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Once again, the Major League Soccer Player’s Association released the salaries of all rostered players in the league. And as always, we’re here to tabulate New York City FC’s payroll for you, and give the salaries some context as to how the sit within the rest of the league.
We’ll note that the data dump always comes without any warning — and arrived fairly late this year, as the Spring numbers should have dropped weeks ago in mid-May.
No matter: Here are the Top 25 MLS player salaries, the payrolls of every club in the league, and the complete NYCFC player salaries for 2025.
1. Lionel Messi remains the league’s highest-paid player
No surprise here. Lionel Messi’s $20.5 million in guaranteed salary from Inter Miami is unchanged from 2024, as is Lorenzo Insgine’s $15.4 million from Toronto FC.
The Top 5 sees two new arrivals, Atlanta United’s Miguel Almirón ($7.9 million) and San Diego FC’s Hirving Lozano ($7.6 million). And two departures: Goodbye Chicago Fire’s Xherdan Shaqiri ($8.2 million) and Austin FC’s Sebastián Driussi ($6.7 million).
MLS | Top 25 Player Salaries
Name
Club
Pos
Base Salary
Guaranteed Salary
1
Lionel Messi
Inter Miami
F
$12,000,000
$20,446,667
2
Lorenzo Insigne
Toronto FC
F
$7,500,000
$15,400,000
3
Sergio Busquets
Inter Miami
M
$8,499,996
$8,774,996
4
Miguel Almirón
Atlanta United
M
$6,056,000
$7,871,000
5
Hirving Lozano
San Diego FC
F
$6,000,000
$7,633,333
6
Federico Bernardeschi
Toronto FC
F
$3,125,000
$6,295,381
7
Emil Forsberg
NY Red Bulls
M
$5,405,000
$6,035,625
8
Lordi Alba
Inter Miami
D
$6,000,000
$6,000,000
9
Riqui Puig Martí
LA Galaxy
M
$5,125,000
$5,779,688
10
Jonathan Bamba
Chicago Fire
F
$5,000,000
$5,581,806
11
Hany Mukhtar
Nashville SC
F
$3,900,000
$5,311,667
12
Christian Benteke
DC United
F
$4,500,000
$4,937,500
13
Alex Miranchuk
Atlanta United
M
$3,600,000
$4,885,441
14
Evander
FC Cincinnati
M
$3,200,000
$4,736,411
15
Carles Gil
New England
M
$4,250,000
$4,702,083
16
Luciano Acosta
FC Dallas
M
$3,040,000
$4,296,413
17
Joseph Paintsil
LA Galaxy
F
$3,136,000
$4,182,000
18
Emmanuel Latte Lath
Atlanta United
F
$3,534,546
$4,030,546
19
Luis Muriel
Orlando City SC
F
$2,500,000
$4,003,333
20
Kévin Denkey
FC Cincinnati
F
$3,800,000
$3,810,000
21
Denis Bouanga
LAFC
F
$3,020,000
$3,709,500
22
Ryan Gauld
Vancouver Whitecaps
M
$3,500,000
$3,675,000
23
Olivier Giroud
LAFC
F
$2,800,000
$3,675,000
24
Jonathan Rodríguez
Portland Timbers
F
$2,775,000
$3,627,500
25
Brandon Vazquez
Austin FC
F
$3,200,000
$3,551,778
Once again, New York City doesn’t have a player in the Top 25. The club’s highest-paid player, Thiago Martins ($2.2 million) is #48 in the league, and actually took a 12% pay cut from his 2024 salary. (More on that below.)
2. New York City’s payroll one of the smallest in MLS
Officially, NYCFC’s overall payroll is $14,963,973 as of May 25, 2025. That puts it at #24 in the 30-team league, trailing small-market clubs such as Colorado Rapids ($15,482,331) and San Jose Earthquakes ($17,190,978), never mind ambitious organizations such as Inter Miami ($46,838,535), LAFC ($22,369,590), and New York Red Bulls ($21,542,277).
MLS | 2025 Payroll by Club
Team
Total Payroll
1
Inter Miami
$46,836,635
2
Toronto FC
$34,146,193
3
Atlanta United
$27,627,164
4
FC Cincinnati
$23,180,135
5
LA Galaxy
$22,870,938
6
LAFC
$22,369,590
7
Chicago Fire
$22,052,757
8
Nashville SC
$21,751,786
9
NY Red Bulls
$21,542,277
10
San Diego FC
$20,033,029
11
Portland Timbers
$19,565,541
12
Dallas FC
$18,977,292
13
St Louis City
$18,106,711
14
Seattle Sounders
$18,088,581
15
Sporting Kansas City
$17,715,629
16
New England
$17,194,922
17
San Jose Earthquakes
$17,190,978
18
Charlotte FC
$17,133,985
19
Orlando City
$16,440,785
20
Columbus Crew
$16,355,869
21
Vancouver Whitecaps
$15,809,224
22
Colorado Rapids
$15,482,331
23
Austin FC
$15,331,947
24
New York City FC
$14,963,973
25
DC United
$14,616,314
26
Minnesota United
$13,804,472
27
Houston Dynamo
$13,414,691
28
Real Salt Lake
$13,413,886
29
Philadelphia Union
$13,365,549
30
CF Montréal
$11,993,946
* Payrolls calculated by total guaranteed salary
To look at it another way, The $15.4 million check that Toronto cuts for Lorenzo Insigne is more than the $15 million NYCFC sporting director David Lee pays all 32 players on his roster.
But it’s not so far off from the $16.4 million payroll for the always-dangerous Columbus Crew, or the $15.8 million payroll for Vancouver Whitecaps, this year’s surprisingly good team. And it’s substantially more than the $13.4 million payroll of Philadelphia Union, who currently have the best record in the league.
But NYCFC’s payroll is much lower than the $14,963,973 cited above. The official total includes the salaries of James Sands, Talles Magno, and Jovan Mijatović, three of the team’s highest-paid players and all of whom are out on loan. Deduct their combined salaries and you end up with a payroll of just $11,812,101.
New York City FC | 2025 Player Salaries
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