Heavyweights such as Barcelona, Manchester United and Real Madrid invest hundreds of millions in player wages – but which club in Europe’s top five leagues spends the most?

When it comes to money spent on player wages, European football is dominated by a select group of clubs. The Premier League is particularly well-represented at the top table.

English clubs account for five of the top nine spending clubs in Europe’s top five leagues – with the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea all towards the top end.

But it’s Real Madrid who top the charts for outlay on wages, spending a colossal €293million a year according to industry estimates.

With the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham on their books, it’s no surprise that Madrid have the highest wage bill, €25million more than second-placed Bayern Munich.

Barcelona are fourth and €81million behind Madrid, but their wage bill has risen noticeably over the past year.

Manchester City are believed to spend about €252million per year on Pep Guardiola’s star-studded squad, while it can’t be denied that their city rivals – who are one of six clubs to break the €200million barrier – are getting considerably less bang for their buck.

Newly-promoted Sunderland have the lowest wage bill in the Premier League at an estimated €15million a year, but that’s still more than several other clubs across Europe’s five major leagues.

The Black Cats squad are believed to be on almost three times as much wages than Ligue 1 minnows Metz.

Here’s every club from Europe’s five major leagues ranked in order of their wage bill. The figures come from FBref, via Capology:

1. Real Madrid – €293,000,000 (£252,618,555, $342,972,296)
2. Bayern Munich – €257,120,000 (£221,683,565, $300,972,821)
3. Manchester City – €252,828,915 (£217,984,000, $295,956,856)
4. Barcelona – €213,810,000 (£184,342,571, $250,276,133)
5. Manchester United – €211,153,157 (£182,052,000, $247,171,981)
6. PSG – €208,120,000 (£179,436,776, $243,615,677)
7. Arsenal – €196,256,032 (£169,208,000, $229,733,685)
8. Chelsea – €190,858,086 (£164,554,000, $223,414,950)
9. Liverpool – €171,467,704 (£147,836,000, $200,716,923)
10. Inter Milan – €148,530,000 (£128,059,506, $173,862,371)
11. Juventus – €141,370,000 (£121,886,301, $165,481,204)
12. Aston Villa – €135,280,355 (£116,636,000, $158,356,684)
13. Tottenham – €114,080,608 (£98,358,000, $133,540,653)
14. Borussia Dortmund – €106,180,000 (£91,546,204, $124,289,413)
15. Newcastle United – €103,133,931 (£88,920,000, $120,726,677)
16. Atletico Madrid – €102,225,000 (£88,136,284, $119,659,874)
17. Napoli – €99,570,000 (£85,847,200, $116,552,054)
18. RB Leipzig – €98,940,000 (£85,304,027, $115,814,605)
19. Roma – €97,920,000 (£84,424,604, $114,620,638)
20. West Ham United – €92,307,887 (£79,586,000, $108,053,906)
21. AC Milan – €83,980,000 (£72,405,823, $98,303,120)
22. Brighton – €83,261,048 (£71,786,000, $97,463,852)
23. Crystal Palace – €81,602,461 (£70,356,000, $95,522,338)
24. Lazio – €80,090,000 (£69,051,944, $93,749,661)
25. Nottingham Forest – €77,983,729 (£67,236,000, $91,286,315)
26. Fulham – €73,339,684 (£63,232,000, $85,850,084)
27. Everton – €69,883,793 (£60,252,400, $81,804,678)
28. Bournemouth – €67,187,836 (£57,928,000, $78,648,846)
29. Athletic Bilbao – €64,710,000 (£55,791,628, $75,746,542)
30. Fiorentina – €62,880,000 (£54,213,838, $73,604,429)
31. Wolves – €58,804,434 (£ 50,700,000, $68,835,390)
32. Bayer Leverkusen – €57,740,000 (£49,782,238, $67,587,781)
