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Top 10 highest paid footballers in 2023

Top highest paid footballers in 2023 as Forbes released the newest list including none other than the legendary names of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and many more. But who will top the list of this year?

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What’s more stunning? Four of the top ten come from Saudi Pro League clubs, who have heavily invested in their squad this seasons with top names and out-of-this-world sum of salaries.

*All figures via Forbes

10. Harry Kane – £29.7m

Team: Bayern Munich
Club salary: £21.5m
Off-field earnings: £8.2m

Harry Kane’s move to Bayern Munich was not a question of money – Tottenham Hotspur were prepared to significantly increase his £200,000-per-week salary with a new contract in the summer – but a shot at genuine silverware.

Bayern’s most expensive signing of all time is hardly on a pittance in Bavaria but his campaign in Germany began with failure. After losing the DFL Supercup on Kane’s debut, the national publication Bild ran the headline: “Kane here! Title gone!”

9. Kevin De Bruyne – £32.2m

Team: ManchesterCity
Club salary: £28.9m
Off-field earnings: £3.3m

De Bruyne has been ranked as top earners per club’s levels for seasons, and the Belgian deserves every penny. He is one of the best players that football has witnessed in this century, that’s for sure. And the historic treble of Man City in 2022/23 season was De Bruyne’s most elite

8. Sadio Mane – £42.9m

Team: Al Nassr
Club salary: £39.6m
Off-field earnings: £3.3m

A big player with a big heart, that’s what everybody would describe Mane. He has scored goals and brought houses, food to African children and poor people for years. Thanks to his switch from Bayern Munich to Al Nassr in 2023, the Senegalese striker could do even more for the community with his generous bump in wages.

7. Mohamed Salah – £43.7m

Team: Liverpool
Club salary: £28.9m
Off-field earnings: £14.8m

Mohamed Salah is the best-paid footballer in the history of Liverpool and since his arrival years ago, the Kop finally tasted the silverware with English Premier League, UEFA Champions League among many more.

6. Erling Haaland – £47.8m

Team: Manchester City
Club salary: £37.9m
Off-field earnings: £9.9m

The attacking centre-piece of Manchester City’s treble winners is thought to earn most of his Premier League-leading salary via achievable bonuses that don’t rely upon his deluge of goals.

5. Karim Benzema – £87.4m

Team: Al Ittihad
Club salary: £82.5m
Off-field earnings: £4.9m

By 2022, Karim Benzema had achieved all three of his life ambitions; buying his mother a house, playing for Real Madrid and hoisting aloft the Ballon d’Or.

With the bucket list ticked off, it may have been easier for Benzema to leave the European stage to join Al Ittihad. Prior to the PIF takeover, the club that pays Benzema £1.6m-per-week couldn’t afford to fulfil the salaries of some employees for three months. No matter, so long as the multi-millionaire gets his slice.

4. Kylian Mbappe – £90.7m

Team: Paris Saint-Germain
Club salary: £74.2m
Off-field earnings: £16.5m

Mbappe is inarguably PSG’s best players and highest earners, even when Neymar and Lionel Messi were there in Paris.

If he decided to stay further than 2023/24 season instead of a move to Real Madrid – his dream club – it’s hard to imagine how much more he would earn..

3. Neymar – £92.4m

Team: Al Hilal
Club salary: £66.0m
Off-field earnings: £26.4m

Neymar’s list of demands ahead of his transfer to Al Hilal in the summer is so extravagant it almost seems as though he’s deliberately trying to put off his suitors.

On top of his £66m annual salary, Neymar supposedly demanded a 25-room mansion equipped with a swimming pool “at least 40 metres long” and three saunas, all managed by eight staff in tandem with his own personal chef.

If it was a bluff, Al Hilal called it by following through on the £77.6m acquisition of the 31-year-old.

2. Lionel Messi – £111.4m

Team: Inter Miami
Club salary: £53.6m
Off-field earnings: £57.8m

Every post he makes on social could earn more than an average person could do in a year, yes, you got that right. Messi ranks as the most marketable footballer on the planet, who brings in £57.8m – more than the wage bill of seven Premier League clubs – from off-pitch earnings alone.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo – £214.5m

(Pretend to be shocked to see Ronaldo atop the list)

Team: Al Nassr
Club salary: £165.0m
Off-field earnings: £49.5m

Three years ago, in 2020, the former Real Madrid forward set a career milestone by becoming the first active team sport athlete to surpass $1bn in career earnings.

In 2023, Ronaldo became the first big (up to now, still the biggest) to join the Middle East league Saudi Pro League, which upgraded his salary to almost 170 million sterling (yes, it is even heavy by saying out loud the actual numbers).