Football players’ salaries may be one of the most popular Google searches, as fans of the sport are keen to know how much their idols earn per year.
Most of the teams may not reveal the exact figures they are spending in wages, but MARCA has collected all the information about the highest-paid players across the five major leagues.
PSG dominance
It’s not a surprise that the top three of the highest earners in Ligue 1 are all plying their trade at Paris Saint-Germain, with Neymar and Lionel Messi also being the two highest-paid footballers in Europe.
Neymar‘s contract was renewed in 2021 (until 2025, with the option of extending it for one more season) with a progressive decrease in salary each term. Currently, he is earning 49 million euros gross, which is 30 million euros after taxes.
Messi‘s case, however, is different, and although his salary is lower than the Brazilian’s on the fixed base, he can bulk it up with bonuses.
What does this mean? Messi did not receive a signing bonus, but he does have a ‘loyalty bonus’ of 30 million euros gross that will be paid the month after the end of the summer transfer window, according to L’Equipe.
France international and Real Madrid transfer target Kylian Mbappe comes third, with his contract coming to an end in June.
LaLiga in a good position
Despite the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar, LaLiga Santander giants Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid dominate the figures paid for salaries in Spain.
“On the tax issue, there is nothing to do,” explains MARCA journalist Jose Felix Diaz.
“It is a state issue. In Spain, a tax improvement is not going to be considered.”
To give an example, a footballer plying his trade at Real Madrid must pay 45.50 percent of his salary in taxes, while this rate is set at 50 percent in Barcelona.
No LaLiga Santander player is earning more than Gareth Bale, followed by Eden Hazard. Sergio Busquets is Barcelona‘s highest-paid player, while Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba recently agreed to modify their salaries by accepting a pay cut.
The Premier League is still at the top
“The Premier League have been the competition, by far, that has best coped with the pandemic,” Juan Corellano, a journalist for La Media Inglesa, explains to MARCA.
“It has served to further distance itself from other leagues financially.”
In England, unlike, in LaLiga for example, there are no financial controls and clubs are allowed to spend more than 100 percent of what they make.
Despite having received a pay cut to join Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo is still the highest-paid Premier League player, ahead of Kevin De Bruyne.
Bayern Munich rule in Germany
Bayern Munich are dominating on and off the pitch in Germany, and they are considered to once again be the favourites to win the Bundesliga.
“The other German clubs have only two options to be able to approach offering the salaries they pay in Munich: bet on the long term with a financial and sports project that is willing to suffer for several years until it reaches solidity, prestige and success; or receive external investment, a large injection of money, which allows them to become giants overnight (impossible with the 50:1 rule),” Daniel Martinez, the CEO of ‘EL FUTBOL – App Futbol Aleman’, explains to MARCA.
Despite their uncompromising dominance, Bayern will soon have to deal with contract renewals that are becoming more complicated because of the continuous increase in salaries.
“There has always been a spending cap in Munich established by an unwritten rule,” adds Martinez.
“Recently, with the departure of the club’s historical patriarch Uli Hoeness, that rule has become more flexible and has allowed the arrival of players like Lucas Hernandez, the payment of compensation for the appointment of Julian Nagelsmann, or salary increases for key players like [Robert] Lewandowski. That resource management policy is new and it seems that it will be extended.”
Italy: The ‘Crescita Decree’ and a long crisis
Italian football is not going through its best moment, despite the emergence of numerous foreign investors at AC Milan, Inter, Fiorentina, Roma and Atalanta.
Serie A clubs cannot compete with the big European teams in financial terms, being the league which has no player in the top 30 of the highest-paid in Europe.
One of the big issues is the so-called ‘Crescita Decree‘, as clubs benefit from this tax break to sign players from abroad and can pay less for them in taxes.
For example, Juventus‘ Matthijs de Ligt is the player who earns the most per season in Serie A, receiving eight million euros plus bonuses after taxes.
However, Juventus are paying more for other players, something that is also happening with AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose salary is also eligible for this reduction.
A new transfer market
All the experts of the transfer market seem to agree that it has changed, with the journalist Fabrizio Romano stressing that the clubs who are planning their next moves in advance are the ones who benefit from the market movements.
“The phenomenon of free agents is stronger every day, and in my opinion it will always continue to grow,” Romano tells MARCA.
“There are many top players who already plan these movements very soon because that way they can choose their next club with more freedom.
“Today some clubs have difficulties completing some negotiations, but they also have difficulties in complying with the correct timing of payments.
We are in a market where planning makes the difference. Whoever plans, whoever has a strategy and whoever has a vision in the end has an important advantage in managing their own negotiations and their own club.”
Gross vs net salary
The gross salary is what the club pay before taxes, while the net salary is the figure a player is earning after taxes. And the tax burden, of course, changes depending on the country. Spanish clubs pay the most in taxes, while Bundesliga clubs pay just 20 and 15 percent of their players’ wages towards taxes.
