ESPN The Magazine’s Money Issue salary survey project reveals that average paychecks of athletes in US professional leagues pale in comparison to the wages of top soccer players in Europe. Barcelona topped the rankings with a total wage bill of $217 million and an average player salary of $8.7 million. Real Madrid’s average wages came in second at about $7.8 million though the club’s total payroll was about $3 million less than the New York Yankees baseball team.
7 of the top 10 highest paying sports teams are European soccer clubs, including Manchester City, Chelsea, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, and Inter. The lowest-paying teams are from Major League Soccer and the Canadian Football League.
The survey was conducted by sportingintelligence.com for ESPN. It accounted for 278 teams in 14 major pro leagues, covering seven sports in 10 countries, comprising 7,925 athletes making a combined $15.69 billion in salary. Read the full article here.
For more information, see Deloitte’s annual report on European soccer revenues here.
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One reply on “European Soccer Paychecks Top US Sports Wages”
But I wonder whether these huge sums of money paid to players is actually made by the clubs in the sale of merchandise, TV rights and so on, or is it? Moreover, in the recent past we have had cases where big money transfers have negatively affected the performance of players on the pitch, particularly in England. If this trend goes on unchecked, it may dilute the quality of football, or how else do we explain the case of Carroll (Newcastle to Liverpool) and Torres (Liverpool to Chelsea)?