Top 10 highest wage earners in La Liga

Messi and Ronaldo unsurprisingly earn the highest wages in Spain

The Liga is one of the most watched and followed leagues in the world due to the presence of two giants of world football - Real Madrid and Barcelona. The two sides have been dominating the scene ever since the founding of the league in 1929 and their soaring popularity has helped them attract some of the best footballers in the world over the past few years, including the recent arrivals of Bale and Suarez from England.

While the presence of these top-class players has undoubtedly improved the standard of the league, it has also led to the rapid stagnation of its financial situation in the past decade due to the lack of television rights for the clubs.

Unlike the Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga or the Ligue 1, clubs in the La Liga are allowed to negotiate their own television rights with the broadcaster. This means that Real Madrid and Barcelona earn a much higher cut of any deal that arises with the broadcaster courtesy their history, success, and massive fan following worldwide.

The difference between the income made by the two biggest teams in Spain the rest of the league is so huge, that they aren’t even able to compete with mid-table teams from the Premier League when it comes to purchasing players. These clubs are also forced to sell their best players year after year to the bigger clubs to help keep their own club afloat and create money for spending, with the examples of Sevilla and Valencia validating that point.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that all the players in the list are from Barcelona and Real Madid, considering that their annual budgets for the 2014-15 season were €510 million and €530 million respectively.

Messi and Ronaldo top the list

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are unsurprisingly the highest earners in the La Liga, clearly topping the list with enormous wages of €20 million per year.

In third place is Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale, who earns €12 million a year after moving to the Santiago Bernabeu for a transfer record €100 million in 2013. He is closely followed by Los Blancos team-mate Sergio Ramos and Barcelona striker Luis Suarez, with both those players making a reported €10 million per year.

Brazilian international Neymar is next on the list with a salary of €8.8 million per year. The former Santos winger earns €800,000 more than Karim Benzema and Andres Iniesta, who are in seventh and eighth places respectively.

The top 10 is rounded up by Ivan Rakitic from Barcelona and Toni Kroos from Real Madrid.

	Club	Player	Wages
1	Barcelona	Lionel Messi	€20m
2	Real Madrid	Cristiano Ronaldo	€20m
3	Real Madrid	Gareth Bale	€12m
4	Barcelona	Luis Suarez	€10m
5	Real Madrid	Sergio Ramos	€10m
6	Barcelona	Neymar	€8.8m
7	Real Madrid	Karim Benzema	€8m
8	Barcelona	Andres Iniesta	€7.5m
9	Barcelona	Ivan Rakitic	€7m
10	Real Madrid	Toni Kroos	€7m