Barcelona become first sports team to average £10m a year in wages

Barcelona have become the first sports team in history with average first-team pay in excess of £10m a year, according to the latest Global Sports Salary Survey, which also shows the extent to which wages are spiralling across all sports.

This season the Spanish champions will pay its 23-man squad an average of £10.45m, before bonuses, a figure that has risen by a third since 2017-18. Much of that is down to signing Lionel Messi to a new deal that pays him in excess of £50m a year, although signing Phillippe Coutinho, Arthur, Malcom and Arturo Vidal, and handing Gerard Piqué, Sergi Roberto, Samuel Umtiti and Sergio Busquets lucrative extensions has also significantly swollen the payroll.

Real Madrid are second in the GSS survey – which tracks pay in 349 teams across eight sports in 13 countries – with its first-team players earning an average of £8.1m a year. The next six spots are filled by NBA teams, with the Oklahoma Thunder in third (£7.85m) and the Golden State Warriors (£7.82m) in fourth.

Manchester United (£6.53m) are the highest British club in the survey in 10th, one spot behind Juventus who have leapt from 32nd place to ninth after signing Cristiano Ronaldo. Manchester City (£5.93m) are the next highest Premier League club in 20th position, with Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all in the top 40.

The survey, which will be published on the Sporting Intelligence website on Monday, also found that the Premier League remained the richest football league in the world, with first-team squad players earning £2.99m a year on average – or £55,714 per week. That figure is 36% higher than the Premier League’s nearest rival, La Liga (£2.2m) and just under double that of Italy’s Serie A (£1.5m).

The survey highlights, for the first time, the extent of the “Premier League premium” that clubs pay to attract and keep players – with research from the football analytics firm 21st Club showing that English sides not only pay more in transfer fees than their counterparts in Spain, Italy, Germany and France on average, but often two to three times more in average salaries for players of the same quality too.

The survey highlights, for the first time, the extent of the “Premier League premium” that clubs pay to attract and keep players – with research from the football analytics firm 21st Club showing that English sides not only pay more in transfer fees than their counterparts in Spain, Italy, Germany and France on average, but often two to three times more in average salaries for players of the same quality too.

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