The average under-23 player in the Premier League earns 2.13 million British pounds per year in basic pay, while 23-29 and 30-plus year old players earn an average of 3.52 and 3.17 million British pounds respectively.
Within each age group there is significant positional variability, with forwards and midfielders typically earning more than goalkeepers and defenders.

In the 2023/24 season, Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne was the highest paid player in the Premier League, earning an estimated annual salary of over ** million British pounds. De Bruyne's teammate Erling Haaland ranked second, with an annual salary of around **** million British pounds.

With each player taking home a handsome 8.32 million U.S. dollars every year, the NBA is the professional sports league with the highest player wages worldwide. In second place is the Indian Premier League, an annual cricket competition contested each year between eight franchises representing eight different Indian cities.

Big money in the NBA Although the wages that players in the NBA take home are astronomical, the average annual salaries vary from one team to another. Whilst the New York Knicks pay their players an average of 7.08 million U.S. dollars a year, Portland Trail Blazers spent around 10.04 million U.S. dollars annually on each of their stars in 2019/20. NBA salaries have tremendously increased throughout the years reaching 8.32 million U.S. dollars in 2019/20 compared to 4.6 million U.S. dollars in 2015/16.

In 2023, the average annual salary in the FA Women's Super League was around ** thousand British pounds, with the highest yearly salary amounting to over ***** times this sum. However, even the highest earners in the FA WSL earn significantly less than the average Premier League footballer.

Earning a weekly salary of 450,000 euros in 2020, Oscar dos Santos Emboaba Júnior, better known as Oscar from Shanghai SIPG was the highest paid soccer player in the Chinese Super League. Globally, Lionel Messi ranked first with 96 million euros per year before taxes in 2020. Cristiano Ronaldo followed as second with 54 million euros, while Oscar took the tenth spot with 24 million euro.

Chinese top tier soccer league

The Chinese Super League (CSL), China’s premier professional soccer league, has contributed significantly to the booming sports industry. Since its introduction in 2004, the League has attracted millions of spectators to live matches and received over 300 million yuan in sponsorships each year from the likes of Shell, DHL, and Nike. In recent years, CSL has paid record-breaking fees for top player transfers, an act in line with the national goal - making China a global soccer powerhouse by 2030.

The soccer craze in China

In a country with 200 million soccer fans, football marketing is a thriving business in China. A 2019 survey found that the majority of Chinese soccer fans were inclined to pay for sports streaming platforms. Almost 74 percent of football enthusiasts streamed football matches at least once a week. Apart from CSL, Chinese fans closely follow the English Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, and the Spanish La Liga.

In the 2019 Japanese Soccer League (J1) season, the average annual player salary for the first team squad of Vissel Kobe amounted to approximately 1.57 million U.S. dollars. The team is headquartered in Kobe, a city in central Japan located in Hyogo prefecture, and plays its home games from the Kobe City Misaki Park Stadium (also known as Noevir Stadium Kobe). Vissel Kobe was the best-paid team in Japan’s first soccer division (J-1) by a considerable amount in the 2019 season. Soccer vs. Baseball In countries with major sports leagues in soccer or baseball, usually one of the sports has established a dominant position in terms of popularity and market size, such as Major league Baseball (MLB) in the United States, or the Premier League in the United Kingdom. In the case of Japan, this dominance seemed to be less pronounced. The balance appeared to tip in favor of the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) when looking at it from a monetary perspective, as the average annual player salaries of baseball players were in general higher than soccer players' salaries. The one notable exception was Vissel Kobe, which remunerated its players more generously than the highest paying baseball teams in Japan. In terms of popularity, both sports received similar viewer ratings on TV, while baseball pulled ahead in terms of venue attendance. International comparison of average soccer player salaries Vissel Kobe’s average annual player salary in the 2019 season seemed disproportionately high, especially when compared to other J1 teams’ paychecks. Compared to player salaries in other soccer leagues such as the Premier League in the United Kingdom, La Liga in Spain, or Bundesliga in Germany, the salaries of J1 players were still somewhat moderate. Vissel Kobe was the only team paying an average player salary of more than one million U.S. dollars per year. In the Premier League, for instance, an average player salary of more than one million U.S. dollars was the norm rather than the exception.

In the 2019/2020 season, Celtic was the highest paying club in Scottish Premiership. The average annual player salary in that season was 1.12 million U.S. dollars, while in Hamilton, the lowest paying club in the Scottish Premiership, it was 51.44 thousand U.S. dollars.

12 clubs consistently play in the Scottish Premiership.

