The 2026-27 Championship season is quickly coming, and the promotion race promises to be interesting from multiple perspectives.
The three Premier League relegated teams will all be favoured, with Wolves and West Ham looking particularly strong on paper despite losing a few important players, while Burnley may be the most hit by squad turmoil of the three.
However, the chasing pack from last season’s Championship will be looking to grab an early encounter; Southampton, Norwich City, Middlesbrough, and Derby County are just a few of the teams that might have successful seasons.
A prolific striker can transform a mid-table team into a promotion-chasing one, but they can also be the most expensive member of the squad.
But who of the upcoming season’s centre forwards will earn the most per week in English football’s second tier? FLW looks at the top TWELVE highest-paid strikers based on Capology’s estimates*.
*Raul Jimenez is probably a notable inclusion on this list; he does not yet appear as a Wolves player in Capology’s projections.
12Adam Idah/Carlton Morris/Tom Cannon/Marvin Ducksch/Sam Gallagher
There are a few Championship attackers estimated to earn around £25,000 per week, and they all come from various clubs.
Some have had more success in their careers with their respective clubs. Carlton Morris has been a huge success story for Derby County, netting 12 goals in 31 Championship appearances last season as the Rams just missed out on the play-offs, but his other comparable earners haven’t fared as well.
Adam Idah and Tom Cannon’s big-money moves to Swansea City and Sheffield United, respectively, haven’t worked out yet; Marvin Ducksch’s move to Birmingham City has provided goals, but he’s 32 years old and getting no younger; and Sam Gallagher has proven to be injury-prone at Stoke City once more.
Idah and Cannon, who scored a combined 12 goals in the second division last season, have plenty to show in 2026-27, especially given the money they receive.
11Mathias Kvistgaarden – Norwich City
Spending nearly £7 million on a Danish Superliga player could have gone horribly wrong if he couldn’t handle the roughness of the Championship, but Norwich City’s Mathias Kvistgaarden enjoyed a fine, if unspectacular, first season in Norfolk.
Kvistgaarden was brought in to strengthen the Canaries’ attacking unit behind Josh Sargent, but he was sometimes relegated to a supporting striker or number 10 role behind the likes of Sargent (prior to his move to Toronto FC) and Jovon Makama, who ended up overshadowing the Dane after leaving Lincoln City.
In the end, Kvistgaarden scored six goals in the Championship, the same number as the aforementioned Idah and Cannon, but he needs to get off to a solid start in the new season and assist Makama and Mohamed Toure in the final third, especially since he earns an estimated £30,000 per week.
10Kieffer Moore – Wrexham
Despite the fact that he turns 34 in early August, Kieffer Moore has aged like a great wine, having been in and around the Championship for nearly a decade.
Eyebrows were raised in January 2017 when Ipswich Town signed the Welsh striker for just £10,000 from National League Forest Green Rovers, but Moore has had a successful career as a Championship target man, having previously played for Barnsley, Wigan Athletic, Cardiff City, Bournemouth, Sheffield United, and Wrexham.
Moore joined the Red Dragons for about £2 million last summer, and despite his advanced age, the Wales international scored 11 league goals, becoming the focal point of Phil Parkinson’s assault when healthy.
With Wrexham’s wealth, they could easily hire a younger model for their target man role, but Moore is still successful, and at an estimated £30,000 per week, he’s still good value.
9Patrick Bamford – Sheffield United
Given their prior disparaging remarks about each other, Patrick Bamford and Chris Wilder forming a collaboration at Sheffield United last season was an odd one, but it proved to be quite beneficial.
In what turned out to be a forgettable season for the Blades, who finished in mid-table after a disastrous start under Ruben Selles’ brief management, the November signing of the veteran Bamford on a short-term deal proved to be a game-changer.
After rarely kicking a ball since late 2024, it was surprise to see the ex-Leeds United striker start so well at Bramall Lane, finishing the season with 12 goals from 28 appearances.
For £30,000 per week, you’d expect Bamford to reach the back of the net a few times, but he exceeded many expectations, and he may have different ambitions for the upcoming season than he did less than a year ago.
8Zeki Amdouni – Burnley
Zeki Amdouni, who has been signed to Burnley for three years, has only appeared 43 times for the Clarets, which has disappointed everyone concerned, including the Switzerland international himself.
Amdouni was brought in from Basel for £15 million in 2023 when the Lancashire club was a Premier League club. He showed some promise in the top flight but was loaned to Benfica following their relegation back to the Championship, but they did not exercise their buy option last summer, leaving him a Burnley player once more.
However, an ACL injury in pre-season forced Amdouni to miss all but the final four matches of Burnley’s Premier League campaign in 2025-26, thus he returns to the second tier of English football with a point to make, having played just twice at the level before to his Benfica loan.
Burnley can either use Amdouni this season under new head coach Nicky Hayen, loan him out, or sell him for an estimated £35,000 per week; however, the Clarets are unlikely to repay the eight-figure amount they paid for the 25-year-old’s services.
7Sasa Kalajdzic – Wolves
Wolves are stacked with attacking skill heading into the 2026-27 season, with Raul Jimenez’s return to Molineux adding to their depth.
One player who has arguably been overlooked is the gangly Austrian centre-forward Sasa Kalajdzic, who has struggled to make an impact at the Midlands club since his £15 million move from Stuttgart in 2022.
The towering 6ft 7in attacker made only one game for Wolves in his debut season, as a knee injury terminated his season prematurely, and after being loaned out to Frankfurt for the second half of 2023-24, misfortune struck again with another ACL tear – his third in five years.
