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Barcelona news: STAGGERING record wage bill revealed - Real Madrid and Man Utd not far off
BARCELONA have become the first sport’s team in history to pay their players an average wage of more than TEN MILLION pounds per year.
The latest Global Sports Salary Survey is set to be published on the Sporting Intelligence Website.
And it reveals that the average player in their 23-man squad earns £10.45million a year before any bonuses have been added.
Incredibly, that works out to be more than £200,000 per week per player.
Lionel Messi remains the club’s highest earner and is reported to be on more than £50m a year (£961,000 a week).
Philippe Coutinho also came in on big wages when he joined from Liverpool, while Gerard Pique, Sergi Roberto, Sergio Busquets and Samuel Umtiti all recently signed extensions with the club.
Real Madrid are second on the list with an average wage of £8.1m a year.
The survey tracks 349 teams from eight different sports and third and fourth place are occupied by NBA teams Oklahoma Thunder who average £7.85m and Golden State Warriors (£7.82m).
Manchester United’s spending since Jose Mourinho took charge has seen their wage bill spiral and they are fourth on the list for football teams and tenth overall.
They pay their players £6.5m a year on average, which is just less than Juventus on £6.7m.
For most of these sides, the astronomical wages are failing to produce results on the pitch.
Barcelona are second in La Liga behind Atletico Madrid after they were held to a 1-1 draw with their rivals on Saturday.
Barcelona become the first team in world sport with average annual basic pay of more than £10m per man. From the 2018 Global Sports Salaries Survey, published today and available via here: https://t.co/n6Ioqw5XA1 pic.twitter.com/gUjPmeuso0
— Nick Harris (@sportingintel) November 26, 2018
Meanwhile, Real have endured a torrid start to the season and were humbled 3-0 at Eibar last weekend.
United are struggling under Mourinho and are seventh in the Premier League.
They are seven points off the Champions League places; a further seven off the top and Mourinho’s job appears to be hanging in the balance.