How Much Do International Soccer Players Get Paid?
Soccer is well-known for being the most popular sport in the world. Therefore, it is no wonder soccer players earn great sums of money for playing it at the highest level. Some of the salaries players earn in this sport are often mind-boggling, but what is even better is that a huge number of soccer players around the world earn decent money and don’t have to worry about their future as much as that’s the case in other, less global sports.
But earning millions of dollars in club soccer is one thing. Players don’t get such fees for playing for their national teams. And while the greatest trophy to win in sport is the soccer World Cup, it is seldom the case that national team players earn huge sums of money. So, let’s take a closer look into how things work in international soccer, compared to club soccer.
Do International Players Get Paid?
In the most simple terms, the answer is – Yes, soccer players get paid for playing for their national teams. But that is where the simple part of the story ends. Soccer players get paid different fees, depending on the soccer associations governing the sport in their country. These numbers vary greatly among all of the associations and the fees players get depend on the competition, the results in those matches and other factors decided by national soccer associations.
Usually, players get an appearance fee. Those fees are paid to them by soccer associations (or federations, as they are also known). Among other factors can also be the economical and financial situation of the countries these players represent. For example, a player featuring for the German national team is expected to earn more than a Bolivian national team player.
Another thing to mention here is FIFA‘s insurance policy. This policy compensates clubs if their players get injured on international duty, but as you can see, this is not the money players earn. Also, FIFA can provide some financial benefits to national associations and their clubs and national team players may or may not be indirectly affected by that.
How Much Are International Players Paid?
International players are paid differently in each national team, depending on the nation they represent, competitions they play in and results they manage to get in the process. But the fees players get per match are nowhere near the money soccer players can earn for their clubs. In fact, there are soccer stars like Kylian Mbappe, the best paid player in 2022, who earns over $2,000,000 per week, or over $100,000,000 per year. Clearly, the French superstar is not your average soccer player, but put in perspective, soccer stars who are good enough to represent the best national teams in the world are earning the ‘big bucks’ in club soccer.
But still, let’s have a look at some examples of how much certain national team players get paid in international soccer.
How Much Do England Soccer Players Earn Per Match?
English players for their national teams earn 2000 pounds per match played, or around $2420. They also get extra bonuses in the qualifying matches, depending on if they win, draw or lose. These numbers can go between $600 and $2000 per specific result. But the fact that these payments are so low for the amounts of money soccer players earn playing for their clubs, they don’t actually take this money.
Instead, England internationals have been donating these fees since 2007, to the England Footballers Foundation. In the 15 years since, quite a lot of money has been raised, with the BBC claiming in 2018 that the figure stood at around five million pounds, or somewhere in the region of $6m.
Also, there is the fact that all national teams, including England, can earn huge bonuses if they win competitions such as the European Championship or the World Cup. According to the BBC, England players would have earned a five million pounds bonus to share between themselves, if they were to win the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
How Much Do Soccer Players From Other Countries Earn Per Match?
As we have previously established, the situation is different across different national associations. But let’s have a closer look at all the fees we know about and how much the players in certain national teams earn for representing them.
France
There are no publicly known information, due to the French Football Federation’s insistence on not announcing the fees. However, the FFF do say they pay bonuses when the national team does well in a tournament like a World Cup. While there is no official information, media reported that the 2018 FIFA World Cup winning squad members all earned around $600,000.
Germany
It is a similar situation with the German national team. Official information are not shared with the public, but the media have managed to get some details about the 2014 World Cup winning squad. It is believed that the German FA rewarded each player of the winning squad with around $350,000 for the greatest success of them all.
Norway
Things are different in Norway. Their association is one of the very few in the world who pay the equal amounts of money to both the men’s and women’s soccer national teams. This has been the situation since 2018 and it is a known fact that those two national team’s squads get $750,000 per year. This includes both fees and bonuses.
Nigeria
Some information are available for the Nigeria national team. Their soccer association had different amounts of money they pay the men’s senior team, but that is often also depending on the availability of funds. Depending on how much sponsorship or financial backing they manage to secure, the players can earn from as low as $2,000 to as high as $30,000 per match. Yet again, it is hard to predict the exact numbers due to lack of publicly known information, but it is clear that these players can drastically increase their earnings if they manage to reach the World Cup, where FIFA’s bonuses for national associations are the highest in the world of soccer.
Ghana
Interestingly, the Ghana national soccer team announced the full amounts their players got during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The documents show each player was paid $100,000 per appearance at the tournament. There are no information what they usually pay their national team players for friendly matches and qualifiers, but during the World Cup, each member of the squad was well rewarded for being part of the team.
