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Players are crucial to a club's success. Whilst a manager might be able to instruct players on what to do, ultimately the responsibility lies with them out on the field. The actions they take can literally decide whether a team succeeds as a whole, or fails miserably.
So, when a great player becomes available, clubs fight tooth-and-nail to ensure that they can recruit them. This often means that a bidding war takes place, not just over transfer fees upfront, but also over the player's wages. Two clubs can agree to a transfer, but if the player refuses his personal contract, the deal falls through.
As a result, clubs have become more accustomed to offering a player astronomical wages to persuade them to join their side over another. It's not just the transfer market that's inflated nowadays; player's wages are, too, and they're only set to increase.
With that said, just how much are some of the top footballers in the world paid to play for their clubs? Bear in mind that some of the players on this list may have recently signed a new contract, or perhaps have switched from one club to another after being offered exorbitant wages. Either way, these figures have to be seen to be believed.
Disclaimer: All figures are procured from French site L'Equipe, who carry out an annual report on the highest paid players from around the world. These figures are presented in the Euro currency, as stated on the site, to avoid conversion errors. Lastly, the amount specified is how much a player earns before tax per-month.
Also see : Manchester Transfer News, Chelsea Transfer News, Gold Cup Standings
#10 Mesut Ozil (Arsenal) - €1,600,000/Month
Mesut Ozil is a 30-year-old attacking midfielder who currently plays for Arsenal in the Premier League. He also represented Germany's national team until his recent retirement from international football following the World Cup.
Ozil was already being paid a significant amount when he was with Real Madrid, which essentially forced Arsenal to offer him more to convince him to leave Spain and come to London. Clearly, what was offered was enough and he joined the Gunners in September 2013 for a fee of around £42m.
With Ozil earning €1,600,000 per month, this means that his weekly salary is around €400,000, which is simply staggering. It's his wages that have caused Arsenal fans to target him with so much abuse when he plays poorly, as they don't feel like he works hard enough for the amount he gets paid.
#9 Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain) - €1,730,000/Month
Kylian Mbappe is a 20-year-old centre-forward who currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1. Despite his young age, he has represented France a total of 28 times since making his debut in March 2017.
Mbappe rose to prominence rapidly, going from strength to strength within the space of two years. He was promoted from Monaco's youth team to the U19s in the summer of 2015, before being bumped to the senior team just under a year later.
Paris Saint-Germain took notice once he scored 15 goals in 19 appearances in his first season for Monaco. PSG were actually bound by Financial Fair Play Regulations at this time, after having spent a fortune on Neymar earlier on in the transfer window. But to get around it, they agreed to a loan deal, with the obligation to buy for £120m at the end of it, which would be the summer transfer window.
Naturally, with Mbappe being one of the hottest young prospects in the world right now, PSG wasted no time in locking him into a contract worth hundreds of thousands a week in order to ensure he was happy with them. His exorbitant wages are also in place to scare off teams interested in prying the youngster away from them, as they'd have to either match the salary or pay even more.
#8 Alexis Sanchez (Manchester United) - €2,280,000/Month
Alexis Sanchez is a 30-year-old left winger who currently plays for Manchester United in the Premier League. He has also represented Chile a total of 124 times since making his debut back in April 2006.
The first time Sanchez began to make major waves in the footballing world was when he switched from Udinese to Barcelona in the summer of 2011 for a fee of around £25m. He remained with Barcelona for three more years, before being signed by Arsenal. Sanchez was placed on a contract reportedly worth around £250,000-per-week, making him one of the best-paid players in the Premier League at that time.
From the get-go, Sanchez was a huge hit with the Gunners. Across the 122 matches he played for Arsenal over the span of four seasons, Sanchez scored 60 goals, which is an impressive stat in itself, but when you consider that he was a left-winger, it makes it even better.
It was understandable why Alexis Sanchez was paid so much by Arsenal; he really became their key player and the only real person out on that pitch able to break a deadlock or lift the team's spirit when heads dropped following a goal conceded. However, towards the end of the 2017/18 campaign, Sanchez began to get despondent and started to look elsewhere.
