Italian Serie A: Gonzalo Higuain of Juventus – approximately £148,000 a week
Recognised by most fans as the best league in the world in the mid to late 1990’s, Italy used to pay wages in line with that reputation. Now though, as Serie A is seen as behind La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League – and some would say France’s Ligue 1 too – the wage numbers have dropped somewhat in line with this.
Currently, the highest paid player in Italy is Gonzalo Higuain of Juventus. The Argentine striker was signed from Napoli in the summer of 2016 for a monstrous £75m, making him the most expensive South American player of all time, and his wages match his fee – approximately £148k a week. Since the move, Higuain has hit 27 goals in 42 appearances for Juve, which would suggest all that money was probably worth it.
Back in the 1990’s the Italian clubs with the biggest reputation for mega-money wage packets were undoubtedly the two Milan clubs, AC Milan and Internazionale, but today it’s Juventus and AS Roma who dominates in terms of paying players. Outside of AC Milan’s Ricardo Montolivo – who only stands as 9th – Juve and Roma players make up the entirety of Italy’s top ten highest paid.