One of the most crucial elements for every football team is a goal striker who scores goals frequently. You have a far higher likelihood of success if you have someone who can score goals consistently than if you don’t. Because of this, teams worldwide are prepared to shell out enormous sums of money to hire some of the top forwards in the league right now.
Most of the most paid players in football, from Harry Kane to Cristiano Ronaldo, are forwards who strive to score goals in every situation. The Frenchman’s wage is insignificant when compared to some of the other players that rank among the top 15 highest-paid strikers in the world, despite Kylian Mbappe’s move to Real Madrid being one of the largest in recent memory.
15 of the world’s highest-paid strikers
The player
Club
Weekly salary
Ronaldo Cristiano
Al-Nassr
£3,231,230 a week
Benzema Karim
Al-Ittihad
£1,607,211 a week
Lewandowski, Robert
Barcelona
£538,484 a week
Haaland, Erling
City of Manchester
£525,000 a week
Mbappe Kylian
Real Madrid
£502,253 a week
Toney, Ivan
Al-Ahli
£412,143 a week
Kane, Harry
The Bayern Munich
£403,904 a week
Aleksandar Mitrovic
Al Hilal
£403,904 a week
Duran, Jhon
Al-Nassr
£322,000 a week
Vlahovic, Dusan
Juventus
£314,076 a week
Firmino Roberto
Al-Ahli
£306,967 a week
Marmoush Omar
City of Manchester
£295,000 a week
Havertz, Kai
The Arsenal
£280,000 a week
Martinez, Lautaro
Milan Inter
£269,323 a week
Jesus Gabriel
The Arsenal
£265,000 a week
10Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus)
£314,076-per-week
Dusan Vlahovic has won himself a shiny new deal at the Old Gold of Juventus, where he has been the primary goal scorer for Italy’s top-performing team over the past ten years. The 2025–2026 season will see the striker’s compensation increase to 12 million euros per season under the terms of his existing contract with the team.
Over his career, the Serbian forward has made 285 club games and scored an incredible 125 goals. Even better for him, though, is that he is still only 25 years old, thus there is a good chance he will move up this list later in his career.
9Jhon Duran (Al-Nassr)
£322,000-per-week
Jhon Duran recently took the unexpected choice to leave the Midlands and move to Saudi Arabia after making an impression at Aston Villa. The transfer isn’t very shocking given that he will be earning £32,000 a week at Al-Nassr. The 21-year-old will now play with Cristiano Ronaldo and has received a huge wage increase.
Duran has had a remarkable ascent in the past year, going from playing behind Ollie Watkins at Villa Park to becoming one of the highest-paid attackers in the world. He is now expected to earn enough money to support his family for many generations to come. It is unclear how he will do in the Saudi Pro League.
8Aleksandar Mitrovic (Al Hilal)
£403,904-per-week
Aleksandar Mitrovic chose to join Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League after a number of successful seasons with Fulham. Many were surprised that he had decided to depart in the peak of his career, especially after his triumph in the Premier League the year before.
However, given his enormous wealth, it’s simple to see why he made the decision. Since joining Al Hilal, the forward has been making £403,904 every week, and his tenure with the team has already been fruitful. He has played 67 games for the team since coming, scored 60 goals, and helped them win the Saudi Pro League. Well spent money.
7Harry Kane (Bayern Munich)
£403,904-per-week
Earning the exact same amount as Mitrovic is one of the greatest strikers on the planet, Harry Kane. After years of commitment to Tottenham Hotspur, the Englishman chose to move for brighter pastures in the summer of 2023. He wanted the opportunity to add some trophy to his resume, so he joined Bayern Munich in a big-money move.
Since then, he has been earning £403,904 a week and has been scoring goals in Germany at an incredible rate. He made a smooth transition from the Premier League to the Bundesliga. During his first season at Bayern, Kane contributed 56 goals in 44 games, which isn’t awful at all. Unfortunately, the club uncharacteristically spent the entire year without lifting a single trophy, thus his thirst for trophies will have to wait.
6Ivan Toney (Al-Ahli)
£412,143-per-week
Ivan Toney most definitely deserved an end-of-career compensation after spending a large portion of his career moving up the English football pyramid, earning a name for himself with Peterborough United in League One, and then helping Brentford get promoted to the Premier League.
Fortunately for him, the Englishman now makes a good living with Al-Ahli after the golden riches of the Saudi retirement home knocked on his door last summer. The former Newcastle center-forward earns £412,143 per week from the team. He has also contributed 15 goals in 22 games for the team. It’s a good beginning.
5Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)
£502,253-per-week
Last summer, Kylian Mbappe’s transfer to Real Madrid was finally confirmed after what seemed like years of rumours. One of the world’s most explosive players, the Frenchman destroyed defenders while playing for Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1. He will be a huge asset to Madrid’s team after spending seven years with PSG, where he became their all-time top goalscorer.
He’s actually accepting a big wage cut to join Los Blancos in spite of that. He will still make £502,253 a week, which puts him fifth in the world’s striker rankings, but given his skill, one could argue that he deserves even more.
4Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
£525,000-per-week
Even though Erling Haaland makes £525,000 a week, one could argue that his pay is actually a steal given how successful he has been since joining Manchester City in 2022. Since leaving Borussia Dortmund, the mechanised striker has been hitting goals for fun at the Etihad. Few people have ever crushed opponents as he has, and he has broken Premier League records.
During his tenure with the team, City has already won numerous trophies. The Norwegian has more than earned his salary after winning a triple in his first season with the team and scoring an incredible 52 goals in that season.
3Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)
£538,484-per-week
When Barcelona acquired Robert Lewandowski from the Bundesliga powerhouses in 2022, he became one of the highest-paid forwards in the world: a former striker for Bayern. When the Spanish team signed the Polish player, he had been playing at Bayern for over ten years.
Lewandowski, who was 33 when he made the move, has scored 88 goals in two and a half seasons with Barcelona, continuing his stellar goal-scoring form in Spain. Even though his salary is somewhat high, he has so far lived up to it because he was instrumental in the team winning the La Liga trophy at the end of the 2022–2023 season.
2Karim Benzema (Al-Ittihad)
£1,607,211-per-week
As we get to Karim Benzema, the second-highest paid striker in the world right now, there has been a significant increase. After becoming the newest superstar to join the Saudi Pro League in 2023, the former Real Madrid player left Los Blancos. Although he has been earning slightly more than £1.6 million a week since joining Al-Ittihad, the Frenchman had a difficult first year with the team.
However, he has since improved and is still scoring 28 goals in 46 games for Al-Ittihad, which is a very respectable return. But it’s not nearly the calibre you’d anticipate from someone making that much money.
1Cristiano Ronaldo (Al-Nassr)
£3,231,230-per-week
The world’s highest-paid striker. Given that he is the all-time top scorer in football, it is only fitting that Cristiano Ronaldo receives that title. This guy has earned it, if anyone has. Ronaldo signed Al-Nassr on a free transfer in the winter of 2022 after his Manchester United homecoming ended in disappointment.
He was the first well-known figure to relocate to Saudi Arabia, and the league has greatly benefited from this. Since the transfer, he has also been in outstanding goal-scoring form. With 35 goals in the 2023–24 season, Ronaldo broke the record for most goals in a single Saudi Pro League season and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
Even if his team hasn’t won the league since coming, he’s making an absolutely ridiculous amount of money every week, and his efforts on the pitch and impact on the team’s reputation are what you would expect from the highest-paid striker in the league.
xz