That's when Manchester United made themselves known, securing the 28-year-old for a fee of around £30m, which was far cheaper than his market value because his contract was running out and the Gunners were desperate to get something out of his departure.
Sanchez, according to his monthly salary, is being paid around €570,00-per-week at United. A staggering amount, but some would argue that if players are going to be paid ridiculous amounts of money, then the likes of Sanchez are perhaps the most deserving of it.
#7 Philippe Coutinho (Barcelona) - €2,300,000/Month
Phillipe Coutinho is a 26-year-old attacking midfielder who currently plays for Barcelona in La Liga. He has also featured for Brazil's national team a total of 46 times, since making his debut back in October 2010.
Coutinho was developed in Vasco's U17 squad before Inter Milan scouted and signed him for around £3.5m back in July 2008. He would spent the next four-and-a-half years with Inter, where he developed considerably and was well on his way to become one of the best players in the squad. However, Liverpool's unexpected bid of £12m for the 19-year-old was duly accepted by Inter Milan. No doubt they're regretting selling him for such a low price now.
At Anfield, Coutinho flourished. He became the epicentre of the team within a few years, filling out the No. 10 role and scoring the occasional wondergoal without even breaking a sweat. It was clear that he was a prodigy and he served the club very well.
Though despite Liverpool's best efforts, Coutinho would eventually depart the club to join Barcelona, which was a move he had reportedly dreamed of when he was younger, so the Reds accepted a bid of around £120m for him in January 2018.
Coutinho was already being paid a considerable sum of money at Liverpool when Barcelona enquired about his availability, so they knew that if they wanted personal negotiations to be smooth, they would need to hike up his wage, and that's exactly what they did. Given his monthly salary, we can deduce that Coutinho is being paid around €575,000-per-week.
#6 Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) - €2,500,000/Month
Gareth Bale is a 29-year-old right winger who currently plays for Real Madrid in La Liga. He has represented Wales' national team on 74 occasions, since making his debut back in May 2006.
A product of Southampton's youth academy, Bale was sold to Spurs within a year of being promoted to the Saints' first team. Tottenham didn't waste any time in bringing in the 18-year-old, as they recognised his potential to be a great deal higher than his peers.
They paid an outright fee of around £13.5m for Bale, which raised a few eyebrows from the Spurs fans who thought it was strange to be paying such a large chunk of money for an unproven teenager, but, sure enough, they would reap the rewards later on.
Bale would spend six years with Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, progressing from playing as a left-back, to a left midfielder, then a left winger, before eventually being tried out as a striker. In all positions, he was lethal; he could do no wrong.
So when the opportunity arose in the summer of 2013, Real Madrid broke the bank and signed Bale for a mighty £90m. Bale was only valued at around £60m at the time, but Los Blancos didn't want to risk competing with other clubs for his signature so they went all-out.
Nowadays, Bale is easily one of the best players in the world. He consistently puts in superb performances for Real Madrid and even gave Ronaldo a run for his money when the two shared the pitch. Now that Ronaldo is with Juventus, Bale has Madrid to himself.
Madrid have renewed Bale's contract a couple of times since he first signed, hiking up his price tag exponentially to ward off other clubs. His weekly salary is now in the region of €625,000-per-week.
#5 Luis Suarez (Barcelona) - €2,900,000/Month
Luis Suarez is a 32-year-old centre-forward who currently plays for Barcelona in La Liga. He has also represented Uruguay 106 times since making his debut in February 2007.
Suarez began his career with Nacional in Uruguay and was signed by FC Groningen six months after he was promoted to Nacional's first team. Groningen paid £720k for the 18-year-old and, within a year, the club had made around £6m profit, thanks to Ajax's swift bid.
Ajax knew early on just how talented Suarez was, and he would ease to the top of the most goals scored lists in the Eredivisie, which turned the heads of top clubs across Europe, keen to see how a player barely out of his teens was able to dominate the league as he had.
