New club at the top
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Salary costs at FC Bayern, RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen continued to rise last year, while Borussia Dortmund stagnated. There is also a change at the top in the European top 25, as Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain saved over 100 million euros through the squad shake-up. This comes from the report published annually by UEFA “The European Club Finance and Investment Landscape“ out.
In the Bundesliga comparison, the gap between Krösus Bayern and their pursuers BVB is a little wider. The Munich team paid 443 million euros for the salaries of players, coaches and all other employees in the club, around three percent more than in 2024. At Dortmund, however, expenses fell slightly by one million to 268 million euros. While FCB slipped from sixth to seventh place in the international comparison, BVB fell three places to 14th.
Bavaria also spends more than Leverkusen and Leipzig combined. Still on par with RB in 2024, the Werkself’s salary costs rose by nine percent to 209 million euros last year, and for the Saxons it was five percent to 202 million euros. The two Bundesliga clubs are taking a few steps forward and are now in 17th and 18th place in the international rankings.
Of the 25 clubs with the highest salary costs, twelve recorded record sums in 2025. Overall, spending by the top 25 increased by a good five percent. Sporting success in particular led to significant increases for some clubs. For example, the Spanish champions FC Barcelona (+15%), the English champions Liverpool FC (+13%), the club world champions FC Chelsea (+13%) or the Europa League winners Tottenham Hotspur (+22%).
PSG saves over 100 million in salary costs
The situation is different at PSG. Although the Parisians were able to win the Champions League for the first time and also clinched the national treble, salary costs fell by a whopping 107 million euros to 551 million euros. This is due to the squad change at PSG, which let some big earners such as Kylian Mbappé (27), Gianluigi Donnarumma (27) and Milan Skriniar (31) go in 2024 and 2025 and significantly thinned out the squad.
As a result, the Parisians have slipped from the top of the salary rankings and are now level with Barça. New to the top is Manchester City’s star ensemble trained by Pep Guardiola, whose expenses grew minimally to 557 million euros. Meanwhile, Galatasaray has seen the strongest increase, climbing 14 places and just moving into the top 25. The Istanbul team not only won the double, but also some well-known players such as Victor Osimhen (27) and Leroy Sané (30). Salary costs grew by 34 percent to 178 million euros.
Olympique Lyon also spent the same amount, increasing by ten percent. Particularly precarious: For the financially struggling Ligue 1 club, this was 110 percent of the revenue for 2025. Lyon was just able to avoid forced relegation last summer, but this was linked to clear conditions by the football financial regulator DNCG, such as limiting salaries and transfer fees – but there is no sign of a decline now.
The UEFA figures also show that player salaries, which on average make up the largest share of total costs at over 70 percent, have increased significantly more slowly across countries than those of other employees. From 2021 to 2024, expenses for other employees have increased by over 42 percent, and for players by just under ten percent. In addition to wage inflation, UEFA cites the fact that clubs are becoming more and more diversified and therefore need more staff. “Some trends such as rising operating costs, increasing numbers of employees and wage increases for non-players require our special attention,” warned UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin.
