MLS Salaries: Top Earner Shaqiri Earns $5M More Than Mukhtar

Median wage $530,000

World champion Thiago Almada (22) is the most valuable and most expensive footballer in the US MLS – in terms of salary, the Atlanta United midfielder ranks 22nd in a league-wide comparison with 2.33 million US dollars (2.15 million €) per season . The Players Association MLSPA has published the salaries of all footballers, accurate to the US dollar, and the top earner is Switzerland’s Xherdan Shaqiri (31, Chicago Fire), while Hany Mukhtar (28, Nashville SC), last season’s best player, is ranked 17th (to the complete MLSPA report).

Shaqiri moved from Lyon to Chicago in February 2022 and signed a contract that runs until the end of 2024, which gives him 8.153 million US dollars for twelve months – the equivalent of 7.53 million euros gross. For comparison: That’s around 500,000 euros more than RB Leipzig’s Emil Forsberg and 500,000 euros less than Noussair Mazraoui at Bayern.

The second highest is Italian Lorenzo Insigne (31), who moved to Toronto from Naples in the summer of 2022 and whose base salary is $7.5 million. Teammate and compatriot Federico Bernardeschi (29) is listed with a base salary of $3.125 million, which will surely double to around $6.3 million due to bonus payments – putting him 4th in the MLS ranking. Place. MVP Mukhtar, who extended his contract in April 2022 until the end of 2025, will be rewarded with almost 3.2 million US dollars for his goals. As one of the best players in the MLS, he earns almost as much as the top earners at Eintracht Frankfurt.

In the category of veterans who are ending their careers in the USA is Chicharito (34), who comes third in the employ of the Los Angeles Galaxy with $7.44 million. The highest-paid US professional is Jozy Altidore (33, New England Revolution) at US$ 2.94 million – his salary is more in line with his big name in the United States than with his recent performances.

Of the more than 830 players who make up the squad for the 29 MLS clubs, around 250 earn less than US$100,000 per season and 112 break the million mark in annual salaries. The minimum wage is $67,360, while the average salary in Major League Soccer is around $530,000, up from $512,000 last year.

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