'A dream come true': The world's highest paid footballers in pictures
Updated . First published
Football's ultimate rich list
Given football's status as the most popular sport on the planet, it should come as no surprise that its top players feature prominently on global rich lists.
The influx of money from oil rich Saudi Arabian clubs has further inflated the eyepopping numbers.
Here we count down the first XI of football's highest paid players, leaning on estimated figures provided by respected financial publication Forbes.
Not surprisingly, the glamour boys - strikers and attacking midfielders - dominate the list.
All figures have been converted to AUD and represent the combined total of on field earnings for the 2023-24 season.
11: Robert Lewandowski ($52m)
The Polish legend scored a phenomenal 238 goals in 253 games for Bayern Munich before making a massive transfer to Barcelona in 2022.
Lewandowski was unlucky not to win the Ballon d'Or in 2020 as the prestigious awards were cancelled due to the pandemic.
Lewandowski, now 35, has seen his goals dry up in Spain this season but he is still a massive deal in Poland where a series of commemorative coins was struck in his honour.
10: Harry Kane ($55m)
England captain Kane was a goalscoring machine during his time in the Premier League, notching a mammoth 213 in 317 games for Spurs.
He moved to Bayern Munich after Ange Postecoglou's arrival this year and is proving a smash hit in Germany.
Kane has spoken about his dream of becoming a kicker in the NFL after having up the football boots.
9: Kevin de Bruyne ($59m)
The versatile Belgium star has been a mainstay of Manchester City's all-conquering teams under manager Pep Guardiola.
The Guardian asked him last year whether he was paid too much.
"No. I compare it to a singer at a concert and 60,000 people come. I look at it logically. There are millions of people watching the football on TV, there's 60,000 watching the games, the income of a club is £500-£600m. Yeah, it's a lot of money, but is it too much? If the club can afford it, it's not too much. It's not a popular answer, but that's how I see it."
8: Sadio Mane ($79m)
The Liverpool great cashed in on his Premier League achievements with a lucrative move to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.
Mane's club teammates include Cristiano Ronaldo and Aymeric Laporte.
The classy forward is putting his wealth to good use, paying to build a school, a hospital and a stadium in his native Senegal.
7: Mohamed Salah ($80m)
The Egypt superstar has played a pivotal role in a highly successful Liverpool era under super coach Jurgen Klopp.
And like former teammate Mane, Salah is putting his dollars to good causes.
In his home village of Nagrig, Salah has paid to build a school, a water treatment plant and an ambulance station.
6: Erling Haaland ($88m)
The Norwegian phenomenon checks in at No.6 on this list and we can expect Haaland to rise further in years to come.
The freakish striker is smashing records in England, netting 50 goals in his first 50 games for Manchester City.
Reports have suggested Haaland will soon become the best paid player in the Premier League on a 'basic' salary of £500,000-a-week.
5: Karim Benzema ($161m)
Real Madrid's second all-time leading goalscorer with 238, Benzema joined the Saudi Arabia wave by signing with Al-Ittihad this year.
The Frenchman is a car lover with a collection worth an estimated £6m.
The fleet includes a Bugatti Chiron, a Bugatti Veyron and a Ferrari 458 Spider.
4: Kylian Mbappe ($167m)
The precocious Frenchman sealed his lofty place in world football's pecking order by scoring in the final of France's 2018 World Cup win.
Mbappe then scored a hat trick in the epic 2022 final before France lost to Argentina on penalties.
'A dream come true'
A young Kylian Mbappe with then Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mbappe is finally a Madrid player after the club reached a deal with the France star for the next five seasons.
He will earn $57 million a season, according to reports in Spain.
The announcement came after years of flirtation by Madrid with the player who inherited the status of the best in the game from Lionel Messi.
"A dream come true," Mbappe said on Twitter.
"So happy and proud to join the club of my dream. Nobody can understand how excited I am right now."
The post was accompanied by photos of a teenage Mbappe wearing a Madrid jacket while visiting the club.
One photo was with Ronaldo.
Mbappe joins a team that already features young stars in Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham.
His signing could revive Madrid's 'Galaticos' philosophy, when it had some of the world's top players including Zinedine Zidane, Brazil's Ronaldo, David Beckham, Luis Figo and Roberto Carlos among others.
Madrid president Florentino Perez made signing Mbappe a strategic club priority since the powerhouse failed to lock him up when he visited the club's facilities at age 14.
