You: Drives a crummy old car you just hope will get you through another winter. Famous footballer: Drives half a dozen cars that cost more than you make in a year. Life isn’t fair, but that doesn’t mean we can’t gawk at a list detailing which soccer player has the most expensive car collection in the world.
Professional athletes are paid obscene amounts of money. The contracts for players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are far beyond what any normal person could ever hope to make. Messi, for one, has made more than $1 billion in his career through contracts, bonuses and endorsements.
It’s no surprise these soccer players spend a lot of that income on cars — after a home, it’s the largest purchase someone will make (at least until you become uber wealthy and start buying yachts). Cars are status symbols, and a collection of exclusive vehicles is a popular way to show off wealth.
Unless you have a copy of the latest Forza or Gran Turismo game, chances are you’ll never come close to owning a collection of cars like the biggest soccer stars. Which soccer player has the most expensive car collection? Let’s take a look, using data compiled by Bill Plant Driving School.
Which Soccer Player Has The Most Expensive Car Collection?
1. Lionel Messi — $50 million
With a car collection worth an estimated $50 million, no soccer player has a more expensive car collection than Argentina legend Lionel Messi. As mentioned above, Messi has made north of a billion dollars in his career, so a $50 million car collection represents about five percent of his career earnings.
Messi’s collection puts him No. 1 among all athletes, with a garage worth twice as much as second place, boxer Floyd Mayweather. Messi is No. 6 in the world among celebrity car collections. (Scroll down for more on the celebrities with the most expensive car collections.)
The pride and joy of Messi’s collection is, reportedly a 1957 Ferrari 335 S Spider Scaglietti. Though it is not confirmed Messi was the buyer, he’s rumored to have outbid Cristiano Ronaldo for the one-of-a-kind Ferrari with a price tag of $35 million, making it one of the most expensive cars in the world. Messi played off rumors at the time with a joke about Lightning McQueen, but it seems the online consensus is that the No. 10 did indeed buy himself a legendary car.
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Other cars in Messi’s garage include a $2 million Pagani Zonda Tricolore, a $642,000 Mercedes SLS AMG, a $242,000 Maserati Gran Turismo MC Strandale and a $164,500 Ferrari F430 Spyder. Additionally, Messi has multiple Audis and Range Rovers, a Lexus and a Cadillac Escalade to round out his most expensive car collection in the footballing world.
Messi, the humble star he is, does not use social media to brag about his purchases like 90 percent of the world, so images of him and his car collection are rare. But it’s good to know his expensive cars can still fit child seats, as seen in one of just two photos of any of his cars on his Instagram page.
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2. Cristiano Ronaldo — $22.5 million
As he does more often than he’d like to admit, Ronaldo comes in second to Messi in a ranking of soccer players with the most expensive car collections. Ronaldo reportedly has a collection worth $22.5 million, ranking 11th in the world among celebrities and fourth among athletes, right behind golfer Ian Poulter, according to Bill Plant Driving School.
The rarest car in Ronaldo’s garage is a $11.5 million Bugatti Centodieci, of which only 10 were made. His Bugatti Chiron is personally emblazoned with his CR7 logo.
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Ronaldo’s impressive collection includes three Ferraris, two Lamborghinis, two Bugattis, two McLarens, two Rolls-Royces, a Porsche 911 Turbo S, a Koenigsegg CCX, a Bentley Continental GT Speed, a Range Rover Sport SVR plus some Audis and a Mercedes. He bought a $225,000 Bentley recently after rejoining Manchester United last year on a $36 million salary.
Unlike Messi, Ronaldo isn’t shy about sprinkling photos of his expensive car collection on his Instagram page when he’s not posting thirst-trap images. (He often does both.)
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Even Ronaldo’s kids drive nicer cars than you. Yes, that is a BMW.
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If you want to buy a car that’s in Ronaldo’s collection, you might be able to afford this Mustang.
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3. David Beckham — $20 million
Though Becks blurs the line between footballer and celebrity, there’s no doubt he initially made his fame wearing the Manchester United red. The cultural icon owns the third-most expensive car collection among soccer players, ranking just behind Ronaldo with a $20 million garage.
Starting with a Ford Escort he bought from Ryan Giggs for less than $10,000 to a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe worth more than $300,000, Beckham has amassed quite the collection, one as classy as he is. Beckham even owns a car company now.
Beckham owns two Rolls-Royces, a few Bentleys, a McLaren, Jaguar, Camaro, Range Rover and Audi. He also likes to ride a motorcycle from time to time.
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Soccer Players With The Most Desirable Car Collection
Lionel Messi may be the soccer player with the most expensive car collection, but his isn’t the most desirable. According to Bill Plant Driving School, Messi ranks second in this category, as compiled based on the number of people searching for their car collection.
Most Desirable Sports Stars’ Car Collections
- Cristiano Ronaldo (soccer) — 112,000 annual searches
- Lewis Hamilton (F1) — 31,200
- Lionel Messi (soccer) — 27,200
- Floyd Mayweather (boxing) — 23,900
- Tiger Woods (golf) — 18,970
Ronaldo ranks No. 2 among all celebrities in people Googling about his car collection. The only celebrity ahead of him is former late-night host Jay Leno (175,500 searches per year).
Celebrities With The Most Expensive Car Collections
This brings us to our final category: celebrities with the most expensive car collections. As previously mentioned, Messi’s incredible $50 million collection only ranks sixth on Bill Plant’s list, tied with former late night host David Letterman. Interestingly, there are more comedians than footballers in the top 10 most expensive car collections among celebrities.
Here’s the list of the top 12 celebrity car collections. Why 12? Because soccer players come in at 11 and 12 and no other footballers rank in the top 30.
First on the list is Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei and one of the richest men in the world. He’s followed by fashion icon Ralph Lauren and Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll. Here’s the full list, along with the estimated value of the collection.
- Hassanal Bolkiah — $5 billion
- Ralph Lauren — $350 million
- Lawrence Stroll — $185m
- Jay Leno — $150m
- Jerry Seinfeld — $100m
- Lionel Messi — $50m
- David Letterman — $50m
- Manny Khoshbin — $30m
- Floyd Mayweather — $25m
- Ian Poulter — $24m
- Cristiano Ronaldo — $22.5m
- David Beckham — $20m
