Alexia Putellas: the Ballon d'Or winner who earns 100 times less than Benzema

Alexia Putellas is the best (female) footballer in the world, she has won the Ballon d'Or twice (in 2021 and 2022), she has been awarded The Best FIFA Award in 2021 and she is captain of FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team. football. But Alexia, who has been a professional for 12 seasons and is the player with the most appearances in the history of the Spanish team (100 participations), earns 110 times less than Karim Benzema, who has just won his first Ballon d'Or (male).

While Alexia Putellas receives a gross salary (before withholdings, contributions and taxes) of 150,000 euros per year as a footballer for FC Barcelona (about 12,500 euros per month), Karim Benzema earns 16.6 million euros gross per year at Real Madrid (about 1.4 million a month).

And that Alexia is the highest paid female footballer in FC Barcelona while Benzema is the fifth player who earns the most in Real Madrid after Eden Hazard (23 million euros), David Alaba (21.6), Luka Modric (19 .6) and Toni Kroos (18.5). The Polish Robert Lewandowski, one of the highest paid footballers of the men's FC Barcelona, ​​earns 18 million euros gross per season, 120 times more than Alexia. The striker will receive 52 million net in his four seasons at Barcelona.

The salary differences are abysmal if we compare what Alexia Putellas earns with what Kylian Mbappé, the highest paid footballer in the world, receives. The Frenchman, who last summer renewed his contract with PSG, has a gross annual salary of 100 million euros (almost 50 million net salary per season), not counting advertising revenue and image rights, which are his at 100%. Mbappé earns in a single day almost double what Alexia earns in the whole season.

The image of Alexia Putellas has been revalued after winning two consecutive Ballon d'Ors, but it has barely helped her to sign a few advertising contracts that do not bring her, not even remotely, the income that moves in men's football. Last January, he signed for Iberdrola as an ambassador for equality in sport and is also the image of the Champions League and UEFA, as well as an ambassador for DAZN in Spain and the 2022 European Championship.

The individual awards and recognitions have also served to gain popularity on social networks. Before receiving her first Ballon d'Or in November 2021, she barely reached 400,000 followers on Instagram, and now exceeds 2.1 million followers. On Twitter she was followed by just over 100,000 people and is now followed by 337,000, while on Facebook she has gone from 180,000 to 428,000 fans. She is much less than the followers of some 'influencers' and 'instagramers' who are dedicated to displaying her life and her body on social networks.