Top 10 clubs with the highest wage bills in 2016/17
Yet another long season has finally come to an end and it had its share of surprises, ups and downs, and a bit of the norm over the past 10 months. In the end, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Juventus, Bayern Munich, and AS Monaco walked away with the league titles in Europe’s top five leagues.
In today’s game, money talks. It has been the case for the past decade or so ever since the game became a cash cow for super rich owners and commercial partners. As more money was poured in, both transfer fees and wages for players increased to make it one of the most lucrative professions in the world today.
So which team spent the most on player wages in the 2016/17 season? We look at the top 10.
10) Juventus – £181m
Juventus have come a long way in the past 10 years. After the shameful Calciopoli scandal that saw The Old Lady relegated to Serie B, they bounced back in the following years, first to qualify for the Europa League before winning Serie A titles and qualifying for the Champions League.
Now, they have won six consecutive Serie A titles and have reached the Champions League twice, showing remarkable consistency while the rest of the Italian clubs faltered and struggled to achieve the same level of quality as Juve.
Juve also made a number of top signings which increased its wage bill to put them in the top 10. Gonzalo Higuain was signed for approximately £78m and he earns close to £6.7m per year. Other high earners are also the more recent signings such as Miralem Pjanic (£4.8m), Sami Khedira, and Dani Alves (£3.5m each).