Top 20 highest-paid footballers in 2017: Man United, Real Madrid and Barcelona stars dominate

The face of football has changed rapidly in the last decade and the root cause of this transformation is money. Big wads of it.

From the television deals which inflate clubs pockets to mega-rich philanthropists who buy teams when they seek a new challenge in the world of business – the sport is swimming in currency.

Now, the gap between the elite teams and the rest is a yawning chasm, so the chase for top-flight football becomes a furious frenzy. The promised land awaits, and the cash may have stolen the heart from the game, but it can also revitalise those cash-strapped outfits. The ultimate double-edged sword.

The torrents of money rolls downwards, and it pools in the pockets of the players who are lured by the lucre. Wages for superstar players are reaching astronomical levels as managers go to the transfer market with a blank chequebook.

Players now command a weekly wage that most can only dream of. To illustrate this, here are the 20-highest paid footballers in the world in 2017.

Click the NEXT button below to begin the slideshow.

MORE: 10 goalkeepers Liverpool FC could sign in summer transfer window

MORE: Arsenal transfers: 10 targets Gunners could sign for defence in summer

MORE: 10 players Liverpool FC could sign in 2018 summer transfer window

MORE: 10 players Man United could sign in 2018 summer transfer window

MORE: Chelsea FC player wages 2018: Hazard and Morata’s weekly wages left us speechless