10 most overpaid footballers in the world right now - January 2022
Football is one of the most lucrative sports worldwide, with billions of pounds invested in the sport every year. Clubs use a significant percentage of this money to pay their players' wages and salaries.
Clubs offer players contracts and pay them based on their expected output, but not every player is able to match this output after receiving vast sums of money. Often, these player wages can eventually become a problem, as with FC Barcelona in 2021, and clubs will be forced to offload players.
Some clubs have wage bills running into the hundreds of millions of pounds yearly, and it is only normal for a good number of players to be overpaid. Without further ado, here is a list of 10 overpaid football stars in the world presently based on data from Spotrac.com.
#10 Kepa Arrizabalaga (£155,000)
Kepa Arrizabalaga joined Chelsea for a world-record fee in 2018 and signed a seven-year contract that saw him receive a significant increase to his salary. The Spaniard earns £155,000 per week, putting him among the highest-earning goalkeepers in the world. Kepa's performances have, however, not justified his huge wages.
Kepa Arrizabalaga will be difficult to sell due to Chelsea's attempts to make back most of the money they paid for him, while even his salary is leading to only cautious loan approaches from Valencia and Sevilla.
[via @NizaarKinsella]
After an impressive debut campaign at the club, the goalkeeper began to perform poorly. Thus, Chelsea were forced to sign another goalkeeper in Edouard Mendy, who has played a starring role since and has made the No. 1 jersey his own. Kepa has not performed at the level expected of him at Chelsea despite his wages.
#9 Callum Hudson-Odoi (£180,000)
England winger Callum Hudson-Odoi was hailed as a generational talent after coming through the Chelsea academy, such that Bayern Munich went all in for him. As a result, Chelsea handed him a new deal believed to be worth up to £180,000 weekly with bonuses and incentives.
Callum Hudson-Odoi’s new contract will be a base salary of £100,000 a week which rises to £180,000 if performance based targets are met.
The winger has failed to reach the heights that saw Chelsea and Bayern jostle to secure a deal for him. He has scored only four league goals for Chelsea since 2018, an indicator of his profligacy in front of goal.
#8 Timo Werner (£272,000)
German striker Timo Werner joined Chelsea to solve their goalscoring woes, but he has largely failed in that respect. The 26-year-old is one of the highest earners at the club with a salary of £272,000 but has failed to deliver regularly.
Timo Werner on #Chelsea fans:
"Sometimes I don’t know why they are supporting me so much, because I’m a striker and I want to score but miss chances."
[@lynseyhooper via @OliviaBuzaglo]
The German forward, in a recent interview, admitted that he has not performed at the level required of him at the club. Werner has scored only seven Premier League goals since his switch from RB Leipzig after Chelsea activated his release clause to sign him in June 2020.