Lionel Messi is not just the highest-paid player in MLS, he is in a league of his own. The Inter Miami captain's guaranteed compensation of $28.3 million is more than twice that of anyone else in the competition, and more than he was paid in 2025 by a wide margin. Behind him, the pay table is more modest: Son Heung-min at LAFC is second on $11.2 million, followed by Messi's team-mate Rodrigo De Paul, Mexican winger Hirving Lozano and Atlanta United's Miguel Almirón. Here are the five best-paid players in American soccer in 2026, what the players' union says each earns, and what that works out at each week.
The top 5 at a glance
| # | Player | Club | Base salary | Guaranteed compensation | Per week (÷52) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Messi | Inter Miami | $25,000,000 | $28,333,333 | about $545,000 |
| 2 | Son Heung-min | LAFC | $10,368,750 | $11,152,852 | about $214,000 |
| 3 | Rodrigo De Paul | Inter Miami | $7,569,000 | $9,688,320 | about $186,000 |
| 4 | Hirving Lozano | San Diego FC (on loan at LA Galaxy) | $6,000,000 | $9,333,333 | about $179,000 |
| 5 | Miguel Almirón | Atlanta United | $6,056,000 | $7,871,000 | about $151,000 |
Unlike the European lists in this series, these figures are not provider estimates to be averaged. MLS is the one league where pay is published, by the players' union, so the ranking rests on the MLS Players Association's 2026 salary guide, which reports every player's pay as of 16 April 2026. Credit goes to the MLSPA for the data and to Sports Illustrated and the Associated Press for the reporting we checked them against. We rank by guaranteed compensation, the union's headline measure, which includes marketing bonuses and agents' fees spread across the length of a contract; the base salary alone would swap Lozano and Almirón. Performance bonuses are not counted. MLS pays in dollars and by the year, so the weekly column is our own arithmetic, dividing by 52, to make the figures comparable with the other lists in this series.
1. Lionel Messi, Inter Miami
Messi's pay has changed more than anyone's. His base salary is $25 million this season, up from $12 million, and his guaranteed compensation of $28.3 million compares with $20.4 million in 2025. Weekly, that comes to around $545,000, which is in the same bracket as the best-paid players in Europe's top five leagues. Reports after the guide's release noted that his pay on its own is more than 28 other MLS clubs spend on their entire rosters.
2. Son Heung-min, LAFC
Son is a clear second at $11.15 million guaranteed ($10.37 million base), or about $214,000 a week. The South Korea captain moved to LAFC from Tottenham, where he spent a decade, and he is the only other player in the league above $10 million. Even so, his pay is less than half Messi's, which shows how wide the gap at the top is.
3. Rodrigo De Paul, Inter Miami
De Paul is third on $9.69 million guaranteed, with a $7.57 million base, about $186,000 a week. The Argentina midfielder, a 2022 World Cup winner, gives Inter Miami a second name inside the league's top three paid. Between them, Messi and De Paul account for more than $38 million of the club's guaranteed pay.
4. Hirving Lozano, San Diego FC (on loan at LA Galaxy)
The Mexican winger is fourth on $9.33 million guaranteed ($6 million base), about $179,000 a week, but his place on the list has an asterisk. San Diego FC loaned him to the LA Galaxy on 7 August for the rest of the 2026 season, with an option to make the move permanent. The Galaxy cover $2 million of the salary and San Diego pay the rest, so the club the money leaves and the club the player plays for are no longer the same.
5. Miguel Almirón, Atlanta United
Almirón completes the five on $7.87 million guaranteed, with the highest base of the final two at $6.06 million, which works out at about $151,000 a week. The Paraguay forward has a long history with Atlanta United, where his first spell began in 2017.
What the top 5 tells us
Three points stand out. The first is Messi: his $28.3 million is more than twice Son's, which makes him the outlier in a league where the fifth-best-paid player is on $7.9 million. The second is how quickly the pay falls away. By guaranteed compensation the sixth-best-paid player, New York Red Bulls' Emil Forsberg, is on $6.04 million, and Thomas Müller at Vancouver Whitecaps is on $5.15 million, about a fifth of Messi's. The third is that the money is concentrated in a few clubs: Inter Miami have two of the five.
As with the European lists, treat each figure as a guide to what clubs commit rather than a full account of what the players take home.
Who is the highest-paid player in MLS?
Lionel Messi of Inter Miami, on $28,333,333 in guaranteed compensation in 2026, including a $25 million base salary.
How much does Messi earn per week in MLS?
About $545,000 a week on the MLSPA's guaranteed compensation figure (the annual total divided by 52), before performance bonuses and other income.
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 Ligue 1 players, Highest-paid Saudi Pro League 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. Lionel Messi: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Son Heung-min: dom fellowes from UK, CC BY 2.0, source; Rodrigo De Paul: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Hirving Lozano: Weroarnau, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Miguel Almirón: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source.
