Haaland, Vini Jr, Van Dijk…
Real Madrid once again have the most representatives in this season’s best-paid XI, but there are also Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid players.
Player salaries in football are getting bigger every year, so it seems. It’s not uncommon for top players to be on north of £250,000 per week these days, which is absolutely crazy money.
But there’s no doubting the talent of some of the world’s best-paid players, even if some names in this XI might raise a few eyebrows.
We’ve put the best-paid players in Europe into a 4-4-2 formation to fit as many as possible in.
GK: Jan Oblak – £342,127 per week
Once regarded as the best goalkeeper in the world, Oblak is the best paid.
That’s been the case since Manuel Neuer took a wage cut at Bayern Munich in May.
Oblak still has two years left on his contract with Atletico Madrid, where he has played since 2014.
Back then, he earned about £24,000 per week, but his reputation has skyrocketed since – and so has his salary.
RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold – £273,800 per week
It hasn’t been smooth sailing for Alexander-Arnold since he left Liverpool for Real Madrid last year.
He now faces competition at right-back from Denzel Dumfries, but he is the better-paid of Madrid’s right-back duo.
The fact he ran down his Liverpool contract to join Madrid – even though his current club ended up paying a small fee for his services – helped him gain a better salary.
CB: Virgil van Dijk – £350,000 per week
Back to present-day Liverpool and captain Van Dijk remains the best-paid centre-back in Europe.
He signed his big new deal last year and has 12 months to go on the same terms.
CB: Ibrahima Konate – £273,800 per week
Wow, we’re really getting the band back together here.
Van Dijk’s old centre-back partner reunited with Alexander-Arnold in Madrid this summer after running his own contract down.
A salary at the same base level as Alexander-Arnold’s makes him the best-paid centre-back in La Liga.
LB: Josko Gvardiol – £250,000 per week
Gvardiol played more as a centre-back last season, but can play at left-back too and that’s where he fits into this lineup thanks to his £250,000-a-week salary.
The Croatian defender signed a new deal with Manchester City in July to push his earnings up from his original £200,000 per week.
CM: Rodri – £444,782 per week
What a move that is for Rodri, by the way.
Manchester City are going to miss the midfielder massively. But it’s an exciting new chapter for the Spain captain at Barcelona.
With a bit more spending power this year than recent summers, Barca have been able to give Rodri a salary worth around double what he was earning at the Etihad.
But it’s a move not just about the money, with Rodri potentially the missing piece that can make Barca serious Champions League challengers.
CM: Jamal Musiala – £374,976 per week
Very much an attacking midfielder, but we reckon Rodri will be able to hold things down in our hypothetical XI and so Musiala takes his place alongside him.
Bayern Munich teammate Harry Kane is the only player in the Bundesliga earning more than Musiala, but – spoiler alert – doesn’t make it into our striker pairing, so Musiala is the German top flight’s only representative in this XI.
Musiala, 23, signed his current terms in February 2025.
RW: Lamine Yamal – £342,127 per week
Yeah, he’s probably worth the money, to be fair.
Still only 19, Yamal is already one of the best players in the world. Barcelona will have been delighted to tie him down to a long-term deal last year.
LW: Vinicius Junior – £513,273 per week
Well that puts to bed any talk of an Arsenal move. Fun while it lasted.
Vini Jr signed a new contract with Real Madrid earlier this month, earning a handsome payrise in the process.
On around £410,000 per week last season, he’s now earning more than £100,000 more each week for the next six years.
CF: Erling Haaland – £525,000 per week
Not just the Premier League’s best-paid player, but all of Europe’s – and he’s pretty good value for it, too.
Haaland has scored just the 112 Premier League goals for Manchester City since joining from Borussia Dortmund four years ago.
The absolute beast of a striker signed a huge new contract with City in January 2025, committing to the club until 2034. He won’t be disappearing from these kind of lists any time soon.
CF: Kylian Mbappe – £513,273 per week
Mbappe made one of the highest-profile free transfers of all time when leaving PSG in 2024 for Real Madrid, who paid an arm and a leg in wages to bring him in.
The French forward was La Liga’s top scorer in both of his first two seasons in Spain. Now, he’ll be eyeing team trophies now to prove he’s really worth the big bucks.
READ MORE: Ranking every Premier League club by their wage bill in 2026-27
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the 25 highest-paid players in the Premier League?
