illustration by Alice Lagarde for forbes; Getty Images Photos from left: James Gill/Danehouse; Clive Brunskill; Yasser Bakhsh; Simon M Bruty
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Ayear after Saudi Pro League clubs shelled out roughly $1 billion on transfers—an unprecedented wave of spending for a nation hardly considered a soccer power—the market has cooled considerably. With oil prices languishing and the country engaged in a laundry list of megaprojects that have left its $925 billion (assets) sovereign wealth fund strapped for cash, the Saudis spent only $524 million on soccer acquisitions this summer, according to Transfermarkt. And the incoming players—with Moussa Diaby, Ivan Toney and Marcos Leonardo perhaps the most notable—aren’t exactly household names.
For the superstars who paved the path to the Middle East, however, the Saudis’ checks still clear. Four players from the Saudi Pro League now rank among the world’s 10 highest-paid soccer players, counting both their on-field salaries this season and their annual earnings from endorsements, memorabilia and other business endeavors. England’s star-studded Premier League claims only three spots while Spain’s La Liga nabs two and Lionel Messi gives the U.S.’s Major League Soccer its lone representative.
Messi lands at No. 2 overall with an estimated $135 million before taxes and agent fees—including $75 million off the field, the best mark in the sport—but for the second consecutive year, he trails his rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who opened the Saudi floodgates when he joined Al Nassr in January 2023.
The Portuguese superstar, who leads the list for the sixth time in the last decade, is projected to earn $220 million on the field this season, a sum that is believed to include financial incentives from commercial agreements facilitated by his club on top of his playing wages. His $285 million total—including an estimated $65 million off the field—is a record in soccer, beating the $260 million he posted on the 2023 list. And among all of the athletes Forbes has tracked, dating to 1990, only boxer Floyd Mayweather has surpassed that figure in a single year while still active in his sport.https://embedly.forbes.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FP2Lf8NESpcU%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DP2Lf8NESpcU&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FP2Lf8NESpcU%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube
The Saudis’ quieter 2024 has had ripple effects across the soccer world, however, in part because of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play Regulations, which tie the amount a team can spend to the money it takes in. “In 2023, you had the Saudi Pro League, which was contributing to the Premier League in two ways: It was paying transfer fees, and it was taking off payroll players who were very expensive,” explains Kieran Maguire, a soccer finance lecturer at the University of Liverpool. “Well, because Saudi is not spending money, the Premier League catches a cold on the receiving end.”
Indeed, the Premier League’s transfer spending fell to $2.5 billion this summer, from a record $3 billion last year, and Germany’s Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1 also saw significant declines year-over-year. Real Madrid signing Kylian Mbappé (No. 5, $90 million) is the only member of the earnings top 10 who changed teams this off-season, and the lack of blockbuster moves has limited the financial growth for the rest of the sport’s top earners. Combined, the world’s 10 highest-paid soccer players are projected to earn $983 million this season, a record for the list but a modest 2% increase over last year.
A couple of new deals on the horizon could change that math, though. Erling Haaland, who comes in at No. 6 with $60 million and has scored 101 goals in 108 matches since arriving at Manchester City in 2022, is in the third season of a five-year deal and is already drawing interest from other top European clubs. An extension seems likely, although the future is less certain for his teammate Kevin De Bruyne (No. 10, $39 million), whose contract expires at the end of this season.
The uncertainty extends to Mohamed Salah, who could see his eight-year tenure at Liverpool come to an end next summer. Soccer’s eighth-highest-paid player this season at an estimated $53 million, he has yet to extend his deal at Anfield, telling Sky Sports this was “his last year at the club.” Saudi Arabia could be an option, considering Al Ittihad reportedly made a $197 million transfer offer for the Egyptian star in 2023.
“I just want to enjoy it,” Salah told reporters in September. “I don’t want to think about it—I feel I’m free to play football, and we’ll see what happens next year.”
