The 50 Highest Paid Players in European Football

Clement Andreau runs down a list of the game's most lucrative contracts.

by Clement Andreau (Scribe)

26 comments

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February 28, 2008

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Football, Soccer, World Football, EPL, La Liga, Serie A

Futebol Finance, a Portuguese website specialising in football economy, published the list of the highest paid players in Football.

Golden boot Kaka is number one on the list, followed by Ronaldinho and Frank Lampard.

The EPL is the most represented League with 20 players. One surprising thing—some of these players are not from the four big dogs. Michael Owen from Newcastle Utd ranks 14th, Portsmouth's defender Sol Campbell is 15th, and Darren Bent from Tottenham comes in 19th place.

Real Madrid and Barcelona both have six players in the rank, confirming their financial power. Italy is also well represented, Inter and Juventus have three players in the rank, Roma with Totti and Cassano for Sampdoria are also there. French League only has four players, O.M's Cissé being the highest paid player in France.

Without  any surprise, David Beckham is the only non-European based player, but he only comes in  44th position. This is because the list doesnt add the sponsorship contracts—it only accounts for the salary clubs give to players per month.

Here is the list:

1. Ricardo Kaka AC Milan—750.000 €

2. Ronaldinho Gaucho FC Barcelone—710.000 €

3. Frank Lampard Chelsea FC—680.000 €

4. John Terry Chelsea FC—680.000 €

5. Fernando Torres Liverpool FC—660.000 €

6. Andriy Shevchenko Chelsea FC—650.000 €

7. Michael Ballack Chelsea FC —650.000 €

8. Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester Utd—640.000 €

9. Thierry Henry FC Barcelone—640.000 €

10. Steven Gerrard Liverpool FC—640.000 €

11. Didier Drogba Chelsea FC—615.000 €

12. Wayne Rooney Manchester Utd—610.000 €

13. Iker Casillas CF Real Madrid—600.000 €

14. Michael Owen Newcastle Utd—560.000 €

15. Sol Campbell Portsmouth—550.000 €

16. Raul Gonzalez CF Real Madrid—535.000 €

17. Ruud Van Nistelrooy CF Real Madrid—535.000 €

18. Rio Ferdinand Manchester Utd—505.000

19. Darren Bent Tottenham Hotspur—495.000

20. Carlos Tevez Manchester Utd—490.000 €

21. Fabio Cannavaro CF Real Madrid—490.000 €

22. Luca Toni Bayern Munich—460.000 €

23. Robinho CF Real Madrid—460.000 €

24. Francesco Totti AS Roma—455.000 €

25. Arjen Robben CF Real Madrid—445.000 €

26. Ryan Giggs Manchester Utd—435.000 €

27. Michael Essien Chelsea FC—420.000 €

28. Adriano Lima Inter Milan—417.000 €

29. Zlatan Ibrahimovic Inter Milan—417.000 €

30. Patrick Vieira Inter Milan—417.000 €

31. Gianluigi Buffon Juventus FC—417.000 €

32. Samuel Eto´o FC Barcelone—417.000 €

33. Charles Puyol FC Barcelone—417.000 €

34. Sergio Aguero Atletico Madrid—417.000 €

35. Oliver Kahn Bayern Munich—412.000 €

36. Edwin Vandersar Manchester Utd—405.000 €

37. Fernando Morientes Valence—405.000 €

38. Alessandro Del Piero Juventus FC—400.000 €

39. Harry Kewell Liverpool FC—400.000 €

40. Djibril Cisse OM—400.000 €

41. Joe Cole Chelsea FC—390.000 €

42. Pedro Pauleta Paris SG—384.000 €

43. Juninho Pernanbucano OL—380.000 €

44. David Beckham LA Galaxy—375.000 €

45. David Trezeguet Juventus—FC 375.000 €

46. Sidney Govou OL—375.000 €

47. Deco FC Barcelona—375.000 €

48. Gianluca Zambrotta FC Barcelona—375.000 €

49. Petr Cech Chelsea FC—360.000 €

50. Antonio Cassano Sampdoria—350.000 €

My favourite trick by Kaka last year against Liverpool in  my media center.

comments (26) write a comment »

  1. Are these figures for monthly salaries? I assume so as they look a bit too high to be weekly!

  2. Yes they are, I am gonna fix that up now. Thanks Matt

  3. No problem, was just wondering. I'm always interested to see lists like these - I'm not sure where they get their figures from but I always deem them more accurate and reliable than what you hear quoted in the tabloid press!

