The Premier League is the biggest-money league in Europe. The wages being thrown out by a select few Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Saudi Arabian clubs may eclipse many English teams, but overall, it’s the highest-paying division of football.
Without the restraints of a salary cap system, as is seen in the North American major leagues, teams can theoretically pay individual players as much as they can afford.
However, the majority of them keep the salaries that they’re paying under wraps.
Premier League salary information isn’t generally made public. So, the best that we can go off to rank the highest paid players in the Premier League for the 2025/26 season are strong estimates by trusted resources like Capology and Spotrac.
With that in mind, and a pinch of salt to hand, these are the top five highest-paid players in the Premier League right now.
Erling Haaland, Manchester City (£525,000 p/w)
By his own standards, Erling Haaland endured a torrid 2024/25 campaign that was hampered by injury while the trophy-gobbling team around him finally lost momentum. Even so, he scored 34 goals in 48 games.
Since signing from Borussia Dortmund, the towering Norwegian has played 146 games for Manchester City, one of the richest football clubs in the world, and has duly returned 124 goals and 21 assists.
Just one goal or assist shy of a goal contribution per game, he’s worth every penny of what is currently the salary for the highest-paid player in the Premier League at an estimated £525,000 per week.
He didn’t sign on those massive wages, though. Having landed at the Etihad Stadium in the summer of 2022, the club soon acted to extend his deal. In 2025, he signed a nine-and-a-half contract with more suitably massive wages and bonuses.
Next season, with the squad renewed and Pep Guardiola gunning for the title again, Haaland will open each City match of Premier League betting as a clear favourite to score first, last, and anytime.
Mohamed Salah, Liverpool (£400,000 p/w)
Signing former Chelsea winger Mohamed Salah from AS Roma in the summer of 2017 can be marked up as one of the most influential moments in modern club history for Liverpool.
The Egyptian speedster has torn apart Premier League and UEFA Champions League defences ever since, scoring 245 goals and setting up 113 more in his 401 games to date, winning the Golden Boot four times in doing so.
At 33-years-old, many expected Liverpool to move on from Salah, but he made a convincing argument to be signed to a massive new deal with his 34 goals and 23 assists in 52 games last season.
So, now he’s signed on until the end of the 2026/27 season, estimated to be earning around £400,000 per week.
Given that he’s guided Liverpool to their first two Premier League trophies and is a big part of why they’re the betting favourites to repeat, it seems fair that he’d be one of the league’s highest-paid players for 2025/26.
Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool (£350,000 p/w)
The epitome of the modern centre back, Virgil van Dijk boasts strength, speed, and solid passing to stand tall as one of, if not the, best defenders in the world right now.
Liverpool’s captain has been instrumental in the build towards their modern run of success in Europe and the Premier League, commanding the backline since the middle of the 2017/18 campaign.
The Dutchman is now 34-years-old on a deal that expires at the end of the 2026/27 season, so he’ll be keen to further his legacy as one of the greatest centre-backs the Premier League has ever seen with another title in 2025/26.
Should he help to achieve this, the estimated £350,000 per week salary that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the Premier League this season may even seem cheap.
Casemiro, Manchester United (£350,000 p/w)
Desperate for a reliable defensive midfielder who could plug the gaps, Manchester United needed to find a way to draw in a 30-year-old Casemiro from the European titans Real Madrid.
The solution: pay almost double his worth to Los Blancos and offer the Brazilian wages that would make him one of the highest-paid players in Premier League history, let alone for the 2022/23 campaign.
Arguably, United did get what they expected. Casemiro has been excellent at times, doing exactly what the club has needed from him – it’s just a shame that the team building around him has been so scattershot.
At the end of the 2025/26 season, Casemiro’s contract for an estimated £350,000 per week will expire. Unless he takes a pay cut to retain his place as a veteran on a team that’s deep in a rebuild, he’ll likely go elsewhere.
Raheem Sterling, Chelsea (£325,000 p/w)
After breaking through the Liverpool ranks to burst onto the Premier League scene and into the England line-up, Raheem Sterling quickly became one of the most coveted young players around.
In 2015/16, Manchester City won the race to sign the speedster, giving the Reds around £60 million and handing the Kingston-born winger a hefty pay packet.
He’d enjoy a good seven seasons at City before Chelsea happily added him to their ranks under the new ownership in 2022. Naturally, he was given a massive salary by the new Blues bosses.
According to estimates, Sterling is still collecting around £325,000 per week from Chelsea – some of which Arsenal would have paid when taking him on loan for 2024/25.
His deal with Chelsea runs until the end of the 2026/27 season. So, unless he accepts a transfer and likely a pay cut, the 30-year-old will remain one of the highest-paid players in the Premier League for a couple more seasons.
*Credit for the photo in this article belongs to Alamy*
