We didn’t think Paris Saint-Germain were paying their players peanuts but we also wouldn’t have guessed that they’d be the biggest paying sports team in the world.
The latest results from the Global Sports Salaries Survey reveal that the Ligue 1 champions are the best-paid sports team with an average annual pay of £5,298,693 (€7,407,786) and an average weekly pay of £101,898 (€142,457).
The research, carried out on sports teams from major leagues all over the world for the past 6 years, makes for fascinating reading with eight of the top ten coming from the world of football and five Premier League sides making the top 20.
The top 30 looks like this in the order of ranking, team, sport, country, average annual pay and average weekly pay.
| 1 | Paris Saint-Germain | Football | France | £5,298,693 | £101,898 |
| 2 | Real Madrid | Football | Spain | £5,040,520 | £96,933 |
| 3 | Manchester City | Football | England | £5,015,122 | £96,445 |
| 4 | Barcelona | Football | Spain | £4,715,116 | £90,675 |
| 5 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Baseball | U.S.A. | £4,679,937 | £89,999 |
| 6 | Manchester United | Football | England | £4,679,377 | £89,988 |
| 7 | Bayern Munich | Football | Germany | £4,468,643 | £85,935 |
| 8 | Chelsea | Football | England | £4,353,056 | £83,713 |
| 9 | New York Yankees | Baseball | U.S.A. | £4,263,577 | £81,992 |
| 10 | Arsenal | Football | England | £4,054,066 | £77,963 |
| 11 | Brooklyn Nets | Basketball | U.S.A. | £3,645,286 | £70,102 |
| 12 | Detroit Tigers | Baseball | U.S.A. | £3,620,913 | £69,633 |
| 13 | San Francisco Giants | Baseball | U.S.A. | £3,597,130 | £69,175 |
| 14 | Liverpool | Football | England | £3,509,286 | £67,486 |
| 15 | NY Knicks | Basketball | U.S.A. | £3,431,128 | £65,983 |
| 16 | Washington Nationals | Baseball | U.S.A. | £3,317,177 | £63,792 |
| 17 | Boston Red Sox | Baseball | U.S.A. | £3,312,564 | £63,703 |
| 18 | LA Clippers | Basketball | U.S.A. | £3,111,928 | £59,845 |
| 19 | Sacramento Kings | Basketball | U.S.A. | £2,960,046 | £56,924 |
| 20 | Denver Nuggets | Basketball | U.S.A. | £2,939,555 | £56,530 |
| 21 | Toronto Raptors | Basketball | U.S.A. | £2,935,584 | £56,454 |
| 22 | Memphis Grizzlies | Basketball | U.S.A. | £2,919,687 | £56,148 |
| 23 | Cleveland Cavaliers | Basketball | U.S.A. | £2,885,116 | £55,483 |
| 24 | Juventus | Football | Italy | £2,859,195 | £54,985 |
| 25 | Golden State Warriors | Basketball | U.S.A. | £2,852,396 | £54,854 |
| 26 | Washington Wizards | Basketball | U.S.A. | £2,839,564 | £54,607 |
| 27 | Philadelphia Phillies | Baseball | U.S.A. | £2,829,578 | £54,415 |
| 28 | Miami Heat | Basketball | U.S.A. | £2,819,067 | £54,213 |
| 29 | Chicago Bulls | Basketball | U.S.A. | £2,817,858 | £54,190 |
| 30 | Tottenham Hotspur | Football | England | £2,811,977 | £54,077 |
Note to Brendan Rodgers – don’t let Raheem Sterling see this list.
