National player Alexandra Popp is fighting with the national team for the World Cup title in Australia and New Zealand. As a goalscorer for VfL Wolfsburg, Popp is one of the top stars in the women’s Bundesliga. picture alliance / Laci Perenyi | Laci Perenyi
The stars of the Women’s World Cup earn significantly less than male soccer professionals – but five-digit monthly salaries have long been there for the top players.
A player advisor has revealed to Business Insider what salaries are paid in the Bundesliga. So where German national players like Alexandra Popp, Giulia Gwinn or Laura Freigang are under contract.
In the meantime, financially strong clubs from England are also determining the prices in women’s football. Agent Jasmina Čović is certain: soon the first player in Europe will sign a contract worth millions.
The World Cup in Australia and New Zealand should give women’s football the next boost. But when it comes to money, the sexes are still light years apart. Superstar Erling Haaland is said to earn at Manchester City per week what Chelsea FC pays its top striker Sam Kerr all year. Industry experts estimate the Australian record scorer’s salary at half a million euros. However, the eternal comparison with men hides the salary jumps of the up-and-coming women.
With bonuses, the national team and sponsorship money, a World Cup star like Kerr could already exceed the million mark in income. That’s what experts from the football industry suspect. Especially the Women’s Super League in the homeland of football, in which the Australian has been under contract with Chelsea since 2019, will probably set new standards in the payment of their players in the next few years. Because English professional clubs, already feared by the men for their financial strength, have discovered the booming women’s football for themselves.
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“I’m sure it won’t be long before a player in Europe signs a contract worth millions,” says Jasmina Čović, who, as the owner of the Women’s Football Agency, advises several World Cup players, including Laura Freigang from the German national team. Čović expects that to happen in the next five years.
Australia’s Sam Kerr celebrated the English championship with Chelsea in May 2023. picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com | Tom Phillips
But at the moment the reality is different.
That’s what soccer players in Germany deserve
What do German professional soccer players like Alexandra Popp, Giulia Gwinn or Lena Lattwein earn? Most national players from the World Cup squad for Australia and New Zealand play in the Bundesliga. “The general public gets perhaps between 1,500 and 3,000 euros a month,” says Čović.
This fits with a report by the “Handelsblatt”, in which the average gross income in the top division is estimated at 3,500 euros. An amount that other insiders also see as “quite realistic”. For comparison: in 2022, the monthly gross salary of Germans was 4105 euros on average.
However, the salary range in the premier league is considerable. Čović says: “There are still players who only get 450 or 600 euros a month and a few who earn between 10,000 and 20,000 euros a month.” In other words, the spectrum ranges from mini-jobs to ministerial salaries. Below the Bundesliga, some even play for free. The gap between the clubs is also “very big”, explains the consultant.
The scissors widen where a top club in the men’s Bundesliga stands behind a women’s team, says another scene insider. “You have to differentiate that very much according to the club.”Handelsblatt“ complained the President of Turbine Potsdam, once European Cup winner and series champion, now relegated, the top players of Bayern and VfL Wolfsburg earned “sometimes twice as much as with us”.
“Not every player at a top club earns 10,000 euros”
Advisor Čović says: “Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt – they pay good salaries, but not every player at a top club earns 10,000 euros.” Wolfsburg will provide ten German players at the World Cup, FC Bayern four.
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Should the team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg win the World Cup title, the German Football Association (DFB) would pay each player a bonus of 270,000 euros. The association is still a long way from equal pay. At the failed World Cup in Qatar, the men would have received significantly more for a tournament win of 400,000 euros. Nevertheless, given the salary levels in the league, the sums involved are high for the internationals in Australia and New Zealand.
Additional income from advertising deals and Instagram
Your own advertising deals, supplier contracts, Insta-Posts – this is how you can earn additional money. According to industry insiders, Adidas and Nike lure with higher five-digit amounts. However, that is not confirmed. One does not comment on the content of the contract, said an Adidas spokesman. Jasmina’s Laura Freigang, who represented Čović, is a brand ambassador for the US sporting goods manufacturer Under Amour. Čović says: “You being in the foreground is not the standard. There are two or three players who benefit financially, but the rest live on bonuses, from the DFB and from the salaries of the club.
The German international Laura Freigang from Eintracht Frankfurt. picture alliance / foto2press | Steffen Proessdorf
When it comes to salaries, there is “still room for improvement,” says sports lawyer Barbara Hauptenthal. She has seen a number of contracts, Hauptenthal played for 1. FC Saarbrücken from 1999 to 2004 in the Bundesliga. At the same time, their example shows that the big clubs mean that there is considerably more money involved than 20 years ago. “Despite playing in the first Bundesliga, I had a low three-digit salary,” Haupenthal recalls. That enabled her not to have to work part-time, she says. “At that time there were also players who received low four-digit amounts.”
Players’ agent Čović reckons wages will continue to spiral, fueled by the millions from England. “Salaries will rise steadily in the future,” she is convinced. “They won’t exactly double, but I expect that they will increase by 20 to 30 percent annually because the competition is getting bigger.”
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When it comes to money, the football scene doesn’t just look at England. In the Spanish Primera División, the players went on strike for a minimum salary of 16,000 euros per year. Top stars are likely to surpass that by far. According to media reports, FC Barcelona paid Manchester City a record fee of 400,000 euros last autumn for European champion Keira Walsh.
Six-figure annual salaries should also be common among the top clubs in France. Paris Saint-Germain and especially Olympique Lyon dominate there. Ex-national player Dzsenifer Marozsán and World Cup driver Sara Däbritz are under contract with the record winner of the Champions League.
Superstar Alex Morgan im Nationaltrikot der USA.
picture alliance / newscom | Stan Szeto
In the US NWSL league, with its world stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, salaries are largely prescribed. They range between the minimum amount of 36,400 and 200,000 US dollars per year.
We added a statement from Adidas after our article appeared on July 21st. The text was updated on July 24th.
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