  4. What would beckhams be in euros???

  5. 44. David Beckham LA Galaxy—375.000 €/ per month. He also has lots of huge sponsorship contracts, and on top of that I think he gets something on jerseys sale from the Galaxy. This is just hi salaryu as a player for L.A Galaxy

    1. My bad I didn't really look for him. Why is he in the list he doesn't play in Europe?

  6. Me again. Actually I'm not sure I quite believe that Darren Bent is on €495,000/month - this is around £80,000 a week and I understood that Tottenham have quite a rigid pay structure and only Woodgate and maybe Keane are on more than £50k a week (with Berbatov going up to this much if they can convince him to stay). So I'm not sure I believe that figure for Bent.

  7. Not a single Arsenal player on the list....

  8. How are these figures even known?

    The list must be a mixture of speculation and pure fantasy, as they have no reason to know how much players earn with any degree of certainty.

    No doubt many of the players on there are among the highest paid, but many of the figures must just be made up.

    Even if they got the figures directly from players/agents, how can we believe they are true? Wouldn't an agent deliberately enhance the level of his players deal, so that clubs looking at signing him know the sort of wages he is after? (thus increasing the agent's ten percent)

    Call me a cynic, but lists such as this just make me think they have made the whole thing up using a hat full of names and a hat full of sums.

  9. I thought Lampard and Terry were paid 120K pounds a week?

  10. Where is David Villa?

  11. Here is the link from the website. Futebol Finance is a e serious website, and for those of you who understand portuguese, you ll see on the website that they seem pretty serious with the figures they have here. http://www.futebolfinance.com/salarios-dos-jogadores-de-futebol-0708/

  12. whats the hell is harry kewell on the list for? number 39, thats one hell of a lot of sick pay

  13. I heard Lampard eats his weight in lard each week and that is why he needs to be paid so much.

  14. Shouldn't there be a picture of a Brazilian up there before the article.....seeing as they earn the most and all.
    Also Beckham does not play in Europe.

    1. "David Beckham is the only non-European based player" I wrote Footbal first but someone corrected it in "European Football".
      I was looking for Kaka's picture, but there wasn't any available on the site.

  15. Clement
    You should complain or something.
    The editing has spoiled some key aspects of your article.

    Also you should look for another source of the same info if possible to silence
    the critics.

    1. If you have checked the link, can u at least confirm to the people who doubt of the numbers that futebol finance is actually a good and credible website?
      Thanks

  16. It's never really been about the money at Arsenal, it's just that f** Ashley Cole. Greedy pig. Swerved off the road because he was getting 55k a week. People would kill to get a quarter of that in a year! Killed off whatever reputation he had left, he has.

  17. Yeah, Arsenal only takes young player and make then sign long contracts meanwhime they are still young, so they are not greedy yet. Also, Arsene knows how to make an "average" player, into a good one. Adebayor when he was playing in Monaco was an average striker in the French League. And look how good he is now, he even took Togo to the World Cup

  18. They are all "greedy pigs" they play to make a living......... they entertain you just like an actor or singer.

  19. "Greedy pigs" is a little too much, don't forget clubs and sponsors are making a lot of money too, and the salaries are just a small amount of what they earn.

  20. clement can u publish the salary of arsenal players. would love to know what they earn to make them so coordinated, given the fact that none of them is in the top 50.

  21. Thats enough to show the world that chelsea fc is the richest club in the world.
    by ssesaazi@yahoo.com

  22. Chelseafc football players deserve even much more,because they have shown that are a dedicated,loyal,dependable side.

  23. i think this list has really shown and confirm that chelsea fc is the richest club in the world.Why on earth are there no arsenal players on the list.

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