The Scottish Premiership, also known as the Ladbrokes Premiership, is the top division within the Scottish Premier Football League (SPFL). The composition of teams changes every season through a process of relegation with the second division of the SPFL, the Scottish Championship or Ladbrokes Championship.

The matches of Celtic were the most popular Scottish Premiership matches.

During the 2017/2018 season, 57,588 people attended each Celtic game on average. Second most popular were Rangers FC with an average attendance per game of 49,254 people. The cheapest season ticket of Celtic during that season was 376 British pounds, whereas the most expensive one was 609 British pounds.

In 2023/24, Premier League clubs collectively generated over *** billion euros in revenue and spent around *** billion euros on wages. This represented a wages to revenue ratio of ** percent.

In 2023/24, clubs in the Premier League collectively spent more on wages than any other league in Europe's Big Five, with wage costs totaling **** billion euros. Meanwhile, clubs in La Liga spent a combined total of around **** billion euros.

In 2023/24, Manchester City led the Premier League both in terms of revenue generated and the amount spent on wages, having an overall wages to revenue ratio of ** percent. Meanwhile, the club with the highest wages to revenue ratio was *****************, at ** percent.

The Scottish Premiership is the highest football league in Scotland. In the past 20 years, the Celtic FC and the Rangers FC have been the only two teams to win the league, which was only established in 2013. Beforehand the highest league was the Scottish Premier League. Since the new establishment, Celtic FC has been the only club to win the league. This is also reflected in the average annual player salary, which is highest at Celtic FC with roughly 896 thousand British pounds, followed by Rangers FC with approximately 650 British pounds. Comparison to other leagues   When compared to the average annual player salary in the Premier League, Celtic FC pays less to its’ players than any team. Taking a look at the Premier League’s revenue streams or also Germany’s Bundesliga revenue streams, the majority comes from broadcasting and media coverage, however Scotland’s largest share of revenue comes from Gate receipts. Ticket pricing reflects success   Since Celtic FC followed by Rangers FC have been the only truly successful clubs in the top tier league in Scotland they also sell the most expensive match-day tickets as well as the most expensive season tickets throughout the Scottish Premiership. Both teams also sell the most expensive team shirts.

The statistic depicts the average annual first-team player salary of Chelsea in the English Premier League in the United Kingdom (UK) from season 2014/15 to 2021/22. In 2019/20, the average annual pay of first-team players in the Chelsea football club in the Premier League was approximately **** million British pounds.

As of 2023, soccer players in the English Premier League were better compensated than many other professional sports leagues, with player salaries amounting to around ** percent of the league's total revenue. Meanwhile, player salaries in North America's Big Four sports leagues hovered around half of each league's revenue, while cricketers in the Indian Premier League only earned ** percent of league revenue.

During the 2022/23 Premier League football season, Manchester United paid the highest average salary to players throughout the year, at 7.19 million British pounds. The second highest average annual salary in the Premier League for the season was paid by Manchester City, with 6.79 million British pounds on average. Which football league has the highest revenue?   England, with its Premier League, is one of the Big Five, the top tier football leagues of England, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France. Out of this group, England has had the highest and fastest growing revenue over the past 20 years, projected to reach 7.1 billion euros in 2023, followed by Spain with 3.7 billion euros.

The statistic depicts the average annual first-team player salary of Liverpool in the English Premier League in the United Kingdom (UK) from season 2014/15 to 2019/20. In 2019/20, the average annual pay of first-team players in the Liverpool football club in the Premier League was approximately **** million British pounds.

In the 2023/24 season, Chelsea had the highest total wage bill in the FA Women's Super League, totaling 10.3 million British pounds. Arsenal were not far behind, with wage costs amounting to nine million British pounds.

In 2022, the striker was the best-paid soccer position in the two main professional soccer divisions in Chile. That year, a footballer playing on that position in the First Division earned on average *** million Chilean pesos. In the country's second most important soccer league (Primera B), a striker had a salary of *** million Chilean pesos on average.

The statistic shows the average player salary of the teams in the Chinese Football Super League (CSL) in 2019. Shanghai SIPG had an average player salary of 2.29 million U.S. dollars for the 2019 season.

The statistic depicts the average annual first-team player salary of West Ham in the English Premier League in the United Kingdom (UK) from season 2014/15 to 2019/20. In 2019/2020, the average annual pay of first-team players in the West Ham football club in the Premier League was approximately three million British pounds, showing a consistent increase over the past seasons.

The statistic depicts the average annual first-team player salary of Southampton in the English Premier League in the United Kingdom (UK) from season 2014/15 to 2019/20. In 2019/20, the average annual pay of first-team players in the Southampton football club in the Premier League was approximately *** million British pounds, showing consistent increase over the past seasons.