How would Mbappé upset Real Madrid’s salary scale?
Madrid plans to pay the star a salary of 35 million euros net per season - three times more than the squad’s current top earners: Alaba and Kroos.
Bringing Kylian Mbappé to Real Madrid next season, according to information provided by Josep Pedrerol in El Chiringuito, will cost the club 35 million euros net (€70 million before tax and other deductions) per season. That is the salary that the club will offer the star. It supposes a radical change in policy that the club has been following regarding the containment of spending on the wage bill. But it appears there is little alternative - it would be impossible to bring in Mbappé, who currently earns over 60 million euros a year at PSG.
The Frenchman’s arrival would therefore potentially disrupt the pay scale within the Valdebebas locker room, where there is currently no player earning more than 11 million euros after tax. At the top of the pyramid are David Alaba and Toni Kroos. The former earns 10.8 million euros net per year while Kroos os not far behind him on 10.7 million. These are two of the few figures that can be verified, because they were extracted from the documents revealed by Der Spiegel from the Football Leaks papers.
Mbappé would therefore earn triple what Madrid’s highest earners take home - as well as the likes of Bellingham and Vinicius, who are on 10 million euros net. In the next scale down, earning eight million euros, are players like Militão, Courtois and Rüdiger. In the six million euro bracket are Tchouameni, Mendy and Rodrygo...
Vinicius’ case speaks volumes about how Real Madrid has gone to great length to keep its wage bill under control, which is fundamental for the economic survival of the entity. Up until relatively recently, before he renewed his contract, Vini and Militão were among the players on the lowest salaries in the squad (1.3 million and 1.5 million net respectively) - despite both being fundamental pillars of the team.
Meticulous plan.
Real Madrid has followed a very calculated plan, executed to the millimeter in recent years, to make room for Mbappé on its wages bill. During recent seasons it has been shedding players who have commanded top salaries - players who had already amortized their initial outlay such as Benzema, Sergio Ramos and Bale - as well as others who had made a loss, like Hazard. All four of them earned 15 million euros net each (that’s 30 million gross per player for the club, 120 million in total).
In the last official accounts to be approved, those of the 2021-22 campaign, the first team squad wage bill was declared at 338.5 million euros out of a total personnel expenses bill (for over 400 club employees) of €519 million. After those figures were approved, details of individual salaries emerged: Benzema (€30 million gross), Hazard (€30m), Isco (€16m) and Asensio (€16m). All of whom left the club last summer.
The figures for players who arrived are as follows: Bellingham (€20m gross), Kepa (€9m) and Joselu (€3m). So the 338.5 million euros designated for the first team wage has been slashed significantly. The exact figure will be revealed at the next General Assembly on 11 November.
Paying Mbappé
To compete with the so-called state clubs and big players in the powerful Premier League, Real Madrid has also been forced to break another golden rule that had been maintained since the Galáctico era. Back then, it was customary for the club to share the image rights of its players 50:50 - for the benefits and prestige that come with signing for Real Madrid. But, with today’s big stars, things no longer work that way.
Both Mbappé at PSG and Haaland at City own 100 percent of their image rights. And to bring them to play at the Bernabéu you have to respect that. Otherwise, they wouldn’t come...
Mbappé has clashed with the French Football Federation over the issue of his image rights. In fact, he filed a lawsuit because he did not want to participate in several publicity campaigns prior to the Qatar World Cup. He felt that he would be lending his image for the Federation to profit from rather than boosting his own bank account. Mbappé has three main sponsors: Nike (who signed him up at a very young age - the company has been an official partner since 2006, when he was eight years old!), Hublot and Oakley. And according to the latest 2023 study by Forbes magazine, the Frenchman earns $20 million a year from activities off the field of play.
He is by no means, the player who exploits his image the most. Again, according to a Forbes report from earlier this year, Cristiano Ronaldo earns 60 million euros per year in advertising and Messi, 70 million. And then there’s Haaland. The Norwegian has just signed a contract with Nike, for 15 years, which will bring him a total of nearly 300 million euros. So, just for the sports brand he represents, he will earn 20 million euros per campaign.