The list for the highest paid MLS players 2026 has been released and to no one’s surprise, Lionel Messi is still comfortably in first.
The Argentine makes twice as much as the next highest paid player in the league, but that’s just the GOAT treatment. Without any more yapping, let’s get straight to that list of the 15 most lucrative players in Major League Soccer.
Highest paid MLS players 2026
1. Lionel Messi: $28,333,333 (Inter Miami)
2. Son Heung-min: $11,152,852 (Los Angeles FC)
3. Rodrigo De Paul: $9,688,320 (Inter Miami)
4. Hirving Lozano: $9,333,333 (San Diego FC)
5. Miguel Almirón: $7,871,000 (Atlanta United)
6. Emil Forsberg: $6,035,625 (New York Red Bulls)
7. Sam Surridge: $5,933,000 (Nashville SC)
8. Riqui Puig: $5,792,188 (LA Galaxy)
9. Jonathan Bamba: $5,581,806 (Chicago Fire)
10. Hany Mukhtar: $5,411,667 (Nashville SC)
11. Josh Sargent: $5,265,667 (Toronto FC)
12. Thomas Müller: $5,152,504 (Vancouver Whitecaps)
13. Aleksey Miranchuk: $5,085,441 (Atlanta United)
14. Carles Gil: $4,952,083 (New England Revolution)
15. Denis Bouanga: $4,939,217 (Los Angeles FC)
If Lionel Messi’s salary seems small for arguably the greatest player of all time, that’s because he’s actually making around $70-$80 million a year with Inter Miami. His contract is slightly complex because he gets paid as a player — the $28.3 million shown above — and as a partial owner of the club.
American billionaire and Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas revealed in an interview this year that he’s actually paying Messi around $80 million per year.
If you were to combine Messi’s salary with his litany of sponsorships he makes roughly $135 million each year, according to Forbes. Messi was the fifth-highest paid athlete in the world for 2025.
The MLS Players Association releases the salaries for all players in the league. If you’re curious about the lowest paid player in MLS, that would be a litany of players who make the league-minimum of $88,025.