Three-and-a-half years later, Suarez would make the first big move of his career and join Liverpool for around £25m. This is where Suarez would truly make a name for himself, showcasing that he wasn't just a one-trick pony who could only succeed in lower leagues; he quite literally demolished the Premier League, getting more and more clinical with each passing season.
In his final campaign with the Reds, Suarez netted 31 times in 33 appearances, matching a record set by Cristiano Ronaldo (Man United) for most goals scored within a 38-game season. In total, Suarez would score 69 times over the course of 110 matches.
The end of that season was when Barcelona swooped in and secured a deal worth around £75m. Suarez has continued to do well in La Liga to this day, and with numerous contract renewals having happened since he joined five years ago, the Uruguayan is the second-highest paid player in the Barcelona squad.
Suarez earns about €725,000-per-week.
#4 Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain) - €3,060,000/Month
Neymar is a 27-year-old left winger who currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1. He has featured for Brazil's national team a total of 96 times since making his debut back in August 2010. In those 96 games, Neymar has scored a staggering 60 goals.
Neymar progressed through Santos youth academy in Brazil before making it through their U20 side to play for the first team. He began making waves almost instantly. Brazilians are often scouted by top Europeans clubs for their tendency to show great trickery and superb overall ability on the ball, and so when Neymar rose to prominence through his frequent man-of-the-match performances, it naturally got him a lot of attention.
However, it did take some time before a top club could pry away Neymar from Santos, but there was no way Santos could turn down the £80m bid from Barcelona in the summer of 2013. Besides, Neymar had outgrown his boyhood club by this point and was undoubtedly ready for a new challenge.
When he joined Barcelona, Neymar was part of a front three alongside Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, who, as you may have guessed, devastated La Liga defences. They were simply unstoppable for much of their time together.
However, the good times began to fade a couple of seasons in, and Neymar became restless. There has always been a somewhat narcissistic energy to Neymar's character which rises to the surface when the attention is drawn to the players around him, rather than he, himself. Naturally, the likes of Messi and Suarez were getting heaps of praise, and Neymar wasn't used to sharing the limelight.
By the time the summer of 2017 had rolled around, Neymar made the sudden switch to Paris Saint-Germain for a fee close to £200m. Whilst some fans had said they were expecting him to leave soon, others were shocked at his sudden change of heart. However, pundits and critics alike said the root cause behind the move was so that he could once again become the top player at a club.
However, to Neymar's dismay, things haven't quite worked out that way. Kylian Mbappe takes a lot of the limelight now, which has left Neymar in his shadow. There was some speculation in January that Neymar could even be lining up a move elsewhere, but nothing materialised.
Eager to keep hold of one of their top players, the PSG board have handed Neymar an astronomical amount of money in salary, which can be calculated at around €765,000-per-week.
#3 Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid) - €3,300,000/Month
Antoine Griezmann is a 28-year-old centre-forward who currently plays for Atletico Madrid in La Liga. He has also represented France a total of 67 times since making his debut in March 2014. In the summer of 2018, Griezmann won the World Cup with his country.
Before joining Atletico Madrid for just £27m in 2014, Griezmann had spent virtually all of his career with Real Sociedad, progressing from their youth academy all the way to the first team. He featured in 202 games for Real Sociedad over the five years he would spend with them, scoring 52 times.
But even when Griezmann signed for Atletico, he wasn't too highly regarded by many clubs in Europe at that time. In fact, he was a good striker, but nothing special. However, within a season with Atletico Madrid, everything changed. After he scored 22 goals in 37 games, people began to pay attention.
He replicated that goal-scoring tally the following season, too. But since that time, his tally has slightly receded, only scoring 16 goals in his third season, despite playing the same amount of matches. What had changed, though, was his play style: no longer was he an out-and-out striker; instead, he was much more well-rounded and worked hard to involve other players in the attack, which resulted in him picking up eight assists that season.
