Scottie Scheffler, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are three of the highest earners in the world of sport.

Scheffler, the world number one golfer, has seen his earnings rise exponentially over the past five years, while Ronaldo and Messi have been raking in the cash for more than two decades now.

Since February 2022, the 30-year-old Texan has won 22 times on the PGA Tour, including four major championship victories.

As a result, Scottie Scheffler is now the highest earner in PGA Tour history, as far as his on-course winnings are concerned at least.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo is actually the highest earning athlete on the planet after securing a mammoth deal with Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr back in 2023.

Lionel Messi is also extremely wealthy, having raked in astronomical amounts during his time in the game, most recently with Inter Miami.

Now let’s take a look at how Scheffler’s earnings since the start of 2022 compare with what two of the greatest football players of all time have made.

Scottie Scheffler’s earnings compared with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

Back in 2022, the 30-year-old from Dallas, Texas, made $14,046,910 on the golf course and he received $15,625,000 in bonus money, including payments for his finish in the FedEx Cup, the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 and the Player Impact Program. In total, Scheffler earned $29,671,910 on the golf course in 2022.

The following year, the current world number one made $21,014,342 on the golf course – a season where he recorded two victories but failed to add to his major tally. He was also paid $12,375,000 in bonus money, putting his total for the year at $33,389,342.

In 2024, Scheffler earned $29,228,357 in on-course winnings, plus $33 million in bonuses, including $25 million for triumphing in the season-long FedEx Cup race. That put his total earnings in 2024, including bonuses, at $62.23 million.

In 2025, the world number one earned $27,659,550 in tournament winnings and he received a further $23.2 million in bonuses, totalling $50.89 million.

Then on to 2026, Scheffler once again raked in some serious cash. He amassed $30,937,525 in earnings on the golf course, and he received around $33 million FedEx Cup bonus money. That means that his total money earned this year currently stands at $63,937,525.

Now let’s take a look at his off-course sponsorship deals.

In 2026, Scheffler banked $30 million in sponsorship deals, while he received $20 million in off-course earnings in 2025 and 2024 respectively.

He made $15 million through sponsorships in 2023 and $12 million in 2022. So, Scheffler has earned $97 million through sponsorship deals since the start of 2022.

Added to his on-course earnings, Scottie Scheffler has banked a whopping $337,118,777 over the past four years and 11 months. Now let’s compare those earnings to the money that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have made during the same period.

Ronaldo and Messi are two of the richest sportsmen on the planet. In fact, Ronaldo is third on the all-time list with his total earnings believed to be around $2.09 billion.

Meanwhile, Messi has racked up a whopping $1.62 billion throughout his soccer career, and sits fifth on the all-time list.

The Argentine legend has amassed an extraordinary $340 million through sponsorship deals since the start of 2022 – that’s $20 million more than what Ronaldo has banked through off-field deals during the same period.

However, Ronaldo definitely has the edge over Messi, and indeed Scheffler, when it comes to his yearly salary.

The Portuguese star earned $235 million with Al-Nassr in 2026, while Messi earned $70 million with MLS side Inter Miami.

In 2025, Ronaldo earned a whopping $225 million through his salary alone and $200 million in 2024. He made $200 million in 2023 and $60 million through his Manchester United contract in 2022.

Year	Messi’s off-field earnings	Ronaldo’s off-field earnings	Scheffler’s off-course earnings
2022	$55 million	$55 million	$12 million
2023	$65 million	$90 million	$15 million
2024	$70 million	$60 million	$20 million
2025	$75 million	$50 million	$20 million
2026	$75 million	$65 million	$30 million
Total	$340 million	$320 million	$97 million

Messi banked $65 million through his salary in 2025, 2024 and 2023 respectively. Meanwhile, he received $75 million from Paris Saint-Germain in 2022 purely through his salary.

Now let’s see how all those figures stack up for the two footballing legends. Since the start of 2022, Ronaldo has banked $920 million in salary while Messi has earned $340 million during the same period.

Now, combined with their off-field sponsorship deals, Cristiano Ronaldo has earned $1.24 billion since January 2022, while Lionel Messi has amassed $680 million.

That puts Lionel Messi’s total earnings since the start of 2022 at more than double what Scottie Scheffler has made. Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo has earned more than three-and-a-half times as much as the world number one golfer during that period of time.

It really is quite incredible what sports stars earn these days and it raises the question of whether paying that kind of money to the likes of Scheffler, Ronaldo and Messi is actually sustainable in the long term. Only time will tell with regards to that.

All figures obtained via Forbes.