Top 5 players with the highest weekly wage in the Premier League
Football, the beautiful sport as we know it, has transformed into a full-blown commercial enterprise. At club level football, money has literally flown in ridiculous proportions, making footballers one of the best paid personalities not only in sports but across all professions.
According to Forbes' annual list of World’s 100 highest-paid athletes, the top three highest earning sportsperson in the world are all footballers - With Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar occupying the top three spots, respectively.
The English Premier League has been the biggest beneficiary of all the new money that has made its way into the game and commands the status as the world’s wealthiest football league, with the 20 competing club posting a combined revenue of £2.42 billion for the 2017-18 season, as per Global Sports Salaries Survey 2018.
According to the survey, average annual basic pay in the Premier League (£3 million) is 36 per cent higher than next-best La Liga (£2.2 million) and pretty much double the pay in Italy (£1.5 million) and Germany’s top divisions (£1.4 million).
As absurd as it may sound, there as some players in English top-flight who earn upto more than 10 times the national average annual salary in weekly wages. So, here we take a look at the five footballers who are currently the highest earners in the Premier League.
#5 Mesut Ozil (Arsenal) - £268,750
Mezut Ozil, once a fan favorite at Arsenal, now finds himself out of favour with the Emirates faithful and manager Unai Emery as well.
The 2014 World Cup winner was one of the best playmakers in the world when he joined the Gunners, having been voted the world's second best playmaker, only behind Barcelona legend Andres Iniesta by IFFHS for that year.
Initially, he signed a contract that saw him earning £150,000 a week but consistent performances in all competitions, including the 2014 FA Cup triumph where he helped the club break their nine-year long trophy drought, saw his stock rise. In early 2018 he was offered a new contract that according to which he now earns £268,750 a week.
Though, his technical prowess remains as strong as ever, it is his consistency, effort and the attitude on field in the Arsenal jersey that is being questioned now. He only managed five goals and two assists last season, while this season in three appearances he is yet to contribute towards a goal for his team.
Apart from Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane, he is the only other player from a London based club who feature in a list of top 10 wage earners in EPL. Also he is the highest paid German footballer in the world right now.