There is the Saudi Pro League's pay list, and then there is Cristiano Ronaldo. The Al-Nassr forward averages about £3.31 million a week across the pay trackers we checked, more than six times what Erling Haaland earns in England and over five times the next player in Saudi Arabia. After Ronaldo the table is more human but still huge: Sadio Mané and Kalidou Koulibaly both out-earn Haaland, and Ivan Toney and Sergej Milinković-Savić are paid more than the best-paid players in Serie A and Ligue 1. 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 performing on our Saudi Pro League player pages.
The top 5 at a glance
| # | Player | Club | Average weekly pay | Range across providers | Yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Al-Nassr | £3,315,000 | £3,000,000 to £3,423,000 | £172.4m |
| 2 | Sadio Mané | Al-Nassr | £649,000 | £625,000 to £657,000 | £33.8m |
| 3 | Kalidou Koulibaly | Al-Hilal | £512,000 | £410,000 to £570,000 | £26.6m |
| 4 | Ivan Toney | Al-Ahli | £388,000 | £331,000 to £419,000 | £20.2m |
| 5 | Sergej Milinković-Savić | Al-Hilal | £372,000 | £239,000 to £419,000 | £19.3m |
How we worked this out
Clubs do not publish what they pay, and Saudi contracts are less transparent than those in Europe, so every number here is an estimate of gross fixed weekly pay: before bonuses, tax and any image-rights or commercial deals. We took the 2026-27 figures from Football Whispers (built on Capology data), The National's Saudi Pro League guide, SalaryLeaks and Salary Sport, converted euros to pounds at about €1 to £0.855, averaged each player's figures, 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. Cristiano Ronaldo, Al-Nassr
Ronaldo is the highest-paid footballer in the world by a distance, and the only player on any list at £3 million a week or more. At 41, he averages £3,315,000 a week, which works out at £172 million a year, with providers from £3.0 million (Salary Sport) to £3.42 million. His player page shows eight league goals from nine starts and 783 minutes for Al-Nassr this season, which puts him level with Al-Qadsiah's Tijjani Reijnders and behind only one man in the league.
2. Sadio Mané, Al-Nassr
Ronaldo's team-mate is a long way back in second but still averages £649,000 a week, about £33.8 million a year, and the four providers agree closely, between £625,000 and £657,000. The Senegal forward has been busy for Al-Nassr: his player page shows 962 minutes across 11 starts, three goals and five assists, and the five assists are the more telling number.
3. Kalidou Koulibaly, Al-Hilal
Koulibaly averages £512,000 a week, or about £26.6 million a year, and is the best-paid defender in Saudi football. The providers range from £410,000 (SalaryLeaks) to £570,000 (Football Whispers and The National). The Senegal centre-back has played 953 minutes across 11 starts for Al-Hilal, and his player page shows an assist, no goals and six clean sheets with him on the pitch, which is the return a defender is paid for.
4. Ivan Toney, Al-Ahli
Toney is the league's top scorer and averages £388,000 a week (about £20.2 million a year), from a range of £331,000 (Salary Sport) to £419,000. The England striker has 13 league goals from nine starts in 780 minutes, according to his player page, five more than the next-best player in the league. It is an average of a goal every 60 minutes, and the wage looks a lot more reasonable at that rate.
5. Sergej Milinković-Savić, Al-Hilal
Milinković-Savić averages £372,000 a week, about £19.3 million a year, and like Koulibaly plays for Al-Hilal. Three providers have him at £410,000 to £419,000, while Salary Sport has only £239,000, which pulls his average below Toney's. The Serbia midfielder has started 10 league games and played 892 minutes this season, and his player page shows five goals and two assists, with his team keeping six clean sheets when he plays.
Who is missing from the list?
The biggest name is Karim Benzema. Pay lists published in August had him second at about £1.7 to £2.0 million a week, but Al-Hilal and the striker agreed to end his contract by mutual consent at the end of that month, so he does not feature. Two other names have too few providers behind them to be ranked: João Félix is on £580,000 at Salary Sport and about £288,000 at SalaryLeaks, and Riyad Mahrez is on about £491,000 at SalaryLeaks alone. Darwin Núñez, now on loan at Al-Diriyah, is on an estimated €432,000 a week.
What the top 5 tells us
Two things are worth noting. The first is how steep the pay ladder is at the top: Ronaldo's weekly wage is bigger than the combined average weekly pay of the top five Premier League earners. The second is that the wage bill is shrinking. World Soccer Talk has reported that the league's total fixed player wages are down about 13 per cent for this season, a sign that Saudi clubs are being asked to spend more carefully.
For every upcoming game, with odds, see our Saudi Pro League fixtures page.
Who is the highest-paid player in the Saudi Pro League?
Cristiano Ronaldo of Al-Nassr, on an average estimate of £3.3 million a week, or about £172 million a year before tax and bonuses.
Who is the highest-paid footballer in the world?
On Football Whispers' and The National's 2026-27 tables, it is Cristiano Ronaldo, ahead of Sadio Mané and, before he left Al-Hilal, Karim Benzema. Erling Haaland, the highest-paid player in Europe's top five leagues, earns less than a sixth of Ronaldo's figure.
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 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. Cristiano Ronaldo: YantsImages, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Sadio Mané: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Kalidou Koulibaly: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Ivan Toney: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source; Sergej Milinković-Savić: Voltmetro, CC BY-SA 3.0, source.
