With four days to go until the transfer market closes, and pending the legacy of Mbappé to Real Madrid , the Premier continues to beat the rest of European football competitions. According to the Salary Sport website, last season LaLiga managed an annual salary mass of 771 million euros , compared to the outlay of 1,452 million from the English . Even before the departure of Messi, who was the highest paid player in the world, LaLiga salaries were not comparable to the British colossus.

The news that he was leaving Barça and that he has already unpacked in Paris – described by many as “the news of the century” – has not altered too much the salary weight of each of the European football competitions. Messi, who earned 60 million euros a year , has been forced to cut his salary by half to take a new direction in his sports career at the Parc des Princes.

A similar thing happened with Sergio Ramos, who tearfully hung up his Real Madrid shirt to also leave for the French capital and leave behind his 20 million euros per year.

UEFA has the best leagues in the world and Europe is, without question, the field of football. The big stars and big teams are concentrated in the top five: Premier League (UK), La iga (Spain), Bundesliga (Germany), La Ligue1 (France) and Serie A (Italy). A bubble in which millionaire figures are handled. but in which not everyone pays the same.

Despite the fact that FC Barcelona and Real Madrid are the teams that pay the best of all European leagues, around 278 and 256 million respectively, compared to the 220 that Manchester United pays and the 117 annual ones of City, the Spanish league is It lags far behind in salaries, since there is a lot of difference between the large and the small.

If we make a comparison of the salary mass of the five main LaLiga teams, we see that behind FC Barcelona and Real Madrid are Sevilla FC and Valencia, which annually use 71 and 52 million respectively to pay their players.

And if we already dropped a little more in the classification we found, for example, that Celta de Vigo, for example, barely reached 30 million a year in salaries this past season; Levante disbursed 23.5 million, Elche 13.8 and Cádiz yielded a figure of 9 million in annual wage bill.

It is the opposite of what happens in the Premier. If we look at the English league, the gross wage bill is more equal. For example, Manchester United employs the year 220; Chealsea 190 million, City 170 million and Liverpool 162. The result is a much more even and attractive championship for the spectator.

A situation more similar to what happens in Spain is the one that happens with the League1 of France. Annually they use 670 million euros, becoming the fourth of the Big Five in Europe. In this case, however, there is one team far ahead of the pack. Its flagship, Paris Saint-Germain, employs a gross annual wage bill of 236 million (already incorporating the more than 30 that will pay Messi), the second French team in salaries, Monaco, does not exceed 58 million.

In the case of the German Bundesliga, the differences are also substantial. Bayern Munich is at 205 a year and Borussia at 124 million. Bayer Leverkusen is around 74.4 million, Leipzig 72.3 and Wolfsburg pay 65 million.

Finally, in Serie A of the Italian league, the team that spends the most in salaries is Juventus. In total they are 216 million euros per year. But it is normal since he had the star Cristiano Ronaldo in the squad, until his signing yesterday for Manchester United. The second is Inter Milan, already a long way off, with 146 million, followed by Roma that accumulates 119 a year, then Napoli with 115 and, finally, AC Milan with a salary outlay of 100 million.

And what is clear is that the salary differences between leagues are very clear and they are going to be highlighted more and more.

Bet on the stars
It is paradoxical that LaLiga is the third in the annual salary count and that, on the other hand, the two teams that pay the best in Europe are Spanish and that the salary mass of Real Madrid or FC Barcelona far exceeds all British teams.

Apart from Messi, the highest paid on the planet, the second star of the football constellation was at Real Madrid last season, at least in salaries. It is the Belgian Heden Hazard with 24.7 million euros per year, followed by Sergio Ramos, who pocketed 20.4 million in one year. And at Atlético de Madrid, current champion of the competition, Uruguayan Luís Suárez, hired for 17 million a year, is not far behind.

A similar thing happens with the Italian Serie A, which is the one that pays the least money in salaries, but Cristiano Ronaldo has been playing among its fields, with an annual salary at Juventus of 57 million euros. Far behind the 14.7 million of his Danish teammate from Inter Milan, Christian Eriksen.

And the trend of the superstars is repeated with the French Ligue 1. Neymar is the third highest earning player in the world, earning an annual salary of 52 million euros for playing for PSG, according to SalarySport. At Monaco, their superstar, Wissam Ben Tedder, had a payroll of 8.6 million.

Gareth Bale, who was on loan to Tottenham until June 30, collected 34 million euros during the year, being the highest paid player in the British Premier League, followed by Spanish David de Gea. The goalkeeper has a contract at Manchester United for 21.2 million a year, at least during the past season.

Finally, the highest paid in the German Bundesliga is the Polish Robert Lewandowski. The Bayer Munich forward has a € 21.3 million contract. The second highest paid in the German competition is Borussia Dortmund striker Marco Reus, who earns almost 13 million euros a year.

Salaries in Spain
In Spain, the large salary range between the different first division teams also causes great differences between their players. Thus, for employment Athletic Club de Bilbao has defender Íñigo Martínez, to whom it pays 9.5 million euros annually; Sevilla pays 7 million to Croatian Iván Rakitic; the star of Betis last season was Nabi Fekir and his almost 7 million euros per year, while Denis Suárez took 61 million for playing for Celta and Raúl de Tomás collected 5.2 million for Espanyol.

Already behind, Carles Aleñá collected 4.3 million in Getaf; Florian Lejeune 2.4 million in Alavés and Jesús Vallejo in Granada 2.1 million euros per year. Lower figures are in Cádiz, for example, where its star Álvaro Negredo, who earned 970,195 euros per year.

In conclusion, the five major European leagues have a very unequal salary distribution, betting on the big stars in the starting eleven and looking to get the most sought-after player. The Spanish league is a long way from reaching the salary levels of the muscular Premier League and this difference seems to become more apparent season after season.

Now waiting for the possible signing of Mbappé by Real Madrid, everything indicates that the differences at the national level will increase, regardless of the economic injection that the private equity fund CVC Capital Partners has agreed to put in LaLiga -2,700 million euros- , with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, ​​who opposed, staying outside the agreement.