Messi and Ronaldo may not be the highest-paid soccer players in the world for much longer

Carlos Tevez.

Remember him?

He was sort of disappointing for West Ham and Manchester United? He scored a ton of goals for Manchester City but then sort of stopped scoring goals for Manchester City? He had two wildly successful years at Juventus, reaching the Champions League final, before returning home to Boca Juniors in Argentina a year and a half ago?

That Carlos Tevez – ring a bell?

Well. Him.

He may well become the best-paid player in the world as the moneyed Chinese Super League continues to go certifiably insane, according to reports. With a deal apparently already in place for cross-town rivals Shanghai SIPG to shell out $75 million for Chelsea’s Brazilian backup attacking midfielder Oscar – which would make the 25-year-old, who has made just five Premier League starts all season, the 10th-most expensive transfer of all time – Tevez is reportedly considering a deal with Shanghai Shenhua that will pay him more than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi get.

Tevez is apparently being offered a two-year contract worth about $40 million per year for him to leave Boca during its midseason break. That’s in addition to the $78 million fee Shenhua would pay to Boca.

“I have many problems in my head to think about,” Tevez has said. “Whether in February or March I’m going to be in China. Not only could I leave [Boca], I could also stop playing. I still don’t know what I’m going to do. I reached the end of the year exhausted, with a thousand things in my head. That’s the time to stop a little and think about the future. I think about retiring, yes, that’s why I mention it.”

Plenty of big names have already been lured to China with contracts far above the players’ market value. But, at present, none are bigger than Brazilian forward Hulk’s. And in Oscar, but particularly Tevez, the upstart league, which already has the fifth-highest attendance of any league in the world, would again make real waves in the soccer world.

Tevez’s salary would reportedly be a shade over the wages of Messi and Ronaldo. And knowing how zealously those two renegotiate their contracts every time somebody else catches up to their monster salaries – or even threatens to come close – a 32-year-old Argentine who has never scored more than 23 league goals in a European season making more money in China will surely go over well.