Named as one of the best currently active football players in the world, Lionel Messi is also one of the best paid among them all. His Barcelona contract alone is securing him a payment of €40 M per year or €770 000 per week.
Well, recently performed data analytics model confirmed what we all suspected. Even though Messi should be the best paid, he is extensively overpaid. The model and its results are described in a study conducted by a team of Lawrence Technological University in Michigan, which used machine learning and data science to analyze the salaries of 6082 professional football players in Europe. The salary of each was compared to a set of 55 attributes, reflecting each player`s skill set. The model is evaluating scoring and passing accuracy, aggression and vision on the field, speed, acceleration, ball control, physical condition, etc.