The football leagues paying the highest salaries in football
| Updated: March 25, 2025As in every aspect of life, financial stability plays a key role not only in drawing top talent but also in shaping the most appealing destinations for professional athletes. Football is no different, and besides success on the pitch, generous renumeration is the other top priority for professional players. This week Sportingpedia investigated which football leagues spend the most on player salaries. Additionally, we calculated the average salary per player for each of the leagues, and also looked at what part of the total wage budget goes to the highest paid footballer. One of the report’s most curious revelations is that the Premier League leads in total salary expenditure, paying €2.27 billion to its players, almost double that of second-placed La Liga’s €1.14 billion. However, when measuring average salary per player, the Saudi Pro League emerges as the most lucrative, offering €6.27 million per footballer, largely due to its influx of global superstars. Cristiano Ronaldo’s astronomical contract is the main reason for that as the Portuguese superstar tops the salary charts with €200 million per year, accounting for nearly 20% of his league’s total wage bill, a level of financial concentration unmatched elsewhere.
In contrast, leagues like Major League Soccer take a different approach, balancing financial constraints with designated player contracts. Lionel Messi’s €11.1 million salary represents 4.4% of MLS’ total wages, highlighting the disparity between top earners and the rest of the league. This report examines these vast differences, revealing how football’s biggest leagues allocate their financial resources.
- Four domestic leagues worldwide pay over €1 billion in combined player salaries
- The English Premier League leads with €2.27 billion – almost double the €1.14 billion of second-placed La Liga
- The Saudi Pro League has the highest average annual salary per player at €6.27 million
- Major League Soccer pays the lowest average salary, at €325,000 per year
- Average salaries across Europe’s top five leagues range from €1.36 million in Ligue 1 to €4.57 million in the Premier League
- Cristiano Ronaldo’s €200 million salary represents 19.7% of the Saudi Pro League’s total wage bill, while Lionel Messi’s deal accounts for 4.1% of MLS’ total
- Achraf Hakimi’s PSG salary equals 3.2% of Ligue 1’s total wages – the highest proportion in any European league
Key Takeaways:
The Premier League continues to set the benchmark for total salary spending, but its wage distribution is more balanced than in other leagues. Despite leading the world in overall wages, its highest-paid player, Haaland, takes up just 1.2% of its total budget, a stark contrast to leagues like Saudi Arabia and MLS, where single players claim far larger portions of total spending. Saudi Arabia’s high average salary is influenced by a small player pool and a heavy concentration of wages at the very top. Meanwhile, MLS features the largest number of players but has the lowest average salary, as its financial model prioritizes a handful of designated players while keeping the majority of wages controlled under strict salary cap regulations. Europe’s traditional top five leagues remain dominant in total wages, with La Liga and Serie A maintaining strong but more centralized wage structures. The Bundesliga follows a more balanced salary approach, while Ligue 1’s financial landscape remains highly dependent on PSG’s spending. Turkiey’s Super Lig remains financially competitive but lacks the resources to match the bigger leagues, while Portugal and the Netherlands continue to rely on youth development, reflected in their lower wage expenditures.
Football’s financial landscape is heavily influenced by player wages, with different leagues following distinct strategies in salary distribution. Some leagues concentrate spending on a handful of global superstars, while others distribute wages more evenly among squads. The Premier League remains the highest-paying football league in the world, with total player salaries surpassing €2.27 billion. No other competition comes close, with La Liga ranking a distant second at €1.14 billion, followed by Serie A (€1.06 billion) and the Saudi Pro League (€1.02 billion). The Bundesliga completes the top five with €963 million, highlighting the financial strength of Europe’s biggest domestic leagues. Ligue 1 stands significantly lower at €675 million, followed by Turkiey’s Super Lig (€483 million). Outside of Europe, Major League Soccer pays €271 million in total wages, followed by Liga Portugal (€215 million) and the Eredivisie (€204 million), both of which round out the top ten.
Although the Premier League comfortably leads in total spending, the Saudi Pro League ranks highest in terms of average salary per player. With only 162 players on its rosters, the Saudi league averages an impressive €6.27 million per player, surpassing the Premier League’s €4.57 million despite having less than a third of its workforce. The English top flight remains the highest-paying European league on a per-player basis, followed by La Liga at €2.29 million and Serie A at €2.13 million. The Bundesliga follows at €1.94 million, while Ligue 1 drops below the €1.5 million mark at €1.36 million per player. Turkiey’s Super Lig remains under €1 million, with players earning an average of €972,000. Portugal’s Liga Portugal averages €433,000, just ahead of the Eredivisie at €411,000, while MLS has the lowest average salary at €325,000, despite featuring the highest number of players at 833.
One of the biggest disparities in salary structures is observed when examining the share of total league wages allocated to the highest-paid players. Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract with Al-Nassr remains the most extreme case, as his €200 million salary accounts for a staggering 19.7% of the entire Saudi Pro League wage bill. The league’s total wages are already inflated by a handful of global stars, with Ronaldo’s deal further emphasizing the top-heavy nature of its spending. Lionel Messi is another case of an outlier, earning €11.1 million annually in MLS, which accounts for 4.1% of the league’s total salaries. The gap between him and the next highest earner in the league is substantial, reinforcing how a single superstar can dominate a wage structure. In Ligue 1, Achraf Hakimi is the highest-paid player with a €21.8 million salary, which represents 3.2% of the league’s total spending, which is the same percentage as Renato Sanches’ share in Liga Portugal. Robert Lewandowski’s €33.3 million deal at Barcelona sees him account for 2.9% of all La Liga salaries, while Harry Kane’s €25 million contract at Bayern Munich is 2.6% of Bundesliga wages. Victor Osimhen’s €10 million contract in Turkiey’s Super Lig makes up 2.1% of its total salary spending, while Jordan Henderson’s €4.68 million wage in the Eredivisie is equal to 2.3% of the Dutch league’s total. In Serie A, Dusan Vlahovic’s €19.44 million deal accounts for 1.8% of total wages, while Erling Haaland’s €31.7 million contract at Manchester City accounts for just 1.2% of the Premier League’s total salary expenditure, the lowest proportion among top earners in any of the ten leagues examined.