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To persuade Neymar to leave France’s Ligue 1 and join the Saudi Pro League, his new club, Al Hilal, had to deliver a soccer king’s ransom. The 31-year-old Brazilian star reportedly received a mansion with staff, a fleet of luxury cars and access to a private jet, as well as bonuses for team wins and social media posts and permission to live with his girlfriend, which is restricted by Islamic law. That’s all on top of the estimated $80 million in on-field compensation ($112 million in total earnings) Neymar is expected to receive for playing this season.
Al Hilal can afford it. The club is one of four that Saudi Arabia’s $700 billion (assets) Public Investment Fund took control of in June and a critical piece of the Kingdom’s outsized sporting ambitions. Just as they did with LIV Golf, the Saudis are keen on shaking up the global soccer landscape and creating a new destination for top talent. And they’re not shy about spending astronomical amounts of money to land a galaxy of stars.
Saudi Pro League clubs spent just shy of $1 billion to acquire 94 overseas players during the 2023 summer transfer window, according to Deloitte. That doesn’t even account for the jaw-dropping amounts offered to players who declined to leave their European clubs, including a $1.1 billion package reportedly offered to pry Kylian Mbappé from Paris-Saint Germain for one year or the rumored three-year, $1.6 billion deal presented to Lionel Messi before he opted to take his talents to South Beach.
In total, the world’s 11 highest-paid soccer players are projected to earn $995 million this season before taxes and agents’ fees, with five crossing the nine-figure mark. That’s a staggering 53% rise over last year’s list, which ranked ten players at a record $652 million combined. Saudi Pro League players claimed four spots this year and account for more than half of the 2023 total, primarily because of their lucrative on-field deals.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who topped the highest-paid soccer players list in 2021, lands at No. 1 with expected total earnings of $260 million. His decision to relocate to Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr earlier this year, after a messy breakup with Manchester United, effectively kicked off the exodus to the Kingdom. Ronaldo is projected to earn $200 million on the field, but his deal is believed to include not only playing wages but also financial incentives from commercial agreements facilitated by the club. And while Al Nassr likely bought out a portion of his image rights, Ronaldo still maintains a lucrative endorsement portfolio (including Nike and Jacob & Co), earning an estimated $60 million annually.
Top 10 Highest-Paid Soccer Players
(2014-2023)
| Year | Total | No. 1 | No. 1 Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $961M |  |
Cristiano Ronaldo | $260M |
| 2022 | $652M |  |
Kylian Mbappé | $128M |
| 2021 | $585M | |
Cristiano Ronaldo | $125M |
| 2020 | $570M |  |
Lionel Messi | $126M |
| 2019 | $555M | |
Lionel Messi | $127M |
| 2018 | $501M | |
Lionel Messi | $111M |
| 2017 | $389M | |
Cristiano Ronaldo | $93M |
| 2016 | $382M | |
Cristiano Ronaldo | $82M |
| 2015 | $385M | |
Cristiano Ronaldo | $79M |
| 2014 | $334M | |
Cristiano Ronaldo | $73M |
The Saudis are notoriously opaque when it comes to their business dealings, especially with spending that seems to defy business logic. Forbes spoke with more than a dozen industry insiders to refine these contract estimates, and there is a strong consensus that some public reports of soccer salaries may be inflated. That could be to soften reputational damage for playing in a country that has been accused of sportswashing to distract from its human rights record. (In a recent interview with Fox News, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the PIF’s chairman, doubled down on that reason: “If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by one percent, then I will continue doing sportswashing.”) Or these stratospheric salary numbers could simply be used to entice more players to play against lesser competition in Saudi Arabia. While definitive contract information, including leaked documents and public filings, does occasionally emerge, soccer insiders suggest that some of the reported figures are educated guesses, sometimes strung together from intermediaries with limited involvement in the respective deals.
But if self-sustaining revenues are the goal, the Saudi Pro League clearly needs a more viable economic model. The Chinese Super League is a familiar cautionary tale: Its clubs spent more than $1 billion on transfers during 2016 and 2017, according to Transfermarkt, to bring stars such as Brazil’s Oscar and Hulk as well as Argentina’s Carlos Tevez to its burgeoning league. But after the better part of a decade, Xi Jinping’s grand soccer dream has become a nightmare. China’s economy faltered, investor interest dried up, sponsors and viewers diminished, clubs struggled with wage bills, and many foreign players and coaches quit, partly because of strict Covid-19 policies. In 2022, the league’s clubs cumulatively spent just shy of $30 million on transfers.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Pro League has already had its share of turbulence. In the past 18 months, FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Center has heard 21 cases filed by players against Saudi clubs, with claims ranging from unfair contract termination to non-payment of wages, according to The Athletic. The players won each case, and the total sum paid out to the aggrieved athletes was more than $16 million. Last year, amid growing concerns about the viability of payments, FIFPro, the international union representing 65,000 players, advised players against moving to Saudi Arabia…
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