GLOBAL SPORTS SALARIES SURVEY 2018 AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, TEAM-BY-TEAM, IN THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR SPORTS LEAGUES 349 TEAMS 18 LEAGUES 13 COUNTRIES 8 SPORTS 10,089 PLAYERS $22.2 BILLION IN WAGES 1 AIM sportingintelligence sportingintelligence sportingintelligence “Messi is widely regarded as the best MESSI’S BARÇA BACK footballer of all time and now has a salary to match … a pre-tax annual ON TOP OF THE WORLD package topping £50m per year. ” Barcelona have regained their In third place this year are last Major League Baseball (MLB), status as the best paid team in all year’s No1 team, basketball’s with the San Francisco Giants the of global sport. The average basic Oklahoma City Thunder of highest ranked MLB team at No27, first-team pay at the Spanish giants the NBA, on £7.85m per year followed by the Chicago Cubs - where the genius Lionel Messi has on average, followed by two (No30). starred for 14 years and counting other NBA teams, the Golden - is now £10,454,259 a year in the State Warriors (£7.82m) and the BARCELONA BREAKING current season, 2018-19. Washington Wizards (£7.6m). That BARRIERS NBA trio break new ground of their This is the first time in the nine- own by becoming the first NBA In last year’s list, Barcelona were year history of the Global Sports teams - or indeed American teams the world’s best paid football Salaries Survey (GSSS) that any from any sport - where average team but it has still taken an team in any sport has had first- basic pay is more than $10m (US extraordinary combination of new team average pay above £10m. dollars) per player per year. contracts and signings to lift their And that’s just basic pay, not average basic pay this time above including signing-on fees or loyalty All of the top dozen teams in £10m from £6.6m a year ago. bonuses or performance add-ons this year’s list are either from or any of the other remarkable the NBA (eight of the top 12) Foremost among those contracts extras that can be part of or from elite European football was the biggest pay deal in contracts nowadays. (four of 12). Joining Barcelona Barcelona’s history awarded to and Real Madrid are Juventus Messi, widely regarded now as Barça’s current pay levels also at No10 and Manchester United the best footballer of all time. mark the first time in the GSSS’s at No11. Juventus’s leap to His gross basic (pre-tax) annual existence that any team is paying No10 from No32 on last year’s Barça pay tops £50m per year, a basic first-team average of list is a result not only of signing including guaranteed image more than £200,000 per week; in Messi’s old nemesis and fellow rights fees. There are other this case it’s £201,043 per week. superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, but ‘one-off’ or variable elements also of signing Douglas Costa including signing-on fee, loyalty This is the first time Barça have (permanently) and Leonardo payments, appearance money been back at the top of the Bonucci on big contracts while and performance bonuses which world in pay terms - and there lucrative extensions have been don’t come under our ‘basic pay’ is a detailed explanation of our given to others including Miralem definition (for any player in any definitions and methodology later Pjanić, in his case in August 2018. sport) and aren’t included in our - since the GSSS of 2012, when calculations. their table-topping figure was half Of the top 20 teams in this the current number. year’s list, 12 are from the NBA When Barcelona formally and eight from elite European announced Messi’s contract Barcelona are well clear at football: Bayern Munich, Atletico extension, on 25 November last the top of this year’s list, but Madrid, Paris Saint Germain and year, they confirmed the new their fierce domestic rivals Real Manchester City are all ranked deal would run to the end of Madrid have managed to climb between 15th and 20th. the 2020-21 season and that to second place with this year’s the contract included a buyout survey finding average basic pay Of the top 30 teams, 20 are clause of €700m (£619m). ‘Now, at the Bernabéu of £8,089,582 per from the NBA, eight from elite at 30 years of age, Messi is in his year (or ‘only’ £155,569 per week). European football and two from 14th season with the first team 2 3 sportingintelligence sportingintelligence and, with his new deal, will be But we would expect that world, at £2.99m per player this “The NBA remains dressed in blaugrana for at least Barcelona’s first-team squad season. The average weekly pay 17 seasons in total,’ the club basic wage bill will be around in the Premier League rose above comfortably the top paying trumpeted on their website. half or slightly more than half of £50,000 per week for the first time league as a whole in world the total football club wage bill in 2017-18 and is now £57,514 per It was just one among a