L'FC Barcelona is the first sports club in history to pay its first-team players an average salary of over £10 million a year, the highest in the world, according to the Sport Global Salary Survey. The survey shows that the Spanish club pays its 23-man first-team squad an average of £10,45 million a year, before bonuses, jumping from fourth to first place. One reason for this is undoubtedly Lionel Messi's latest contract, which amounts to over £50 million a year, but also the arrival of players such as Arturo Vidal, Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho and the new contracts signed with Sergio Busquets, Samuel Umtiti and Sergi Roberto, which have seen Barcelona's average wages rise significantly. Real Madrid are the second highest paid teams in the world across all sports, with first-team salaries of £8,1m a year, and despite the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus, Real's average wages have remained high, albeit below Barcelona. However, both Barca and Madrid pay well above the Spanish La Liga average of £2,2m a year. Ronaldo's arrival at Juventus has seen the Serie A champions rise from 32nd to ninth in the top 10 on £6,72m, ahead of Manchester United, who have an average salary of £6,53m a year, much higher than the average salary of £2,99m for a Premier League player. As for Serie A, behind Juve are Inter with £3,70 million (62nd in the overall ranking), Milan with £3,55 million (65th), Roma with £2,84 million (76th), Napoli with £2,82 million (78th) and Lazio with £1,57 million (172nd).
Article published on November 26, 2018 - 17:10
