Andy Warhol once said: “Making money is art.” In today’s modern landscape, footballers are some of the most successful artists in any industry.
The average Premier League player earns considerably more in a week (£50,000) than a typical UK employee will take home over the course of an entire year (£35,000). The economic divide turns into a chasm when considering the elite earners among football’s lofty rich list.
England’s top flight may be the most lucrative on the planet, but clubs from across three different continents can boast some of the highest-paid footballers. Here’s a closer look at the ten players who have mastered the art of making money.
*Statistics via Forbes. Converted from dollars using current exchange rates.
10. Kevin De Bruyne – £30m
Club salary: £26.9m
Off-field earnings: £3.1m
Pep Guardiola, not usually a figure guilty of hyperbole, hailed De Bruyne as “one of the greatest, greatest, greatest players of this club”. That lofty status is evident based on his healthy salary, but the Belgian could have raked in even more if he had accepted the offers he received from Saudi Arabia over the summer.
“If I play there for two years, I will be able to earn an incredible amount of money,” De Bruyne admitted in June. “Before that I had to play football for 15 years and I may not even reach that amount yet.”
9. Sadio Mane – £40m
Club salary: £36.9m
Off-field earnings: £3.1m
Beyond the eight-digit annual salary, Sadio Mane cited the cultural benefits of moving to Saudi Arabia. “Since I had the opportunity I spoke to my family, and they were happiest, of course, because it is a Muslim country,” the religious winger explained to Arab News.
“My mum especially encouraged me to go. My mum is Muslim like me. She was the first to vote for me to go here and my whole family was excited for me to come here so it was not hard – it is important to my faith.”
8. Mohamed Salah – £40.7m
Club salary: £26.9m
Off-field earnings: £13.8m
Mohamed Salah‘s status as the best-paid Liverpool player of all time underpins his healthy bank balance, which is boosted further by a slew of lucrative sponsorship deals.
The grinning goalscorer has been the face of blue ticket brands for years, with his profile exploding after joining and excelling for Liverpool in 2017. “I’ve learned throughout my career,” Salah said shortly after signing his bumper deal for the Reds in 2023, “that if you want to be successful, it is important to invest in yourself not just physically but also mentally.”
7. Vinicus Junior – £42.3m
Club salary: £30.8m
Off-field earnings: £11.5m
As recently as 2022 – the same year in which he scored the only goal to win the Champions League final for Real Madrid – Vinicius Junior was one of the club’s lowest-paid players.
Only four members of the 2021/22 squad earned less than the Brazilian’s weekly salary of a little over £100,000. Even Mariano Diaz – the scarcely spotted striker – took home more than Vinicius.
Real Madrid have rectified that economic inaccuracy, while the forward’s staggering string of performances have opened up more monetary opportunities off the pitch.
6. Erling Haaland – £46.2m
Club salary: £35.4m
Off-field earnings: £10.8m
It’s remarkable to think that Erling Haaland only cost Manchester City £51.2m. Eight players – including Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella – moved for a larger sum in the same 2022 transfer window.
City were one of several clubs willing to trigger the buyout clause in Haaland’s Borussia Dortmund contract, but offered the most attractive financial package, making him the best-paid player in the Premier League.
5. Kylian Mbappe – £69.2m
Club salary: £53.8m
Off-field earnings: £15.4m
When Kylian Mbappe was unveiled as Real Madrid‘s latest Galactico in the summer of 2024, he produced a replica model of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium which he had been given as a six-year-old.
Despite the astronomical figures involved in an immensely costly free transfer, there is a layer of sentiment behind Mbappe’s move. After all, the Frenchman did have to accept a pay-cut when leaving Paris Saint-Germain.
4. Karim Benzema – £80m
Club salary: £76.9m
Off-field earnings: £3.1m
The first whispers of regret were evident from the claustrophobic video Al Ittihad released after Karim Benzema’s first day at the club in 2023. Slumped at the back of the team coach, the reigning Ballon d’Or holder looked incredibly uncomfortable as his name was chanted by his new teammates.
The Frenchman was heavily linked with a move away in January 2024, but has hung around. Public spats with his managers and teammates (who may not be so quick to laud him anymore) have been balanced by a salary worth more than £1.5m per week.
3. Neymar – £84.6m
Club salary: £61.5m
Off-field earnings: £23.1m
If anything which costs more than £60m every year can be considered value for money, Neymar’s move to Al Hilal emphatically doesn’t fit the brief.
The Brazilian playmaker had made four starts and scored one goal for the Saudi giants before tearing his cruciate ligament in October 2023. Still yet to return to the pitch, each minute Neymar played for Al Hilal in that absent debut season was worth more than £160,000.
2. Lionel Messi – £103.8m
Club salary: £46.1m
Off-field earnings: £57.7m
Money has been at the centre of Lionel Messi‘s career long before he turned professional. Jorge Messi didn’t have the small sum required to enter the stadium to watch his son’s youth team and so was denied entry. Lionel was moved to a different team the next day.
An endless torrent of contract extensions and pay-bumps littered his time at Barcelona and the Catalan giants eventually had to let him leave in 2021 because they couldn’t afford to give him a new deal.
Inter Miami moved heaven and earth to bring the diminutive Argentine to South Beach in 2023, teaming up with Major League Soccer’s broadcasters, Apple, to bankroll his mega-deal. The club’s co-owner Jorge Mas provided a simple explanation for the eye-watering contract: “How many times in a lifetime do you get to change a sport?”
1. Cristiano Ronaldo – £219.1m
Club salary: £169.1m
Off-field earnings: £50m
“To me money is not the most important thing,” Cristiano Ronaldo shrugged when he was still at Real Madrid in 2016. “I’m looking to money only as a means to become comfortable and independent after I finish football.”
Ronaldo, his children and countless generations to come will be more than comfortable after the Portuguese superstar penned the biggest contract in football history when joining Al Nassr in 2022.