string for all salaries for all employees, week. sport, with average basic of renewal deals for important when the latter includes all extras, players since GSSS 2017 was bonuses, benefits and costs of In most leagues, money matters salaries of £5.9m ($7.8m) compiled. In January 2018, Gerard employment such as national when it comes to performance; Pique signed a contract extension insurance and local equivalents. the more you pay, the better you this season.” to 2022, with a buyout clause of The ratio of total first-team basic do, all other things being equal. €500m (£442m), and so did Sergi pay to total football club wage That is particularly true in elite Roberto. In June 2018, Samuel bill varies from club to club. football leagues but also true in Umtiti signed a contract extension the NBA and in MLB. The reason to 2023, with a buyout of €500m, Barcelona and Real Madrid both is fairly straightforward - better and in September 2018, Sergio climbed the GSSS rankings to players cost more, and if you’re Busquets did the same. Big new reach this year’s places, Barça spending more it’s generally signings have also added to the by three places to the top spot because you have better players. Barça wage bill, not least Philippe and Real by seven places to No2. Coutinho, who signed from Other notable climbers high up The 18 leagues and 349 teams Liverpool in January 2018, and include Juventus’s leap by 23 we consider in the main list start Arthur, Malcom and Arturo Vidal places to No9, Atletico Madrid’s with the ‘big four’ from American among others in summer 2018. jump of 35 places to No17 and sports, which are the NFL (gridiron, the NBA’s Chicago Bulls leap of American football), the NBA The bottom line, according to our 29 places to No31. The biggest (basketball), MLB (baseball) and survey research, is an average climbers anywhere on the list NHL (ice hockey), continue with basic Barça annual salary in are Vissel Kobe, now home to the ‘big five’ football leagues excess of £10m a year for each of Andrés Iniesta and up 81 places of Europe, which are the English the 23 members of the first-team from No267 to No186, while the Premier League (EPL), the squad. Those are the 23 players San Francisco 49ers have risen Bundesliga of Germany, La Liga formally declared by Barcelona 68 places from No164 to No96. of Spain, Serie A of Italy and Ligue on their website as first-team Notable fallers are the Cleveland 1 of France, and include the AFL players at our cut-off point. (Note Cavaliers, down 14 places to (Aussie Rules) from Australia, CFL that different teams even within No16. football (gridiron) from Canada, the same sport and league have NPB baseball from Japan and IPL different numbers of first-team NBA STRETCH LEAD cricket from India. players by their own definition; AS RICHEST LEAGUE typically that’s 25 in football but Our final five leagues are the the range is 20 to 30 and Spanish Scottish Premiership from The NBA remains comfortably the squads are often slightly lower). Scotland, MLS from North top paying league as a whole in America, China’s CSL and world sport, with average basic Nobody knows at this stage - Japan’s J-League - all as salaries of £5.9m or $7.8m this not even Barcelona themselves examples of smaller-scale leagues season. The details on how many - what their total football club from the world’s most popular teams and players are considered wage bill will be at the end of sport, football - and the WNBA. for each league are in the 2018-19, for all staff, including league-by-league analysis pages, coaches, players at all levels and For the NBA, the NHL and the NFL, as are the average salaries and all other non-playing ‘footballing the numbers in this report pertain median numbers. employees’. That total will to the 2018-19 seasons. For the depend on many things, including Premier League, Bundesliga, La The Premier League is the highest on-pitch success. Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Scottish paying football league in the Premiership, the salaries are for 4 5 sportingintelligence sportingintelligence A series of features later in these winners, by 17½ points to 10½, Intelligence’s global sports salaries For now, the 18 leagues in the pages take a look at: and Dan Zelezinski of 15th Club survey was conceived in 2009 with GSSS comprise most of the biggest explains (on pages 36-39) how several aims, one of them to professional domestic sports 1: The World Cup itself, examining some of the analytics principles produce a substantial piece of leagues in the world (measured how well we can predict it that assisted in that triumph might original research to help promote by average attendance per based on the salary levels of the be applied to help professional the full launch of www.sporting- game), plus a handful of other participants, using pay as a proxy golfers win more - and therefore intelligence.com in early 2010.