How Much Do Footballers Get Paid? Every Level, Explained
Premier League players average around £60,000 a week. In League Two it is £2,000. Here is what footballers actually earn at every level of the English game.
The average Premier League footballer earns roughly £60,000 to £67,000 a week. Drop one division and that figure falls to about £10,500. By League Two it is around £2,000 a week — a good professional salary, but not a life-changing one.
The word “footballer” covers all of these people. Understanding the pay question means understanding how steeply the pyramid falls away.
Average wages by division
| Division | Average weekly | Average annual |
|---|---|---|
| Premier League | £60,000–£67,000 | £3.1m–£3.5m |
| Championship | ~£10,500 | ~£550,000 |
| League One | ~£4,100 | ~£215,000 |
| League Two | ~£2,000 | ~£104,000 |
The drop from the Premier League to the Championship is roughly six-fold. The drop from the Championship to League Two is another five-fold. Two promotions is not a pay rise — it is a change of economic class.
Why the average is misleading
Here is the problem with every table like the one above: football wages are not distributed normally. They are distributed like wealth.
A Premier League squad of 25 might contain three players on £300,000 a week, six on £120,000, ten on £50,000, and six academy graduates on £15,000. The mean comes out near £60,000. The median — the player in the middle — is closer to £50,000, and almost nobody actually earns the average.
The same distortion runs down the pyramid, and it gets worse at the top. Bukayo Saka’s £300,000 a week at Arsenal is roughly five times his own club’s average. Arsenal’s full wage breakdown shows the shape clearly: a handful of players account for a disproportionate share of a £187m bill.
Treat division averages as a guide to the level, not to what any individual earns.
What the top of the game looks like
At the very top the numbers stop resembling salaries at all.
- Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr contract is the largest in football history
- Lionel Messi earns around $140m a year in total, most of it off the pitch
- Harry Kane is on roughly €480,000 a week at Bayern Munich
- Lamine Yamal reached £280,000 a week at 17
Perhaps two hundred footballers worldwide earn over £200,000 a week. Set against roughly 130,000 professional players globally, that is under 0.2%.
Below the EFL
The pyramid does not stop at League Two.
- National League (fifth tier). Full-time contracts typically £700–£1,500 a week at the stronger clubs. Some squads remain part-time.
- National League North/South. Mostly part-time. £200–£600 a week is normal, and players hold other jobs.
- Step 3 and below. Expenses, match fees, or nothing.
This is where most people who describe themselves as footballers actually sit. A National League North player on £400 a week earns less than the UK median wage while training four times a week and playing on Saturdays.
Academy and youth wages
Scholars in an academy — typically 16 to 18 — receive a small weekly allowance, usually under £200, plus education and accommodation. The money arrives at the first professional contract, and only for the minority who get one.
The attrition is brutal. Of boys in an academy at nine years old, under 1% will play a single professional minute. Of those who sign scholarships at 16, roughly two-thirds are out of the professional game by 21. Our guide to becoming a professional footballer covers those odds honestly.
What makes up a footballer’s pay
The weekly wage is only one component:
- Basic wage. The headline figure. Guaranteed, paid monthly, taxed at source.
- Appearance and performance bonuses. Per-game fees, goal bonuses, clean-sheet bonuses for defenders and goalkeepers.
- Team bonuses. Promotion, survival, cup runs, qualification for Europe. In the Championship a promotion bonus can exceed a season’s salary.
- Signing-on fees. Often paid in instalments across the contract term.
- Loyalty payments. Triggered at fixed dates to discourage mid-contract moves.
- Image rights. Usually a separate company and a separate contract, and a recurring subject of HMRC interest.
- Endorsements. Entirely the player’s own, and at the top level larger than the salary.
Published “salary” figures almost always mean item 1 only.
Career length changes everything
The other number that matters is how long the earning lasts. The average professional football career is about eight years, and it ends in the early thirties.
A League One player on £215,000 a year for eight years grosses £1.7m across a career — a very good outcome, but it has to cover the forty years that follow, in a profession with a high injury exit rate and no second act guaranteed. That is why the PFA’s pension and education programmes exist, and why financial advice is a standard part of a modern dressing room.
Compare that with a Premier League regular on £3m a year for the same eight years, and you have two people doing the same job on different planets.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the average Premier League player earn? Roughly £60,000 to £67,000 a week, or £3.1m to £3.5m a year. The median is lower, because a small number of very large contracts pull the average up.
How much do Championship players earn? Around £10,500 a week on average, roughly £550,000 a year — though the range within a single squad can be ten to one.
How much do League Two players earn? About £2,000 a week, roughly £104,000 a year.
Do lower-league footballers earn a good living? In League One and League Two, yes — well above the UK average wage. Below the EFL, most players earn less than a full-time salary elsewhere and many work second jobs.
What is the highest wage in football? The Saudi Pro League holds the record. See our breakdown of Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract for the figures.
How long does a footballer’s career last? About eight years on average, typically ending in the early thirties.
