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Footballers are some of the world's best-paid athletes. In recent years, their wages have skyrocketed even further, thanks to the huge influx of cash into the game. As per Forbes' 100 highest-paid athletes 2020 rankings, 31 footballers made it into the list, a tally second only to the NBA's 35.
Johan Cruyff's famous quote - "Why couldn’t you beat a richer club? I’ve never seen a bag of money score a goal"- makes a lot of sense in the current scenario when a lot of big-money signings are failing to live up to their hefty price-tags, and smaller clubs are finding it difficult to beat rich clubs with every passing day.
In La Liga, only Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have deep enough pockets to spend millions in the transfer market. Naturally, the clubs have some the league's best-paid athletes in their ranks who make up the bulk of the top 50 earners La Liga.
With that being said, let us now take a look at the 10 highest-paid players in La Liga currently.
(Note: The weekly wages are as reported by Sillyseason and Sportekz, the actual wages could vary as these figures are only an estimate taken from various sources)
#10 Sergio Busquets (FC Barcelona) - £260,000
We kick off our list with Sergio Busquets, the first of the five Barcelona players in the top 10. The midfielder signed a contract extension with the Catalans in 2018, and its terms will keep him at the Camp Nou until the summer of 2023.
Under his current contract, he earns £260,000 per week and with him now past his prime, any further hike in his wages are not expected. The 32-year-old still ranks among some of the best defensive midfielders across Europe statistically and recently earned a call-up to Spain's national team to feature in the UEFA Nations League.
Though he has been integral to the Barcelona squad in the 2019-20 campaign, his position might be in danger under Ronald Koeman, the club's new manager. Here are the five replacement to Busquets they can look to sign.
#9 Koke (Atletico Madrid) - £270,000 per week
Atletico Madrid have started to flex their financial muscles in recent years and as many as three players made it into the top 10, a thing that would've been unimaginable just a few years ago.
Their first representative in this list is their captain, Koke, whose current deal with the club runs out in the summer of 2024. Under the contract, he receives £270,000 in weekly wages.
The Spanish midfielder is one of few one-club men of our generation and is compensated very well by his boyhood club. He will turn 29 next January and has committed his long-term future with them, so it is unlikely that he will leave them any time soon. He might renegotiate his deal in the next season or two.
#8 Diego Costa (Atletico Madrid) - £270,000 per week
Diego Costa joins Koke in the list at Number 8, having secured a £270,000-per-week contract with the club in January 2018, following his £58-million transfer from Chelsea.
He left the Vicente Calderón in 2014 as one of the best strikers in the world but when he returned to the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in 2018, he had lost that goalscoring touch. As per reports, he might be on his way out.
His contract expires next summer and any club that would like to gamble by signing the 31-year-old would likely wait for his contract to run out and sign him on a free transfer.
#7 Antoine Griezmann - (FC Barcelona) - £346,000 per week
Antoine Griezmann, the former Atletico player who secured a long-awaited move to Barcelona last summer, reportedly took a pay cut to join the Catalans but retained a place in the top 10 thanks to his £346,000-per-week salary.
His contract runs out in 2024 and, thus, he has a long time to prove himself worthy of his £107-million price tag. He failed to replicate his tremendous form with Atletico with the Blaugrana, and his failure to link up well with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez has drawn flak from the Camp Nou faithful.
Though his weekly wages have taken a hit, it is believed that his income from various sponsorship deals shot up over the last year.
Also See: Barcelona: Weekly wages of first-team stars revealed | La Liga 2019-20
#6 Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) - £350,000 per week
Gareth Bale was once widely touted to become one of the world's best players and in his first few years with Real Madrid, he delivered eye-catching performances, forming a deadly trio with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.
His relationship with current manager Zinedine Zidane was never a smooth one and hit its lowest point this season, in the Frenchman's second stint at the helm of the club.
The Welshman's agent has been very clear in stating that the player has no intention of leaving the club and is happy to let his current contract run its course. Well, we can't really blame the 31-year-old here, as he is currently being paid £350,000 a week to warm the bench.
#5 Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid) - £350,000 per week
For a brief period of five months from April 2019 to September 2019, Atletico Madrid No.1 Jan Oblak was the world's highest-paid goalkeeper, thanks to the contract extension he signed in April last year that will keep him at the Spanish club until the summer of 2023.
Though it might be hard to justify a £350,000-a-week payment for a goalkeeper, Oblak has established himself as one of the world's best in his position over the last few seasons and has been crucial to his side's impressive defensive record in recent years.
Apart from having one of the world's best-paid goalkeeper, Atletico also have the best-paid coach in the world on their payroll, with Diego Simeone reportedly taking home £700,000 in weekly remuneration.
Also See: 10 teams that have conceded the fewest goals in the 21st century
#4 Frenkie de Jong (FC Barcelona) - £360,000 per week
The youngest player in the list makes it to the fourth position and that's a telling sign of the lengths clubs go to secure the player they want. Apart from his reported £65.3 million transfer fee, Barcelona pay Frenkie de Jong £360,000 in weekly wages.
The 23-year-old signed a five-year deal with the Spanish club, which will expire in the summer of 2024 and if he can prove himself at the Camp Nou, he can become one the best players at the club.
Also See: Real Madrid: Weekly wages of first-team stars revealed | La Liga 2019-20
#3 Eden Hazard (Real Madrid) - £400,000 per week
Eden Hazard is Real Madrid's second and final representative in this list with a massive £400,000 weekly wage, almost twice the sum he earned in his final season at Chelsea.
The Belgian winger remained on the sidelines for the better part of the season due to ankle injuries and failed to have the desired impact that was expected when he arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu for £88.5 million last summer.
Luckily for him, he got to lift the La Liga trophy in his first season, and we can only hope that he remains fully fit in the upcoming campaign.
#2 Luis Suarez (FC Barcelona) - £405,000 per week
Barcelona have overtaken Real Madrid as the club with the highest wage bill in La Liga and across all football leagues in the world, so it's no wonder that the top two spots in our list go to Barca players.
The second-highest earner in La Liga is Barcelona No.9 Luis Suarez, who pockets £405,000 per week and will continue to do so until the summer of 2021 when his current deal expires.
He has consistently found the back of the net for the Blaugrana in his six-year stay at the Camp Nou. He has scored a goal once every 125 minutes in league fixtures this season, a ratio second only to Messi, who made the net bulge every 115 minutes.
He has a special clause in his agreement that will automatically trigger a one-year extension in his contract, given that he plays 60 per cent of games in the 2020-21 campaign.
#1 Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) - £1,224,000 per week
There's no big reveal awaiting us at the end of this list because Lionel Messi is unsurprisingly the highest-paid player in La Liga. Given his current weekly wage, he will be remembered in the future as the best-paid footballer of all time.
The 33-year-old is the only footballer in the world who earns a seven-figure weekly wage and his unbelievable £1,224,000-per-week salary is more than twice of what his former teammate Neymar earns at PSG.
This season was only the second campaign in which the Argentine maestro ended without a trophy and that fact, combined with his frustration with the club management, has given rise to rumours that he might be looking to leave the club soon.
Also See: Liverpool: Weekly wages of the champions' first-team stars revealed | Premier League 2019-20
