Footballer Paychecks - Money well spent?

Just as the fog has lifted from the aftermath of the Euros 2016, the evidence is clear that football is very popular with the population of the UK. However, is it the excitement of the fans that fuel this enterprise or how much the individual teams make?

Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the golden boys of football earns €17,000,000 every year. Some people would argue that this salary is well deserved due to his (As of May 10, 2016) 485 career club goals and 56 career international goals. While others would suggest that this is an excessive wad of cash to give to a man who essentially kicks a ball around. These are some of the highest earning footballers.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona, £10.4million) Lionel Messi (Barcelona, £9.1million) Samuel Eto’o (Internazionale, £9.1million) Kaka (Real Madrid, £8.7million) Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City, £7.4million)

However, have footballers contributed money back to the community? Although headlines such as these are rare, some do contribute:

"Wilfried Zaha doing his best to 'give back' by donating 10% of his monthly salary to charity"

And in all fairness, not all footballers receive ridiculously high wages, Raheem Sterling only receives annually £27,599,360 (one of the lowest paid footballers in Europe). But once again, how can we determine if this is still too much?