Messi signed a three-year deal with cryptocurrency-based fan engagement platform Socios.com, which is powered by Gzira, Malta–based blockchain fintech provider Chiliz, in March 2022. The US$20m deal made Messi the first-ever Global Brand Ambassador of Socios.com.
Kicked off with the “Be More” campaign, the Socios.com–Messi partnership entailed collaboration over both educational and promotional campaigns.
The Bangalore-headquartered Indian edtech firm onboarded Messi as a global ambassador for its “Education for All” initiative in November 2022. In the following months, more promotional content featuring Messi followed, including social media posts and an interview that was posted on YouTube.
In February 2024, it was announced that BYJU’S had put the Messi deal “on hold”.
Watchmaker Jacob & Co. roped in Lionel Messi as a brand ambassador in January 2019.
SIRIN LABS is a Schaffhausen-based tech company known best for its high-security smartphone “Finney”, which the company describes as “the first open source, secure smartphone and all-in-one PC”. The device is aimed at providing a portable, high-security solution for crypto-enthusiasts to protect their crypto assets without much hassle.
In December 2017, SIRIN LABS roped Messi in as a brand ambassador. Messi promoted the startup and its products both in-person and via his social media profiles over the course of the partnership.
In November 2021, via his social media channels, Messi announced his partnership with LEAFTY, a cryptocurrency conceived with the aim of protecting the environment and dealing with the stigma around the idea of cryptocurrency.
Messi was announced as a brand ambassador for the tourism authority of Saudi Arabia in May 2022. He kicked off the partnership via a sponsored post from his Instagram account.
In November 2022, on the eve of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, French luxury house Louis Vuitton posted a photo across its social media accounts featuring Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the two coming together for a rare joint collaboration.
The Jakarta-headquartered Indonesian logistics company announced Messi as its first global brand ambassador in November 2022. Brought on board to boost the company’s global profile, Messi headlined the #JTBetterTogether campaign, which was the company’s first activation featuring the Argentine.
Free-to-play battle royale game PUBG Mobile announced a collaboration with Messi in October 2022. The collaboration entailed several unique in-game experiences for the players.
Messi first partnered with NFT marketplace Ethernity in August 2021 to create “The Messiverse”, which was aimed at showcasing his career and achievements.
In November 2022, ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Ethernity announced another Messi-focused NFT experience, which would showcase the Argentine’s performances at the World Cups over the years.
Sorare is a blockchain-based digital collectibles and fantasy football platform developed by French company SORARE SAS.
It was announced in November 2022 that Messi had been onboarded by Sorare as an investor and brand ambassador.
Before he went on to secure a lifetime deal with Adidas, Messi worked with Nike during his early years. Nike had a boot deal in place with the Argentine from the age of 14, but, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, who also co-wrote Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game, things turned sour when Jorge Messi, Leo’s father and agent, was not granted the request of being provided with some athletic gear for his son, leading him to believe that his son was not being given due respect, especially with Adidas having reportedly offered him a US$1m contract.
Ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Messi was set to be a part of a Nike ad film, in which he was to showcase his skills and tricks. The footage had already been captured, but all of it had to be scrapped when Nike was made aware of the fact that Messi had agreed a deal with Adidas. Not willing to go down without a fight, and believing it had a legally-binding agreement in place with Messi, Nike took Adidas to court, only for the Spanish officials to rule in the German company’s favour, telling Nike that a letter of commitment was not enough to keep Adidas from prying away the young starlet.
Nike consoled itself with the same explanation that worried Adidas — that a shy and private Messi was not marketable enough and might not reach the commercial heights Cristiano Ronaldo was projected to. Suffice to say, that has been proven wrong over the years. February 2006 saw Messi sport the Adidas boots for the first time, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Gillette signed Messi in as a global ambassador in February to feature in its “Inner Steel” marketing campaign.
Turkish airlines signed Messi as a global ambassador in July 2012, a deal that gave us the famous ad with the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant.
Messi’s move to the US came on the back of not just a substantial salary package offered by Inter Miami CF, but also a lot of added incentives.
As explained ahead of his move to the US in the summer of 2023, Messi not only has a potential stake option in the club, which comes into effect after his player contract with them ends, he’s also getting a part of the revenue generated by Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass, with the league partners — Adidas, in particular — paying him portions of their earnings. For all intents and purposes, this unprecedented arrangement sees Messi hold a stake in MLS itself while he plays for the David Beckham-owned side.
Messi’s current contract with Inter Miami CF is set to run until the end of the 2025 MLS season, with the option to extend it for another year.
Messi launched his own global lifestyle clothing brand in 2016. Since June 2020, The Messi Store has been led by Ginny Hilfiger, famed designer and sister of Tommy Hilfiger, who serves as Creative Director alongside Maria Sol Messi, who serves as Brand Manager.
KRÜ Esports, an organisation founded by former professional footballer Sergio Agüero, gained Messi as a part-owner in November 2023.
Agüero, once a teammate of Messi’s in the Argentina national team setup, announced Messi’s investment via X (formerly “Twitter”).
It was announced in June 2024 that Messi was partnering with White Claw’s parent company to release a new sports drink called “Más+”.
Más+ is promoted as a low-sugar sports drink that contains electrolytes and vitamins but no artificial sweeteners or caffeine.
In 2024, Lionel Messi and MM Winemaker, based in Puglia, Italy, partnered to launch a limited-edition wine collection called “Lionel Connections”.
Later in November 2024, MM Winemaker launched a limited-edition wine collection called “GOAT 10”. This collection features premium wines, including Syrah and Primitivo, with unique designs and collectible bottles. The “GOAT 10” line is a tribute to Messi’s status as the “Greatest Of All Time” and his iconic jersey number.
Established in 2013, Game On Product Group Pty Ltd is a global leader in licensed celebrity fragrance, personal care, and health & beauty products. In 2023, Game On entered into a multi-year licensing agreement with Lionel Messi for the launch for his first-ever fragrance to the global market.
The initial product, “Messi Eau de Parfum”, was launched in October 2024 across North America, South America, and the Indian subcontinent.
In September 2024, Messi launched a production company called 525 Rosario, dedicated to creating family programming and premium television content.
The project stands as a joint venture with Smuggler Entertainment — an American film, theatre, TV, commercial, and music video production company — and is responsible for AppleTV docuseries Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend and Messi Meets America.
As part of the deal, together with Smuggler Entertainment, 525 Rosario is set to produce films, sporting events, and branded commercials for athletes worldwide.
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