The mind-boggling highest-paid XI in the Saudi Pro League in 2024-25: Ronaldo, Neymar…
The Saudi Pro League is home to some of the biggest names in football and they are all currently earning vast sums of money.
Since Cristiano Ronaldo made the switch to Saudi Arabia last year, plenty of fellow football superstars have followed in his footsteps.
Using figures provided by Capology, we’ve compiled the highest-paid XI in the Saudi Pro League and have detailed how much each player is currently earning.
GK: Edouard Mendy – £178,000 per week
The former Chelsea goalkeeper more than doubled his wages when he moved to Al-Ahli last season. He enjoyed a decent debut campaign too as Al-Ahli boasted the third-best defensive record in the league.
While Mendy is currently the top-earning goalkeeper in the league, he might not have that title for much longer as the likes of Ederson and Alisson Becker have been linked with the league in recent weeks. Watch this space.
RB: Alex Telles – £133,000 per week
Alright, we know he’s technically a left-back, but for the sake of this XI, we’ve had to put him on the opposite side.
The former Manchester United star is the second highest-paid full-back in the league, taking home an annual salary of over £6.8million.
CB: Kalidou Koulibaly – £560,000 per week
After stinking things out at Chelsea in 2022-23, Koulibaly seems to have got his mojo back while playing in Saudi Arabia.
He won the league with Al-Hilal last year and was the star in a backline that only conceded 23 goals all season. Currently earning £560,000 per week, he earns way more than the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Ruben Dias.
CB: Aymeric Laporte – £396,000 per week
During the Euros, Laporte showcased that he’s still more than good enough to cut it at the top level. After winning practically everything on offer with Man City, he made the switch to Al-Nassr last year and received a healthy pay bump in the process.
“Let’s be honest, many of us have also come here not only for football,” Laporte admitted during an interview earlier this year.
“Many of us are happy with that [financial gain], but I am also looking for something beyond that is not the economic part.
“In terms of quality of life, I expected something different because in the end, here you spend three hours a day in the car. In Riyadh, you spend a lot of time in the car because of the traffic.”
READ: Six star players who have already left the Saudi Pro League in 2024
LB: Renan Lodi – £175,000 per week
The former Atletico Madrid and Marseille defender was snapped up by the Saudi Pro League in January for a fee of just under £20million.
Now playing for Al-Hilal, he’s currently the seventh top earner at the club on £175,000 per week.
CM: Sergej Milinkovic-Savic – £404,000 per week
Al-Hilal will have been pleased with Milinkovic-Savic’s contribution last season as the midfielder chipped in with an impressive 29 goal contributions across all competitions.
Given he’s on a yearly salary of around £21million, that means Al-Hilal paid around £724,000 per goal contribution from Milinkovic-Savic last season.
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CM: N’Golo Kante – £404,000 per week
While the Frenchman is currently earning a sweet paycheck in Saudi, he has been linked with a return to the Premier League in recent weeks with West Ham supposedly interested.
He showcased his class during the Euros and still has plenty left in the tank, even at the age of 33.
RW: Riyad Mahrez – £844,000 per week
Mahrez more than quadrupled his wages when he made the move from Man City to Al-Ahli last summer. No wonder he was so keen to get the deal over the line.
“I had two years left on my contract with Manchester City, I could have stayed,” Mahrez told L’Equipe.
“It was really me who decided to leave. I felt that this opportunity (to join Al-Ahli) would not come again. Maybe it was time to leave because I had spent five years at City and won everything.”
LW: Neymar – £1.6million per week
Saudi fans hardly got the chance to see Neymar in action last season as he spent the vast majority of the campaign on the sidelines with an ACL injury.
Despite only making five appearances across 2023-24, he still picked up his annual salary of around £84million. Fingers crossed we get to see a bit more of him in 2024-25.
ST: Karim Benzema – £1.6million per week
While Benzema was fit and healthy during 2023-24, he failed to live up to expectations during his debut campaign with Al-Ittihad.
The Frenchman only scored nine league goals and behind-the-scenes drama seemed to follow him throughout the entire campaign.
ST: Cristiano Ronaldo – £3.2million per week
To put into context how much CR7 is earning, he makes more than Alisson, Dani Carvajal, Virgil van Dijk, William Saliba, Alphonso Davies, Rodri, Jude Bellingham, Kevin De Bruyne, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane COMBINED.
While he’s earning a ludicrously large sum of money, he is the biggest draw to the league and he scored a whopping 50 goals for Al-Nassr last season too.