In the world of sports, the payrolls for players seem enormous for average everyday working class people. A star player easily makes over $10 million a year in most sports and even an average player will make more over his career than a regular working Joe will make in a lifetime. While the NBA leads the list on average pay per player, soccer clubs don't fall too far behind.
Here is a look at how soccer clubs rank when it comes to average pay, as well as where the Premier League stands in the list.
The top of the soccer pay scale
In a report by Sporting Intelligence, seven of the Top 10 paying professional sports teams are from the NBA. The Oklahoma City Thunder lead the way, with an average of $9.295 million per player, followed by the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors.
With that said, three soccer clubs stand close to that mark, but none are from the Premier League. Barcelona ($8.576 million) and Real Madrid ($8.092 million) represent La Liga while Paris Saint-Germain ($8.414 million) represents Ligue 1.
Those are the three top-paying soccer clubs in the world. Atletico Madrid sits at the 10th spot, giving La Liga three of the Top 10 highest paying clubs.
Where does the Premier League stand?
While they have no team in the Top 3 when it comes to payroll, the Premier League does have the most clubs in the Top 10 with four. Manchester United ($6.813 million) and Manchester City ($6.806 million) rank fourth and fifth while Chelsea ($5.786 million) and Arsenal ($5.248 million) rank eighth and ninth in the list.
What is interesting is that, when compared to other sports team's payrolls, the Premier League is not that high. Barcelona ranks fourth as the highest ranked non-NBA team, thanks mostly to Lionel Messi's new contract.
However, for the Premier League, the two top teams rank a low 23rd (Manchester United) and 24th (Manchester City) in the world. Last year, those two teams ranked fourth and ninth.
The Top 10 Premier League payrolls
The question then comes where fans wonder if paying huge contracts means better performance on the field. Here is a look at the Top 10 Premier League club payrolls based on per-player average pay.
- Manchester United - $6,813,541
- Manchester City - $6,806,692
- Chelsea - $5,786,560
- Arsenal - $5,248,389
- Liverpool - $4,744,821
- Tottenham - $4,101,067
- West Ham - $3,817,930
- Everton - $3,648,069
- Leicester City - $3,248,856
- Southampton - $2,952,671
The Top 4 teams in the current Premier League standings are also the Top 4 hghest paying teams.
The only difference in the order is that Manchester City (12-0-1) is ranked higher than Manchester United (10-2-2). Liverpool and Tottenham rank in the expected fifth and sixth spots. However, West Ham, despite being the seventh highest paying team, ranks 18th right now with only two wins. Everton is also a disappointment, with only three wins on the season and sit in 17th place.