Sports
10 Highest-Paid Footballers In The World In 2023
Professional football is a lucrative business in 2023 and the 10 highest-paid players on the planet are raking in huge sums both in wages and sponsorship deals.
Footballers’ salaries at the very top end of the game have risen exponentially in recent years, especially following the entrance onto the scene of huge multinationals, oligarchs and oil states as club owners.
The emergence of the Saudi Pro League has also had a huge impact on the top earners in the game. Amazingly so, eight of the top 10 earners in football are currently playing in Saudi Arabia.
Here, we look at the top 10 highest-earning football stars on the planet in 2023, based on their annual salary, with figures from French newspaper Le Parisien.

Kalidou Koulibaly
10. Kalidou Koulibaly – €30m (€577,000 per week)
The Senegal international had a rough first season in the Premier League and only lasted one year in England before departing for a fresh challenge elsewhere.
He was already on a lucrative wage at Chelsea, but Al-Hilal took this to a whole new level. Being paid a whopping €577,000 per week, Koulibaly is now the highest-paid defender in the world.

9. Riyad Mahrez – €35m (€673,000 per week)
The Premier League won’t quite be the same without the Algerian winger. You can hardly blame him for making the move to Saudi though considering he will now be earning more than any of his former teammates.
Mahrez will be a star in Saudi for Al-Ahli and we wouldn’t be surprised to see him putting up some ridiculous numbers in terms of goals and assists.

Jordan Henderson
8. Jordan Henderson – €40m (€769,000 per week)
The former Liverpool captain became the highest-paid English player in the world when he completed his move to Al-Ettifaq. He now singlehandedly earns more than this ridiculously talented XI.

Sadio Mane
7. Sadio Mane – €40m (€769,000 per week)
For whatever reason, things just never clicked for Mane at Bayern Munich. Liverpool fans were devastated to lose him at the time, but the Senegalese forward hasn’t quite been the same since leaving Anfield.
He only lasted one year at the Allianz Arena before Saudi clubs came knocking. In the end, Al Nassr won the race to secure his signature and he will be paid a handsome €769,000 per week for his services.
“I don’t know what went wrong [at Bayern],” Jurgen Klopp told reporters.
“When he left us, he left us on a high in really good shape, world class player. New environment, new expectations maybe. I didn’t speak to Sadio about it.”

Lionel Messi
6. Lionel Messi – €45m (€865,000 per week)
It’s quite remarkable that Messi turned down an offer worth over €1billion to join the Saudi Pro League, but in the end, MLS was a more appealing project for the 36-year-old.
“I want to get back to enjoy myself, to enjoy my family, my children, the day-to-day,” Messi told reporters upon his signing for Inter Miami.
As you would expect, Messi is absolutely walking it in the United States. Now reunited with Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, we’ve not seen Messi this happy at club level for a long time.

Kylian Mbappe
5. Kylian Mbappe – €70m (€1,346,000 per week)
Given the stranglehold European football has had on football for the last several decades, it’s quite remarkable that Mbappe is now the only player in Europe who now makes it into the top 10 earners.
His long-term future at PSG is still in doubt, although he has recently been reintegrated into first team training after a spell with the bomb squad.
Transfer links to Real Madrid remain rife, with plenty believing he will join the Spanish club on a free transfer next summer upon his deal at PSG expiring. Watch this space.

Neymar
4. Neymar – €100m (€1,923,000 per week)
Champions League nights just won’t hit the same without Neymar. The Brazilian superstar recently made the jump to Al Hilal and is now earning even more than he was pocketing at PSG.
According to multiple sources, as part of his contract with Al Hilal Neymar will also get access to a private jet, an €80,000 win bonus, a huge mansion with staff and €500,000 for every Instagram post which promotes Saudi Arabia. Some crazy sums of money.

N’Golo Kante
3. N’Golo Kante – €100m (€1,923,000 per week)
The French midfielder now ranks as one of the highest earners in the world and he’s wasted no time in splashing some of his cash. Kante has used his new riches to purchase Belgian third-tier side Royal Excelsior Virton.
“Flavio [the previous chairman] is obviously extremely happy to be able to hand over the keys of the club to N’Golo Kante, a high-class player, not only for his footballing qualities but also and above all for his unanimously recognised human qualities,” Royal Excelsior said in a club statement
“Driven by his passion for football, the will of N’Golo Kante is to continue the structuring of the club in order to consolidate its foundations, stabilise the staff and eventually reconnect with the tradition of training RE Virton, via its Youth Academy.”

Karim Benzema
2. Karim Benzema – €200m (€3,846,000 per week)
Having won everything on offer with Real Madrid, Benzema decided it was time for a fresh challenge this summer. The 35-year-old is now the joint-highest earner in the world, earning a ridiculous €3,846,000 per week playing for Al-Ittihad.
The French forward has adapted well to life in Saudi so far, scoring three goals in his first five matches for his new side. We’re sure he’ll deliver plenty of memorable moments for Al-Ittihad fans in the next few years to come.