33. Monaco – €57,740,000 (£49,782,238, $67,587,781)
34. Marseille – €54,680,000 (£47,143,969, $64,005,888)
35. Atalanta – €52,950,000 (£45,652,397, $61,980,829)
36. Sevilla – €52,520,000 (£45,281,660, $61,477,491)
37. Real Betis – €52,100,000 (£44,919,544, $60,985,856)
38. Como – €48,420,000 (£41,746,727, $56,678,219)
39. Hoffenheim – €46,880,000(£41,574,286, $56,444,110)
40. Eintracht Frankfurt €45,270,000 – (£40,418,969, $54,875,568)
41. Brentford – €44,932,619(£39,030,862, $52,990,975)
42. Leeds United -€44,239,029 (£38,740,000, $52,597,298)
43. Wolfsburg – € 43,650,000 (£37,634,132, $51,094,676)
44. Torino – €41,910,000 (£36,133,935, $49,057,913)
45. Bologna – €41,140,000 (£35,470,061, $48,156,590)
46. Stuttgart – €40,840,000 (£35,211,408, $47,805,423)
47. Lyon – €40,170,000 (£34,633,746, $47,021,152)
48. Real Sociedad – €38,580,000 (£ 33,262,881, $45,159,969)
49. Rennes – €38,290,000 (£33,012,849, $44,820,507)
50. Burnley – €36,790,468 (£31,720,000, $43,066,243)
51. Villarreal – €36,300,000 (£31,297,112, $42,491,106)
52. Valencia – €36,080,000 (£31,107,433, $42,233,584)
53. Borussia Monchengladbach – €33,940,000 (£29,262,371, $39,728,600)
54. Mainz – €31,720,000 (£27,348,328, $37,129,971)
55. Celta Vigo – €30,850,000 (£26,598,234, $36,111,589)
56. Sassuolo – €30,220,000 (£26,055,057, $35,374,140)
57. Nice – €29,570,000 (£25,494,647, $34,613,280)
58. Lille – €28,320,000 (£24,416,917, $33,150,089)
59. Girona – €28,255,000 (£24,360,875, $33,074,001)
60. Udinese – €27,430,000 (£23,649,579, $32,108,297)
61. Real Mallorca – €27,170,000 (£23,425,415, $31,803,950)
62. Freiburg – €25,840,000 (£22,278,712, $30,247,111)
63. Cagliari – €25,350,000 (£21,856,248, $29,673,543)
64. Genoa – €24,700,000 (£21,295,833, $28,912,683)
65. Werder Bremen – €23,780,000 (£20,502,624, $27,835,771)
66. Parma – €23,470,000 (£20,235,350, $27,472,901)
67. Augsburg – €23,100,000 (£19,916,345, $27,039,790)
68. Union Berlin – €21,780,000 (£18,778,266, $25,494,662)
69. Cremonese – €20,350,000 (£17,545,350, $23,820,772)
70. Hamburg – €20,330,000 (£17,528,106, $23,797,357)
71. Getafe – €20,220,000 (£17,433,266, $23,668,600)
72. Lecce – €19,140,000 (£16,502,112, $22,404,400)
73. Koln – €17,680,000 (£15,243,331, $20,695,390)
74. Lens – €16,290,000 (£14,044,904, $19,068,320)
75. Rayo Vallecano – €16,170,000 (£13,941,441, $18,927,855
76. Nantes – €15,880,000 (£13,691,408, $18,588,395)
77. Sunderland – €15,490,966 (£13,356,000, $18,133,442)
78. Heidenheim – €14,850,000 (£12,803,362, $17,382,723)
79. Pisa – €13,606,000 (£11,730,810, $15,926,557)
80. Hellas Verona – €13,600,000 (£11,725,640, $15,919,532)
81. Strasbourg – €13,190,000 (£11,372,149, $15,439,606)
82. Osasuna – €13,180,000 (£11,363,524, $15,427,902)
83. Lorient – €10,980,000 (£9,466,732, $12,852,681)
84. Alaves – €10,520,000 (£9,070,126, $12,314,227)
85. Auxerre – €10,480,000 (£9,035,642, $12,267,403)
86. Brest – €10,340,000 (£8,914,936, $12,103,528)
87. St. Pauli – €10,310,000 (£8,889,069, $12,068,414)
88. Toulouse – €10,140,000 (£8,742,501, $11,869,416)
89. Espanyol – €10,020,000 (£8,639,037, $11,728,949)
90. Levante – €9,460,000 (£8,156,216, $11,073,441)
91. Angers – €8,330,000 (£7,181,954, $9,750,713)
92. Paris FC – €8,030,000 (£6,923,302, $9,399,548)
93. Elche – €7,880,000 (£6,793,973, $9,223,964)
94. Real Oviedo – €6,875,000 (£5,927,481, $8,047,557)
95. Le Harve – €5,200,000 (£4,483,331, $6,086,879)
96. Metz – €5,180,000 (£4,466,091, $6,063,468)

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