Amid FIFA Women’s World Cup, $200 Million Rich Neymar Jr’s Luxury Watch Costs More Than Brazilian Star Marta’s Annual Salary

The disparity in pay based on gender is a social evil that our society has been grappling with, since forever. Unfortunately, women in the lucrative world of soccer also face the same. It’s only recently that the USWNT achieved equal pay with the men’s team after toiling hard for 6 years against the US Soccer Federation. However, things are far from solved. Female soccer players earn extremely poorly in comparison to their male counterparts. A recent alarming comparison between Brazilian stars Neymar Jr and Marta is an apt example.

Neymar Jr’s latest watch’s price is equivalent to Marta’s annual income

Recently, multinational auction house Sotheby’s predicted the potential value of Neymar Jr’s latest Rolex. The Brazilian superstar owns a Rolex Daytona ‘Eye of the Tiger’ which according to the auction house is priced somewhere around $400,00 which is equivalent to Brazilian female soccer player Marta’s annual income.

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To put things into perspective, the Brazilian legend earns $402,141 in a year. Meanwhile, her counterpart Neymar earns a staggering sum of $64,674,303 annually including bonuses.

Thanks to this hefty sum, the PSG attacker can afford a rare edition of watches like Rolex Daytona ‘Eye of the Tiger’ which is also owned by superstars Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Anthony Davis. However, this also paints the sad reality of pay disparity in the soccer world.

Who is the highest-paid female soccer player in the world?

Considering how Neymar Jr, who earns $64 million a year is not even the richest paid soccer player in the world, let’s have a look at his counterparts. Last week, Forbes released a list of the 10 highest-paid female soccer players. As expected, USWNT stalwarts and global icons Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe topped the charts with an annual income of $7.1 million and $7 million respectively.

Ranked third is Spanish star Alexia Putellas who was raking in $4 million. The rest of the list was capped off by USWNT stars Trinity Rodman ($2.3m), Crystal Dunn ($2m), Julie Ertz ($2m), Sophia Smith ($2m), Lindsey Horan ($1.5m), Rose Lavelle ($1.4m), and Sofia Huerta ($1.3m).

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The fact that the highest-paid female soccer player earns $7.1 million and the highest-paid male soccer player earns $191.7 million annually is a staggering detail in itself. Let’s hope that in the next decade, we can bridge this gap as much as possible. What steps should FIFA take to reduce the disparity? Share your thoughts in the comments below!