10 Highest paid players in Serie A
Serie A has quickly become one of the most entertaining leagues of European football. After a relatively barren spell in the last decade, the Italian top-flight has once again begun to attract some of the most blockbuster names in the world — none more significant than Juventus' acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese superstar is undoubtedly one of the biggest 'pulls' in recent times after he chose to swap Madrid for Turin in 2018. The Italian champions also won the battle to sign one of the most in-demand players at the time, Matthijs de Ligt, a year after Ronaldo arrived.
Other Italian clubs such as the likes of Inter Milan and Napoli have spent large sums of money to lure talented players from Europe such as Romelu Lukaku and Victor Osimhen to the Serie A in the last few seasons. Both strikers were club-record purchases for the Nerazzurri and Partenopei.
Given the inflation of the market and transfer fees, many players have been awarded contracts which offer them an extraordinary amount of money as well. Juventus, in particular, dominate the list of the highest earners in Italy due to their financial muscle and nearly guaranteed domestic success.
Here, we take a look at the ten highest salaries in the Italian top-flight.
[Note: All estimated wages have been sourced from Football Italia and Futballnews.com. Due to the lack of clarity over either Arthur or Miralem Pjanic's exact salaries after their recent transfers, neither will be included in this list.]
#10 Edin Dzeko | AS Roma | €180,000-a-week
Former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko kicks off this list with the tenth highest salary in Italy. The Roma forward has been an incredible signing for the capital club, scoring a barrage of goals and providing countless moments of magic for Paulo Fonseca's men. 34-year-old Dzeko has managed 19 goals and eight assists across all competitions for Roma this year, topping the capital club's scoring charts in the process.
The Bosnian joined Roma permanently in 2016 and reportedly makes €180k-a-week in Serie A.
#9 Leonardo Bonucci | Juventus | €200,000-a-week
Juventus' captain for most of the season due to Giorgio Chiellini's injury woes, returning hero Leonardo Bonucci is the tenth highest-earner in Italy. The centre-half took a massive pay cut to rejoin the Bianconeri from AC Milan in the hope of winning the UEFA Champions League with the Italian champions, particularly after Cristiano Ronaldo arrived at the club. The 33-year-old quickly ditched his adventure in Milan to move to his old stomping ground.
Bonucci reportedly rakes in a weekly wage of €200k at Juventus.
#8 Kalidou Koulibaly, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Douglas Costa, Sami Khedira | €214,000-a-week
Two defensive stalwarts for their respective clubs, Kalidou Koulibaly and Gigi Donnarumma come in as the eighth-highest earners in Italy. The Senegalese centre-half and Italian goalkeeper are both pivotal to Napoli and AC Milan, and both have been heavily tipped for big-money transfers in recent times.
The frighteningly quick Bianconeri winger Douglas Costa failed to manage even a thousand minutes of football across all competitions for Juventus, due to which Andrea Pirlo and co are reportedly looking to offload him this summer. The same goes for German midfielder Sami Khedira, who is likely to depart from Italy ahead of the upcoming season.
The former Real Madrid man is on a hefty salary but has barely featured for Juventus over the last two seasons. Both Costa and Khedira, additionally, have suffered from a string of injury-laden months as well.
All four of Costa, Khedira, Donnaruma, and Koulibaly are said to be on wages of €214k-a-week in the Serie A.
Also read: 5 players who destroyed their parent clubs when on loan