Over the span of five seasons with Atletico, Griezmann has scored 91 goals in 171 matches, registering 30 assists in the process. And with a plethora of interest from top European clubs in recent transfer windows, Atletico have hiked up his salary in an attempt to ward them off. Griezmann is now paid around €825,000-per-week.
#2 Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) - €4,700,000/Month
Cristiano Ronaldo is a 34-year-old left winger who currently plays for Juventus in Serie A. He represents Portugal's national team as their captain, and has been capped a total of 155 times, scoring 85 goals in the process.
Even before the days of Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo drew a lot of attention for the way he played. He was rapid on the ball and could skip past oncoming defenders with ease. All it took was for Manchester United to play Ronaldo's team, Sporting Lisbon, in a pre-season friendly for Sir Alex Ferguson to give the order to sign the 18-year-old up, and the rest is history.
He joined United for around £17m and made an immediate impact in his first season, showcasing his ability on a huge scale now that he was in the Premier League. Despite his tender age, Ronaldo featured in matches whenever possible, as Ferguson knew how pivotal the youngster was to games -- he could pick out a pass that others would miss; he could score from a distance that others wouldn't think to shoot from; and he could open up opposing defences in a flash. He was the ultimate player.
Ronaldo would play a total of 229 games for Manchester United, scoring 93 times -- an impressive stat for a player who was utilised on the flanks. In the 2007/08 campaign, Ronaldo scored 31 goals in 34 appearances, which is a record Suarez matched in the 2013/14 season with Liverpool (as mentioned previously), before the record was eventually broken by Mohamed Salah in the 2017/18 Premier League season with Liverpool, in which he scored 32 goals in 36 matches.
By the summer of 2009, Ronaldo joined Real Madrid for £80m and it was here in Spain that he would reach his peak. He was unstoppable throughout his time with Los Blancos, and remained with them for nine years, setting and breaking innumerable records, whilst competing with Lionel Messi for Ballon d'Ors on the side.
Last summer, though, he made the sudden switch to Juventus for just over £100m. He was reportedly unsettled at Madrid and felt as if he was being mistreated. Many fans wondered if he would slow down or struggle in a new division, with a new club, but this hasn't been the case. Ronaldo has scored 19 goals in 26 matches for Juventus in Serie A, as well as 4 goals in 7 games in the Champions League.
It's no wonder why Ronaldo is paid so much money, given the amount he gives back to the club -- not just with his performances out on the pitch, but with his brand being connected to Juventus as a whole, which has boosted merchandise sales exponentially.
Cristiano Ronaldo's monthly salary of €4,700,000 breaks down to around €1,175,000-per-week.
#1 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - €8,300,000/Month
Lionel Messi is a 31-year-old right winger who currently plays for Barcelona in La Liga. He has also represented Argentina's national team 129 times, since making his debut back in August 2005. Messi is the current Captain of the side.
For years now, Messi has been battling with Cristiano Ronaldo for the title of the "best player in the world", and still, nobody can separate them. They are footballers who operate on a different level entirely from everybody else, with stats that are simply unbelievable to read. For instance, Messi has scored 169 goals in 167 games for Barcelona over the past five seasons -- truly staggering.
Messi transferred from Newell's U19 squad to Barcelona's youth academy in the summer of 2000, when he was 13 years old. By the time he was 15, he was training with Barcelona's U17 team; the following summer, he was bumped to the U19s; and six months after that, he was given a chance in Barcelona C.
His tenure with Barcelona C lasted less than a month, such was the speed he was progressing at, and he was promoted to Barcelona's B team. Eventually, in the summer of 2005, at age 17, Messi made his first start for Barcelona's senior team -- the rest is history.
Messi has never played for another club besides Barcelona and is unlikely to now that he's entered his 30s. It would make sense for him to stay with the club he began at, and go down in history as a club legend.
Lionel Messi's staggering €8,300,000 monthly salary can be broken down to €2,075,000-per-week in wages.