Cristiano Ronaldo
1. Cristiano Ronaldo – €200m (€3,846,000 per week)
Yeah, this is ridiculous. Still, both Ronaldo and Al Nassr seem happy enough with this arrangement.
Sports
Leicester City Put Up For Sale
General view of a Leicester City sign from the front of King Power StadiumLeicester City are looking to sell the club for more than £200m, with its Thai owners King Power ready to leave after 16 years.
The Foxes have had an eight-page sales booklet produced by a leading US investment bank to help offload the one-time Premier League title winners.
Citigroup lists the Foxes, its women’s team, and other major assets – including the 32,000-seat King Power Stadium and its Seagrave training facility which was opened in 2020 and is valued at £121m – as well as OH Leuven, Leicester’s Belgian sister club, as up for sale in a brochure titled ‘Project Lineup’.
The document, seen by BBC Sport, values the club’s physical assets at more than £200m, though no specific sum has been attributed to the sale of its struggling teams.
The brochure speaks of “a rare opportunity to acquire a club with an excellent track record of winning promotions to higher divisions”.
Leicester’s successes, including the 5,000-1 Premier League title win of 2016 and the FA Cup triumph five years later, are well promoted in the brochure, while their place in League One, after back-to-back relegations from the top flight and the Championship, fail to get a mention.
The club’s turnover, which Citigroup forecast to be more than £97m for the 2026 financial year are also part of the pitch, but the years of financial losses and the club’s debts – which, as outlined in its 2025 accounts, include £103.6m in bank loans – are omitted.
In the years that the club yo-yoed between the Premier League and Championship, with two relegations from the top flight in three years between 2023 and 2025, the club lost more than £180m.
King Power, run by the Srivaddhanaprabha family, bought Leicester for £35m from Milan Mandaric in 2010.
Khun Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha is currently chairman after his father Khun Vichai died in a helicopter crash outside the stadium in 2019.
Efforts to put the third-tier club up for sale were first reported in the Financial Times, external in July, but the product brochure now being circulated to prospective buyers is public confirmation that new investors are being sought.
The sale process comes just eight months on from Khun Top saying he is shouldering the blame for the club’s drastic recent demise.
There have been growing calls from disgruntled fans for the club to be sold, with the most vocal showing coming outside King Power Stadium after relegation from the Championship was confirmed last season.
Leicester’s struggles in recent years have come at a time when the King Power duty-free business in Thailand, which has been intrinsically linked to the club since the Srivaddhanaprabha family bought the Foxes, has also endured financial difficulties.
Despite the club’s issues, Leicester City is being positioned for sale as one of only five clubs to have won all three major English trophies – the Premier League, the FA Cup and the League Cup – since 2000.
The document also outlines the potential of the club’s academy, stating the Foxes have a “strong talent pipeline backed by leading scouting infrastructure, active transfer management and highly developed academy system consistently producing top players”.
Leicester sold academy graduate Jeremy Monga to Manchester City for £10m last month.
Leicester, relegated to League One for just the second time in their history last season, will start their latest campaign in the third tier under head coach Russell Martin at Notts County on Saturday.
Sports
Amorim Wants Tomori, Nkunku 6 Other AC Milan Stars Out Of Club
AC Milan coach Ruben Amorim has decided Fikayo Tomori and Christopher Nkunku do not figure in his plans this season.
David Odogu, Pervis Estupinan, Santiago Gimenez and Philip Terracciano are also expected to leave after Amorim held a crunch meeting with club bosses on Thursday.
The Portuguese, who was dismissed by United in January following a dismal 14 months in charge, accepted the task of transforming Milan’s fortunes – with the Italian giants finishing fifth last season.
He is set for a reunion with his old side this weekend in Poland, where he will search for his first win in charge of his new club having failed to register a victory in pre-season.
A 2-2 draw with Scottish champions Celtic was followed by a 1-1 tie with fierce rivals Inter Milan, before Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea put three goals past the Portuguese’s side in a woeful result in Jakarta.
But Amorim is ready to embrace the challenge, and suggested that his task at the San Siro is even greater than his job at Old Trafford.
‘I’m really very happy to be here, it’s an honour to be the coach of Milan,’ he said.
‘Why did I choose Milan? If you read an old interview of mine you will understand it, for me a special club.
‘It’s a very big challenge that I accepted even if after the last one [at Manchester United] I told myself to accept a smaller one.
‘Perhaps it is a greater challenge than the last. I’m proud to be here, we all are, me and my staff.
‘I’m at Milan to win, if you’re Milan coach you have to have this mentality,’ he added.
‘I’m not naive, I know there’s a lot of work to do, but if you’re the Milan coach you have to play to win.’
Sports
Transfer: Man Utd Name 6 Clubs Rashford Can’t Join
Manchester United co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has blocked Marcus Rashford from joining any direct Premier League rival.
According to the UK Mirror, the Red Devils are determined to avoid a scenario where Rashford shines at a domestic competitor.
The 28-year-old is back at Carrington for pre-season training following a loan spell at Barcelona, but his long-term future at Old Trafford remains uncertain.
Ratcliffe wants to remove Rashford from United’s wage bill, but he won’t sanction a move to the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City or Liverpool
The restrictions extend to loan inquiries, as Chelsea, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur have been rebuffed.
There is fear among United senior officials that Rashford could prove instrumental in helping a rival secure a Champions League spot, a scenario that would be viewed as ’embarrassing’ by the club’s top brass.
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