In Ligue 1, the question is not which club pays the most but whether anyone else is in the conversation. All five of the best-paid players in French football play for Paris Saint-Germain, led by Ousmane Dembélé, who averages about £307,000 a week across the pay trackers we checked. To find a player at another club you have to go down to the twelfth name on Football Whispers' list, and he is on well under half of that. These are estimates rather than official figures, so we have averaged what four different providers claim to give one clear ranking. Here is the list, how we reached it, and how each player is doing on our Ligue 1 player pages.
The top 5 at a glance
| # | Player | Club | Average weekly pay | Range across providers | Yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ousmane Dembélé | PSG | £307,000 | £296,000 to £332,000 | £15.9m |
| 2 | Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | PSG | £247,000 | £178,000 to £272,000 | £12.8m |
| 3 | Lucas Hernández | PSG | £242,000 | £216,000 to £316,000 | £12.6m |
| 4 | Marquinhos | PSG | £241,000 | £221,000 to £279,000 | £12.5m |
| 5 | Achraf Hakimi | PSG | £227,000 | £221,000 to £242,000 | £11.8m |
How we worked this out
Clubs do not publish what they pay, so every number here is an estimate of gross fixed weekly pay: before bonuses, tax and image rights. We took the 2026-27 figures from Football Whispers (built on Capology data), The National's PSG pay guide, SalaryLeaks and Salary Sport, converted euros to pounds at about €1 to £0.855, averaged each player's figures from the providers that list him, and ranked on that average. The range column shows the lowest and highest figure any provider gave. A player needed to appear on at least three providers' tables to be ranked. Yearly figures are the average multiplied by 52.
1. Ousmane Dembélé, PSG
The France forward is the Ligue 1 pay leader with an average of £307,000 a week, which is about £15.9 million a year. Every provider has him close to €350,000 (£299,000) except Salary Sport, whose £332,000 is the highest. The National describes him as the 2025 Ballon d'Or winner, and Football Whispers lists his PSG contract as running to 2028. His 2026-27 season has been short on minutes so far: his player page shows 239 league minutes from three starts, with a goal and two assists.
2. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, PSG
Kvaratskhelia averages £247,000 a week (about £12.8 million a year), though the providers are far apart on him: Football Whispers and The National say €315,000 (£269,000), Salary Sport £272,000 and SalaryLeaks only €208,000 (£178,000). The Georgia winger joined from Napoli in January 2025, and this season his player page shows five starts, 377 minutes, one goal and one assist.
3. Lucas Hernández, PSG
Hernández averages £242,000 a week, about £12.6 million a year. Three providers have him between €253,000 and €255,000 (about £217,000), while Salary Sport has £316,000, which lifts the average past two of his team-mates. The France defender joined PSG from Bayern Munich in 2024, and his player page shows three starts and 296 league minutes this season.
4. Marquinhos, PSG
The Brazil centre-back is on an average of £241,000 a week (about £12.5 million a year) and is the PSG captain. He has been at the club since 2013, and his player page shows five starts and 450 minutes this season with three goals, which is more than Dembélé and Kvaratskhelia have scored between them. The Salary Sport figure of £279,000 is the highest of the three providers that list him.
5. Achraf Hakimi, PSG
Hakimi completes the top five on an average of £227,000 a week, or £11.8 million a year, the lowest of the five but also the most consistent: the four providers range only from £221,000 to £242,000. Football Whispers says he extended his contract in the summer of 2025. The Morocco full-back joined from Inter in 2021, and his player page shows six starts and 408 minutes this season.
What the top 5 tells us
PSG's grip on the pay list is close to total. The best-paid player at any other club on Football Whispers' list is Lois Openda, on €140,000 a week (about £120,000), and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg is next on €122,000. Dembélé averages more than twice Openda's wage. The list is also unusual in its make-up: three of the five are defenders, a pattern you do not see in La Liga or the Premier League, where attackers and midfielders fill most of the top places. Just outside the top five, Ferran Torres averages £202,000 a week.
If you follow Ligue 1 with an eye on the numbers, our Ligue 1 fixtures page has every game with the latest odds, and the stats pages show who is delivering.
Who is the highest-paid Ligue 1 player?
Ousmane Dembélé of Paris Saint-Germain, on an average estimate of £307,000 a week, about £15.9 million a year before tax and bonuses.
Which Ligue 1 club pays the most?
Paris Saint-Germain: all five of the best-paid players in the league play for the club.
More highest-paid lists
See who tops the pay table in the other leagues: Highest-paid Premier League players, Highest-paid La Liga players, Highest-paid Serie A players, Highest-paid Bundesliga players, Highest-paid Saudi Pro League players, Highest-paid MLS players. For all five of Europe's biggest leagues in one list, read our top 10 highest-paid footballers in Europe.
Photo credits
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons and have been cropped and resized by TotalOdds. Ousmane Dembélé: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Khvicha Kvaratskhelia: pino_alpino, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Lucas Hernández: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Marquinhos: Werner100359, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Achraf Hakimi: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source.
