The Major League Soccer has released the salary figures for this season. Not entirely unexpectedly, Lionel Messi tops the list with a salary of over 19.4 million euros. This is a record in the United States.
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Never before has a player earned as much at a club as Messi at Inter Miami. The hefty twenty million per year, however, is a drop in the bucket for Messi, who earned much more at Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona. It's also not the case that Messi's earnings stop at the twenty million from Inter Miami. The club itself couldn't cover the high salary, but through personal deals with Apple and Adidas, Messi earns a lot more.
The top five earners in MLS are all players who previously had successful careers in Europe. Lorenzo Insigne (Toronto FC) is in second place, followed by Xherdan Shaqiri (Chicago Fire), Javier Hernández (Los Angeles Galaxy), and Federico Bernardeschi (Toronto). Notably, Sergio Busquets (1.7 million) and Jordi Alba (1.2 million) earn relatively little in comparison to the top earners.
MLS has released all the salaries that were paid out by the clubs in 2023, and several Dutch players are on the list. Goalkeepers Nick Marsman and Kenneth Vermeer are no longer active in MLS, but the list reveals that they earned 557 thousand and 368 thousand euros respectively. Maarten Paes is still playing in the United States and earns just over 320 thousand euros.
