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Alexis Sanchez of Manchester United celebrates after scoring his sides first goal during The Emirates FA Cup Semi Final match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium on April 21, 2018 in London, England.
Premier League soccer team Manchester United pays its players an average £600,000 ($765,000) more per year than local rivals and current champions Manchester City, according to an annual report.
The Global Sports Salaries Survey, conducted by Sporting Intelligence and which looks at how much sports teams pay their players and staff, found Manchester United’s average annual player salary to be £6.53 million, compared to Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City’s £5.93 million.
“The two Manchester clubs, United and City, remain clear of the rest in basic pay terms, according to our calculations,” Sporting Intelligence said in a statement. “We thought last year that whichever of the pair achieved the most on the pitch would end up with the larger of the two overall wage bills (for all staff) for 2017/18.
“In fact, City won the league and had wages of £260 million and United faltered but paid out £296 million.”
There are still some anomalies within the wage structure of Manchester City, according to Sporting Intelligence, which said that an undisclosed amount of City’s salaries are paid by parent company City Football Group and are then reportedly paid by the club via “external charges.”
Spain’s two most successful soccer teams top the list. Barcelona is by far the biggest spender on players’ salaries, at an average £10.5 million each, with a weekly bill per player of £201,043. By contrast, 13-time Champions League winner Real Madrid’s total is £2.36 million less, at £8.09 million per player, with an average weekly wage of £155,569.
Barcelona rewarded record goalscorer Lionel Messi with a new contract last season to keep him at the club until 2021, which reportedly included an approximate £80 million signing-on bonus.
