Barcelona news: LaLiga giants are the best-paid sports team in the world according to study

Data crunched by sports research body Sporting Intelligence has revealed that the average basic pay at Barcelona this season has been £9.8 million ($12.75 million), marginally less than last year’s £10.5 million.

Blaugrana retained their position as the world’s best-paid professional sports team, while the other two teams featuring in the top three are also football clubs, with Real Madrid and Juventus occupying the second and third places respectively.

Two of the highest paying clubs are from LaLiga.

Los Blancos' players command an average salary of £8.9 million, while Juventus jumped from ninth to third in the list with an average salary of £8 million, thanks to some high-profile signings in the summer and of course due to the high fees of Cristiano Ronaldo.

National Basketball Association (NBA) sides took the remaining seven places in the top 10 of the annual Global Sports Salary Survey.

The average annual salary of a Premier League player climbed over £3.2 million making it the highest paying football league, while the NBA was the highest-paid sports competition overall with an average salary of almost £6.7 million.

Also See: LaLiga, LaLiga table, Premier League, Premier League table

Lionel Messi's astronomical earnings helped Barca retain the top spot

Barcelona has held on to its crown largely due to their captain Lionel Messi, who is the highest-paid athlete in the world currently, as per Forbes.

La Pulga's new contract signed in 2018 pays him more than £50 million a season which includes guaranteed image rights fees.

Data also revealed that Spanish LaLiga and the Premier League were joint-top in terms of social media popularity, well ahead of the NBA, NFL and Serie A.

Also see: Lionel Messi's 5 records from 2019