After missing the whole 2024-25 season to recover, Kalajdzic joined LASK in his home country for the most of 2025-26, scoring seven times in all competitions, however it’s fair to conclude that his competitive level has decreased significantly since his fitness setbacks.
Kalajdzic has just one year left on his Wolves contract, but there’s every reason to believe that if the 27-year-old stays fit, he could be a useful option off the bench at Championship level – with an estimated weekly wage of £35,000, he’ll need to show some goalscoring form if he wants to stay at Molineux.
6Callum Robinson – Cardiff City
Despite no longer leading the line on a regular basis for newly promoted Cardiff City, Callum Robinson is still thought to be one of the best earners in the Welsh capital and among attackers across the Championship.
The 38-cap Republic of Ireland player is in his fourth season with the Bluebirds after signing a £1.5 million contract from West Bromwich Albion in 2022, and it’s fair to say he’s had a mixed record in South Wales.
Robinson’s initial season was a triumph as Cardiff narrowly avoided relegation, but he struggled under Erol Bulut before scoring 12 goals as the Bluebirds dropped to the third division last year.
By that point, Robinson had lost his spot to star striker Yousef Salech and has yet to regain it, having scored eight goals in less than 1,200 minutes of League One play in a season that saw Cardiff return to the Championship at the first time of asking.
Now 31 years old and with only one year left on his current contract, one has to wonder if parting ways this summer is in the best interests of both parties – and if Cardiff are paying the striker anything close to his estimated weekly salary of £35,000, they may well look to offload him.
5Cameron Archer – Southampton
Cameron Archer, who joined Southampton from Aston Villa two summers ago, has yet to rekindle the same sort of form that previously lit up the Championship in loan stints at Preston North End and Middlesbrough.
Despite his talent, Archer has struggled to match expectations in the second tier, scoring only twice in 35 Premier League appearances in his debut season and recording four goals and three assists in Southampton’s run to the play-offs, albeit with flashes of promise towards the end of the season.
Southampton has made an expensive investment in the forward, giving him an initial £15 million and an anticipated monthly wage of £40,000.
If Archer stays with Tonda Eckert’s side this summer, he still has a chance to restore his career on the south coast – but patience is wearing thin, and Southampton need to see some return on their investment soon rather than later.
4Armando Broja – Burnley
With Armando Broja, you get the impression that everyone is wondering when – or if – the penny will eventually drop for the once-highly rated Albanian international frontman, and while Burnley may have the same concerns, there’s a good possibility he’ll be out of Turf Moor by the end of the summer.
Broja is currently linked with a move to Italian giants Lazio, which may come as a surprise after a disappointing debut season at Burnley, when the striker scored only once in 24 Premier League games after signing in a £20 million deal from Chelsea.
The Albanian’s signing was a big deal at the time, which is why he’s expected to earn £45,000 per week, but the Clarets have yet to see a return on their investment and may decide to cut losses.
Previously billed as a precocious talent emerging at Chelsea, Broja’s reputation only grew after productive loan spells with Vitesse Arnhem, but less-than-successful spells at Fulham and Everton followed before joining Burnley, and injuries have also been a recurring theme for the often-unlucky 24-year-old.
3Hwang Hee-chan – Wolves
We’re moving into a different salary range with the second Wolves attacker, Hwang Hee-chan, whose pay are somewhat to be expected given his years of top-flight experience in both England and Germany.
Hwang was signed for £13 million from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2022 after a good season on loan at Molineux. His future with the Old Gold now appears to be uncertain as he enters the Championship, not least because he’s a top earner with limited contributions in the Black Country.
Hwang scored 12 goals in a breakout 2023/24 season but has yet to match similar levels since, and the livewire South Korean international striker could only manage two goals when Wolves’ long top-flight tenure came to an abrupt end last time around.
On far too many instances, Hwang has simply not been prolific enough to justify what Capology believes to be a massive weekly wage of £70,000, placing him below only two Championship attackers.
2Taty Castellanos – West Ham
Taty Castellanos of West Ham, another forward tied to a recently relegated club, is predictably among the division’s top earnings after joining from Lazio for £25 million at the turn of the year.
The two-cap Argentine international had a good individual start to life in English football, scoring six goals in 18 games, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Hammers from relegation.
Nonetheless, it may be enough to keep Castellanos on the move again this summer, as a number of clubs have recently expressed interest in the 27-year-old.
He currently works at the London Stadium, where he earns an estimated £75,000 a week.
1Niclas Fullkrug – West Ham
Lo and behold, it’s another West Ham forward – and this one, Hammers misfit Niclas Fullkrug, earns more than any other striker in the Championship right now.
In truth, the German international’s professional pedigree should make that reality somewhat predictable, even if his performances in claret and blue have fallen far short of expectations.
Fullkrug, one of many esteemed forwards to simply lose their goalscoring boots upon touching down in East London, has failed to repay West Ham’s reported £27 million agreement with Borussia Dortmund in 2024, scoring just three Premier League goals across a season-and-a-half before departing on loan to AC Milan for the remainder of last season in what quickly proved to be a similarly barren spell.
The 33-year-old, a prolific marksman for Werder Bremen and Dortmund, as well as the German national team, still has two years left on his current contract with West Ham, and it would not be surprising if he had already played his farewell game.
The transfer has been a complete disaster for everyone concerned, and the Hammers will breathe a sigh of relief if they can relocate his anticipated £90,000-per-week wage this summer.
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