Highest paid players
Rooney Details £17m-a-Season Man Utd Deal as Former Teammates React
Rooney said his most lucrative contract paid £17m a season; peers contrasted old wages and security.
Wayne Rooney disclosed the size of the most lucrative contract of his Manchester United career: a package worth as much as £17 million per season, the equivalent of around £325,000 per week. The revelation prompted stunned reactions from Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher during a recent episode of the Stick to Football podcast on The Overlap network.
The discussion compared wages across generations. Neville recalled that at his peak in 2001 he signed a contract worth £1.5 million per season, just under £30,000 each week. Keane’s landmark deal at the end of 1999 had been worth £50,000, and the former midfielder’s best ever deal a few years later was around double that, an annual salary in the region of £5 million. Carragher said his best Liverpool contract paid £3 million, while Ian Wright’s most lucrative deal was worth £1.25 million annually at West Ham United, with Arsenal paying him less.
Rooney’s £17 million-per-season figure is not believed to be the contract that followed his public questioning of Manchester United’s ambition in 2010. Instead it relates to the five-year contract he signed in February 2014 at the age of 28.
Neville argued that his own choices around contracts were driven by security and loyalty. “Money was never a focus for me. I never once worried about the money side of it,” he said. “[I thought] if I can get to the end of my career, at 35 or 36, at Manchester United, then I know I’ll be alright. I wouldn’t earn as much money signing these long-term contracts, [but] being a one-club man, being at United, was the right thing to do.
“When they offered me a seven-year contract on lower money, it was better for me than going for three or four years at higher money. I always thought in a more cautious way, if I got injured.”
Neville recalled signing what he described as the most lucrative contract of his career around 2007 for £1.75 million per season with a £500,000 signing bonus, then suffering an injury in 2008 that kept him out for a year while his deal ran on. He also noted the impact of the 1995 Bosman ruling on later negotiations and said Rooney was “right to push the club” for the best contract. Keane added: “You kept signing long-term contracts, so you never had a good bargaining position. My contract was running out a couple of times, so I got a good bargaining position. It’s not being greedy, it’s self-worth. As a manager, I used to admire the players who’d fight their corner.”
Arsenal
Saka’s New Five-Year Deal Makes Him Arsenal’s Top Earner and a Premier League High-Drinker
Saka’s five-year deal to 2031 reportedly raises his pay to about £300,000 per week.
Bukayo Saka has agreed a new five-year contract at Arsenal that will run until the summer of 2031 and, according to The Guardian, lift his weekly pay to roughly £300,000. That figure would make him the club’s highest earner and place him among the best-paid players in the Premier League.
Saka was thought to be on £200,000 per week under his previous deal, which was due to expire in 2027, meaning the reported increase represents around 50 percent.
The Guardian’s reporting also identified Kai Havertz as Arsenal’s previous top earner, on about £280,000 per week. Saka, still only 24 and a homegrown player, has emerged as a clear leader at the club and regularly wears the captain’s armband when Martin Ødegaard is unavailable.
Club contract planning appears to continue beyond Saka. Ødegaard is set to be one of the next in line for fresh terms as his deal expires in 2028, while Declan Rice has been billed as the extension priority. Rice is described in reports as an all-action midfielder, “arguably the club’s most important and best player, transforming the complexion of the team with his inclusion.” Those same reports contrast the drop-off between Saka and Noni Madueke, or Ødegaard and Eberechi Eze, with the more marked difference when Rice is not on the pitch.
Saka will not eclipse Arsenal’s highest-paid player ever. Mesut Özil reportedly had six months remaining on a deal worth about £350,000 per week when he left the club in January 2021.
On the wider Premier League stage, Saka’s reported wage still sits below the division’s top earners. The Telegraph reported Mohamed Salah’s extension would see him earn up to £480,000 per week with bonuses and a base rate near £400,000 per week. The Guardian reported Erling Haaland’s nine-and-a-half-year deal as worth around £500,000 per week. Even among English players Saka is not the highest earner: Jack Grealish is reported to earn a similar £300,000 per week at Manchester City and Raheem Sterling about £325,000 per week, per The Times. The draft report notes that neither Grealish nor Sterling have been capped for England by Thomas Tuchel and are yet to play a single minute of Premier League football for their paymasters this season.
Al Nassr
2025 List: Ten Biggest Earners in World Football
Cristiano Ronaldo leads Forbes 2025 ranking of the ten highest-paid footballers; key figures listed.
Forbes released its 2025 ranking Thursday of the ten highest-paid soccer players, with Cristiano Ronaldo topping the list for the sixth time in a decade. The ten players combined earn close to $1 billion, according to the estimates presented.
The youngest entrant is Lamine Yamal. Age 18, club Barcelona, Spain, he is the only player under 20 on the list. On-field earnings are listed at $33 million and off-field earnings $10 million. Yamal recently signed a new contract with Barcelona and was given the No.10 shirt. Off the pitch he signed sponsorships with Beats by Dre, adidas, Powerade and more.
Jude Bellingham appears as a new top-10 entry. Age 22, club Real Madrid, England, his on-field earnings are $29 million and off-field $15 million. Bellingham’s move to Real Madrid in 2023 yielded a Champions League and La Liga double in his first season and he was named an EA Sports FC cover star. He has missed notable time to begin the season and was absent from England’s recent camp after recovering from shoulder surgery. He has partnerships with adidas and Louis Vuitton.
Sadio Mané, age 33 at Al Nassr, Senegal, is listed with $50 million on-field and $4 million off-field. His contract is set to expire at the end of the season. Mohamed Salah, age 33 of Liverpool, Egypt, shows $35 million on-field and $20 million off-field; he helped Liverpool to a league title and helped Egypt qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
Vinícius Júnior, age 25 at Real Madrid, Brazil, has $40 million on-field and $20 million off-field. Erling Haaland, age 25 at Manchester City, Norway, is at $60 million on-field and $20 million off-field and already has 12 goals this season with a Premier League record listed in the report.
Kylian Mbappé, age 26 at Real Madrid, France, is listed with $70 million on-field and $25 million off-field. Karim Benzema, age 37 at Al-Ittihad, France, shows $100 million on-field and $4 million off-field. Lionel Messi, age 38 at Inter Miami, Argentina, has $60 million on-field and $70 million off-field. Cristiano Ronaldo, age 40 at Al Nassr, Portugal, tops the list with $230 million on-field and $50 million off-field and a noted social-media reach cited in the report.
United Preparing Major Midfield Overhaul with Goretzka Among Targets
Salah becomes first player with 152 goal contributions at one Premier League stadium
