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MLS average player salary up 3.5%; Xherdan Shaqiri highest paid at 41% of Chicago’s spend

  • ️Paul Tenorio, Tom Bogert and Jeff Rueter

The MLS Players Association released 2023 salary information on Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know:

  • Chicago Fire attacker Xherdan Shaqiri is the highest-paid player in MLS at $8,153,00.
  • The average MLS salary is $530,262 in 2023, up 3.5% from $512,287 in 2022.
  • Toronto FC has the highest salary spend in MLS, with a total guaranteed compensation of $25,741,930; CF Montréal is the lowest in MLS at $10,511,926.

Top 10 highest paid players in MLS

Shaqiri leads the way, surprisingly ahead of Toronto FC’s Lorenzo Insigne. Insigne was listed to have a $14,000,000 salary in 2022, but he joined halfway through the season,  which means he made $7 million for his first half-season and the MLSPA pro-rated the final figure as if it was a full year. He’s back to $7.5 million for the full season in 2023.

Insigne’s teammate Federico Bernardeschi is fourth, giving TFC two of MLS’s top five highest-paid players. LA Galaxy forward Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez is among the top five again. The Galaxy have two in the top 10, with Brazilian winger Douglas Costa the seventh-highest-paid player in MLS.

Austin FC star Sebastian Driussi signed a new, long-term contract extension this winter, which bumped him into the top five highest-paid players in the league, at $6,022,500.

No Americans or Canadians are in the league’s top 10 highest-paid players. There are two Brazilians, two Italians and two Mexicans.

Here’s the full list:

  1. Xherdan Shaqiri, Chicago Fire — $8,153,000
  2. Lorenzo Insigne, Toronto FC — $7,500,000
  3. Javier Hernandez, LA Galaxy — $7,443,750
  4. Federico Bernardeschi, Toronto FC — $6,295,381
  5. Sebastian Driussi, Austin FC — $6,022,500
  6. Hector Herrera, Houston Dynamo — $5,246,875
  7. Douglas Costa, LA Galaxy — $4,508,333
  8. Luiz Araujo, Atlanta United — $4,483,333
  9. Christian Benteke, D.C. United — $4,432,778
  10. Josef Martinez, Inter Miami — $4,391,667
  11. Lucas Zelarayan, Columbus Crew — $3,800,000

Top and bottom MLS teams in salary spend

Top five:

  1. Toronto FC — $25,741,930
  2. LA Galaxy — $23,463,025
  3. Atlanta United — $21,257,396
  4. D.C. United — $20,016,591
  5. Austin FC — $19,922,021

Toronto FC leads the way in total roster spending, thanks to the lavish budget on designated players Insigne and Bernardeschi.

Currently, 12 matchdays into the season, only two of the top five spending teams are above the playoff line. This year, 18 of the league’s 29 teams will make the playoffs.

Bottom five:

  1. CF Montréal — $10,511,926
  2. St. Louis City — $10,933,074
  3. New York Red Bulls — $11,163,066
  4. Orlando City — $11,227,559
  5. Real Salt Lake — $12,138,719

CF Montréal have the smallest salary spend in MLS this year, driven by Victor Wanyama as the club’s lone DP and an MLS-low four players above the senior max salary ($651,250). Expansion side St. Louis City has the second-lowest salary spend.

Average salary up again

The average MLS salary is $530,262 in 2023, up 3.5% from $512,287 in 2022. In 2021, that figure was $418,014.

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Takeaways from the MLS player salaries release

(Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)