May 13 – With a $28.3 million salary, Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi earns than double the second-highest-paid player in the MLS, Los Angeles FC’s Son Heung-min ($11.2 million).
Messi earns more than the payrolls of 28 of the other 29 MLS teams.
Inter Miami’s $54.6 million payroll is more than $20 million higher than second highest payers LAFC, who shell out $32.7 million for their squad. Philadelphia Union have the lowest salary bill at $11.7 million.
Toronto are notable for having aggressively cut their payroll to $21.4 million from $34.1 million at the start of 2025. This compares to LAFC who boosted their spending to $32.7 million from $22.4 million.
In total MLS clubs paid a total of $631 million in wages with the average guaranteed compensation being $688,816 – up 8.9% from $632,809 at the end of last season.
MLS’s median salary – the mid-point in the total player salary range – is $352,104. There are 133 players earning $1 million+.
Inter Miami’s Argentine midfielder Rodrigo de Paul, is the third highest paid player at $9,688,320, followed by Atlanta’s Paraguyan winger Miguel Almirón ($7.8 million). San Diego’s Mexican winger Hirving Lozano earns $6 million, New York Red Bulls winger Emil Forsberg $5,4 million, Nashville forward Sam Surridge $5.27 million, and LA Galaxy midfielder Riqui Puig $5.7 million.
Vancouver Whitecaps’ German striker Thomas Müller earns $5,000,004.
The highest paid MLS player likely to be on the US roster for the Eorld Cup is Cincinnati defender Miles Robinson at $3.5 million in base salary, followed by New England goalkeeper Matt Turner ($1,776,136), Seattle midfielder Cristian Roldan ($1,645,000), Charlotte midfielder Tim Ream ($1 million), Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte ($900,000), Columbus left back/winger Max Arfsten ($800,000), New York City goalkeeper Matt Freese ($675,000), Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano ($525,000), Salt Lake midfielder Diego Luna ($450,000).
Vancouver and US midfield starlet, Sebastian Berhalter earns a more modest $480,000.
The Spring 2026 salary figures were released by the MLS Players Association. To see the full list of players and wages, click here.
Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]