Lionel Messi is willing to take a paycut at Barcelona during the coronavirus crisis after new figures claimed he earns over £300,000 a day.
The staggering sums are revealed in France Football's annual survey of top stars where the Argentine superstar had total annual earnings of £120.3m.
Messi has a basic salary of £79.69m with £5.59m in bonuses and another £34.85m in commercial endorsements from companies like Adidas, Pepsi and Mastercard.
Barcelona has the highest wage bill in world football with the average salary of £10.6m driven up by Messi's income.
But the Catalan clubs has debts of £55m and president Josep Maria Bartomeu said the postponement of the Champions League return leg with Napoli cost them £5.5m.
Reports in Spain have claimed that Messi, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Piquet and Sergi Roberts are all open to the suggestion of a wage reduction with the Spanish league suspended indefinitely.
And La Liga leaders are seeking talks with UEFA and other top European clubs to establish a joint approach to cost cutting.
A Barcelona statement said: “This crisis has had a negative impact on the football industry and sport in general. The club has to look at all possible scenarios and analyse the situation so as to minimise the economic consequences.”
French clubs like Lyon and Marseille have used laws to put their players into technical unemployment where the state pays towards their wages.
Players for Borussia Munchengladbach have voluntarily given up wages worth €1m.
Swiss club Sion sacked nine players for refusing to take a pay cut, including former Arsenal players Alex Song and Johan Djourou and ex-Fulham midfielder Pajtim Kasami.
Peterborough United are one of the first clubs in England to take measures to reduce the crisis, after asking playing staff to take a 50% pay cut.
