Barcelona have one of the biggest wage bills in world football – but which players currently have the most lucrative contracts?
The Spanish giants are deep in financial trouble with debts in the region of €1billion and those contracts certainly haven’t helped.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta has put a lot of the blame on his predecessor Josep Bartomeu, who was a very unpopular figure.
“Our salaries represent 103 per cent of the club’s total income,” Laporta said at a press conference in August 2021. “That’s 20-25 per cent more than our competitors.
“The first thing we had to do when we arrived was to ask for a loan of €80million because otherwise, we could not pay the salaries. The previous regime was full of lies.”
He continued: “We found the wage policy in the form of an inverted pyramid – veterans on long contracts and youngsters on short deals. There were no wages cuts – lies.”
Barcelona’s financial problems meant that they couldn’t even offer a new contract to Lionel Messi, who joined PSG on a free transfer.
Laporta has since implemented a lot of changes at Camp Nou and has managed to convince players like Gerard Pique to take a pay cut.
“We were very optimistic with the budget, we have lowered [it by] more than €150million,” Eduard Romeu, Barcelona’s economic vice-president, said on RAC1 Radio in June 2022.
“We are on a good path but it’s not enough. We have a €560million wage bill. Bayern [Munich] have [€]300[million] for example, and Real Madrid are close to 400. The salaries are totally disproportionate and inflated.”
Using data from Capology, we’ve ranked every Barcelona first-team player by how much they earn on a weekly basis. Note: we’ve not included any payers that are currently out on loan and all salaries listed are gross figures.
As the stats show, former Manchester United and Chelsea target Frenkie de Jong is Barcelona’s top earner and gets over €1million in wages every fortnight.
According to the Athletic, Barcelona have told the midfielder they want to annul his existing contract and return to the deal he was on before.
They claim that the terms given to him by the club’s previous board involved criminality and provide grounds for legal action against those involved.
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Despite their financial troubles, Barcelona have continued to spend a lot of money on new signings. They have also added €1.24million to their weekly wage bill by signing Robert Lewandoski, Franck Kessie, Raphinha, Andreas Christensen, Jules Kounde, Hector Bellerin and Marcos Alonso.
And here are the squad’s weekly salary, listed in euros.
1. Frenkie de Jong – €721,154
2. Sergio Busquets – €711,538
3. Jordi Alba – €400,577
4. Robert Lewandowski – €360,577
5. Ansu Fati – €268,269
6. Jules Kounde – €260,577
7. Raphinha – €240,385
8. Ousmane Dembele – €230,769
9. Memphis Depay – €200,385
10. Ferran Torres – €192,308
11. Pedri – €180,385
=12. Marc-Andre ter Stegen – €173,077
=12. Franck Kessie – €173,077
=12. Andreas Christensen – €173,077
15. Ronaldo Araujo – €134,615
16. Gavi – €130,769
17. Hector Bellerin – €128,269
18. Marcos Alonso – €120,192
19. Eric Garcia – €115,385
20. Sergi Roberto – €96,154
21. Inaki Pena – €38,462
22. Alex Balde– €3,077
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