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 comes without any warning, and arrived fairly late this year — to go by the recent pattern, these numbers should have dropped several 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.
Oliver Strand
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.)
Hudson River Blue Staff
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.
Oliver Strand
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.
