Top 10 Best Paid Football Players in Saudi Arabia 2025

Oct 8, 2024

Saudi Arabia continues to invest heavily in football and hire some of the biggest stars of the sport.

Although far from the madness of last season, Arab teams returned to million-dollar signings this summer, such as Ivan Toney and Moussa Diaby, who left the Premier League to sign million-dollar contracts with their respective clubs.

Even so, the Top 10 Best Paid Football Players in Saudi Arabia 2025 ranking had no changes at the top compared to last season.

Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list of highest earners with €200 million per season – and his connection with Al-Nassr ends at the end of this season.

Second place holds Neymar, earning an annual salary of €160 million at Al-Hilal. The Brazilian star has played little and his contract ends in June.

Benzema completes the podium in third place in the ranking: €120 million falls into the account of the former French international, who has two more years on his contract with Al-Ittihad.

What’s new?

The ranking has a way out: Henderson went to Ajax, despite the lucrative contract at Al-Ettifaq, which earned €42 million.

On the other hand, there are four entries on this list, all at the end: Aymeric Laporte (Al-Nassr), Ivan Toney (Al-Ahli), Aleksandar Mitrović (Al-Hilal) and Moussa Diaby (Al-Ittihad) arrived in Saudi League with salaries around €25 million.

Saudis among biggest spenders

Everyone already knows that Saudi Arabia wants to be a power and sport is a way to achieve its goal. So far it has borne fruit: it will organize the FIFA World Cup in 2034.

With revenues mainly from oil, the Saudis are committed to showing a good image to the world through football.

In the last transfer window, Saudi League teams spent almost €500 million on transfers and were one of the leagues that spent the most – behind only the Big-5.

We have already seen this happen in China in the past decade. The question is: how long will the Arab dream last?