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Teamtalk 11mos ago
The 10 highest paid players in La Liga, featuring Jude Bellingham and three Barcelona stars
Source:Teamtalk

Barcelona's Frenkie de Jong and Real Madrid duo Jude Bellingham and Toni Kroos. TEAMtalk montage.

While every team in La Liga is handed a salary cap, the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona are still able to offer lucrative contracts to players.

Atletico Madrid try and compete with the two juggernauts of Spanish football and they pay manager Diego Simeone around EUR30million-per-year.

Using data from Capology, we've taken a look at the 10 La Liga players with the highest weekly wage.

Note: All figures mentioned are before tax and do not include the array of bonuses that are included in the fine print of every contract.

10. Koke - EUR307,692 A product of Atletico Madrid's academy, Koke made his senior debut in 2009 and has since made over 550 appearances in all competitions.

Despite being linked with Barcelona and a host of Premier League clubs, he put pen to paper on a new long-term contract in the summer of 2017 and became one of the highest-paid players in La Liga.

That contract is due to expire at the end of the 2023/24 season, but the 31-year-old has no desire to leave his boyhood club.

"I've always said that I want to finish my career at Atletico," Koke told El Larguero. "I will listen to the club (regarding contract talks), but my idea has always been to finish here."

According to Marca, Atletico want the midfielder to sign a new deal on reduced terms as they look to reduce their wage bill.

9. Ilkay Gundogan - EUR360,577 After helping Manchester City win a historic treble in 2022/23, Gundogan decided to join Barcelona on a free transfer in the summer.

The Germany international signed an initial two-year contract and got a significant wage increase, going from EUR162,075-per-week at the Etihad to EUR360,577-per-week at Camp Nou.

"City waited a relatively long time until the talks really intensified," he told Bild. "If this had happened a little earlier, the situation would have been different.

"So in the end it was the perfect ending, it couldn't have come at a better time. It was also my childhood dream to play for FC Barcelona."

8= Jan Oblak - EUR400,577 Since joining Atletico Madrid from Benfica in a EUR16million deal in 2014, Oblak has developed into one of the best goalkeepers in the world.

He played a key role in their title triumph in 2020/21, winning the La Liga Zamora Trophy and the La Liga Player of the Season award.

The Slovenia international earns a reported EUR400,577 and is the second-highest-paid goalkeeper in Europe after Bayern Munich's Manuel Neuer.

He recently extended his Atletico Madrid contract to the summer of 2028, although his latest deal did not involve a pay increase.

8= Robert Lewandowski - EUR400,577 Lewandowski spent eight years at Bayern Munich, where he scored 344 goals in 375 appearances and won countless trophies.

The striker decided to pursue a new challenge in the summer of 2022 and joined Barcelona in a deal that could reach EUR50million.

He took a slight pay cut in order to secure the move, going from EUR442,308-per-week at the Allianz Arena to EUR400,577-per-week at Camp Nou.

The 35-year-old received a La Liga winners' medal and the Pichichi Trophy in 2022/23 after scoring 23 goals in 34 league appearances.