TOP FIVE Clubs With The Highest Wage Bills In European Football

Content Editor

1 year ago

Categories: Galleries, West Ham United News

As money has flowed into the game from TV revenue and billionaire owners, player earnings have skyrocketed.

The average weekly wage for an elite footballer is now six figures, so for today’s post, we will be looking at the clubs who pay their players the highest salaries.

There is only one Premier League team in our top five, which is a big surprise, considering how much money English football rakes in.

Press the next page as we list the five clubs with the highest average wage bills in Europe (based on data from Capology).

5) Manchester City – £156,000 a week (on average)

It is not a complete surprise that the Citizens are on our list but the fact that they are the only English club to make the top five is an eye-opener.

Neither Manchester United nor Chelsea had a higher average weekly wage than the rest of the teams that we will mention in this post.

City’s top earner is Kevin De Bruyne (£400,000 a week), while Erling Haaland is not far behind (£375,000 a week), having joined from Borussia Dortmund last summer.

4) Bayern Munich – £164,000 a week

One of the big reasons why the German giants have dominated the Bundesliga over the past decade is due to their immense financial resources.

Although they don’t usually spend a huge amount on transfer fees, they are right up there when it comes to offering competitive salaries.

Former Liverpool player Sadio Mane is their highest earner (€423,000 a week) but NINE other players earn more than €300,000 a week before tax.

3) Barcelona – £203,000 a week

The La Liga club’s wage bill was notoriously high before president Joan Laporta began to make some sweeping cuts following his re-election in 2021.

Lionel Messi was the most high-profile casualty of the new regime’s cost-cutting measures.

The top earner currently is Frenkie de Jong, who earns an astonishing €721,000 a week. Sergio Busquets (€711,500 a week) is second on the list but he is expected to leave the Camp Nou at the end of the season.

2) Paris Saint-Germain – £214,500 a week

Some may have expected that the Qatar-owned French club would top this list, considering the number of high-profile stars on their books.

However, the first team is pretty top-heavy. Kylian Mbappe (€1.38m per week), Lionel Messi (€1.22m per week) and Neymar (€1.08m per week) earn staggering numbers.

Below that, though, there are only four players who earn €300,000 a week or more, which is in stark contrast to a club like Bayern.

1) Real Madrid – £216,000 a week

Despite not having as many high-profile players as the “Galactico” era back in the early 00s, Real remain top of the pile when handing out lucrative contracts.

The European champions have TWENTY first-teamers earning €100,000 a week or more, which is by far the most in Europe.

Shockingly, Eden Hazard is the highest earner (€600,000 a week) by quite some distance, making his injury-ravaged spell at the club all the more disappointing.