Inter Milan and Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be the best-paid footballer in the world with a annual salary of 12 million euros (18.7 million dollars) from next season onwards, dpa reported.
Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport reported on Sunday that Ibrahimovic has agreed on a contract extension with the Italian champions Inter until 2013 which includes the massive salary.
The deal struck with Inter boss Massimo Moratti is to be officially announced in September. Ibrahimovic has been at Inter since 2006 and scored a team-leading 17 goals in the past Serie A season.
The salary increase lifts Ibrahimovic to the top of the world football player earnings, ahead of AC Milan's Brazilian Kaka (nine million euros), Ronaldinho (Barcelona/Brazil, eight million) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United/Portugal, 7.5 million).
Ibrahimovic's salary is not the only big sum splashed out by Moratti as Inter aim to win the European Champions League for the first time in decades.
New star coach Jose Mourinho reportedly gets 27 million euros for a three-year contract and Moratti's player shopping list allegedly totals 165 million euros.
The players Mourinho is said to want include the Barcelona duo of Samuel Eto'o and Deco as well as Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba from England's Chelsea where Mourinho was coach until September 2007.