Short answer: La Liga’s biggest wage bill in 2024/25 belongs to Real Madrid, with €514.2m in staff costs for the group in the year to 30 June 2025, narrowly ahead of Barcelona’s €510.0m. Atlético Madrid were third with €279.9m. The ranking uses the clubs’ own published accounts, not player salary estimates.
Real Madrid had the biggest wage bill in La Liga in 2024/25: €514.2m in staff costs for the group in the year to 30 June 2025, narrowly ahead of Barcelona’s €510.0m. Real Madrid’s figure comes from the club’s 2024/25 economic report and annual accounts, and every figure in the table below comes from a club’s own published accounts.
This page ranks clubs, not players. Spanish clubs publish their total staff costs in their annual accounts, but not what individual players earn, so lists of player salaries rest on estimates. A club’s staff costs are the pay figure that is published.
Which La Liga clubs have the biggest wage bills in 2024/25?
The table covers clubs in the 2026/27 LaLiga EA Sports, as listed in LaLiga’s official squad cost limits for the season. Staff costs (“gastos de personal”) are in euros and cover all of a club’s employees; every club’s financial year ends on 30 June 2025. It lists the nine biggest wage bills we could confirm from official documents: Sevilla’s and Espanyol’s accounts could not be retrieved when we checked, and we did not review the remaining clubs’ accounts for this page.
| Rank | Club | Staff costs 2024/25 | Revenue 2024/25 (club figure) | Staff costs as a share of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Real Madrid | €514.2m | €1,158.9m | 44.4% |
| 2 | Barcelona | €510.0m | €994m | 51.3% |
| 3 | Atlético Madrid | €279.9m | €416.1m | 67.3% |
| 4 | Athletic Club | €115.3m | €174.3m | 66.1% |
| 5 | Villarreal | €114.1m | €95.4m | 119.5% |
| 6 | Real Betis | €102.7m | €150.6m | 68.2% |
| 7 | Real Sociedad | €97.6m | €126.5m | 77.1% |
| 8 | Valencia | €84.0m | €103.7m | 81.0% |
| 9 | Celta Vigo | €63.6m | €74.0m | 86.0% |
Sources: the annual accounts of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Villarreal, Real Betis, Real Sociedad, Valencia and Celta Vigo, and Athletic Club’s football results statement for LaLiga. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Celta report group figures. Revenue is net turnover, except Barcelona (ordinary revenue) and Athletic Club (“relevant income”, which includes profits from player sales), so the shares, which are our own calculation, are not on an identical basis. Real Madrid’s own calculation, on operating revenue of €1,184.7m, gives 43%.
What do La Liga’s wage bills show?
Real Madrid and Barcelona are almost level
Only €4.3m separates the two clubs, and both totals include other sports. Real Madrid’s €514.2m includes €38.0m for basketball; Barcelona’s €510.0m includes €85.3m for its other sports sections. For football’s first team alone the clubs are even closer: Real Madrid’s accounts put first-team players and coaches at €349.9m, and Barcelona’s put players and first-team staff at €348.7m. Real Madrid say staff costs took 43% of operating revenue in 2024/25, down from 47% a year earlier.
A big gap after the top three
Atlético Madrid’s €279.9m is more than twice the wage bill of any club below them. Fourth-placed Athletic Club spent €115.3m, and from there the bills fall to Celta Vigo’s €63.6m.
Villarreal’s wages passed their turnover
Villarreal’s staff costs of €114.1m were 119.5% of their €95.4m net turnover in a season without European football. The club also made a €94.7m gain from selling players, which is booked outside turnover. Counting that income, and using first-team pay only, the club’s own indicator puts the figure at 51%.
How much does La Liga spend on wages as a whole?
LaLiga’s economic and financial report for 2024/25, which covers the first and second divisions together, gives squad wages of €2,362m on normalised revenue of €5,464.0m, which rose by 8.1%. LaLiga’s wider measure of squad cost, which also counts the amortisation of transfer fees, was 60% of revenue plus the net result from transfers, down from 66% the year before. For the top division alone, UEFA’s European Club Finance and Investment Landscape puts Spanish clubs’ wages at €2,424m in the 2024 financial year (2023/24), or 62% of revenue.
For 2026/27, LaLiga caps what each club may spend on its squad, from €832.8m at Real Madrid to €20.2m at Sevilla. Our page ranking every La Liga club by its official squad cost limit has the full list. A limit is a ceiling that also covers transfer amortisation and agents’ fees, so it is not the same as a wage bill.
What do these wage figures include?
- All employees. Staff costs cover everyone a club employs: players, coaches, other sports sections and administrative staff.
- Not transfer fees. Transfer fees are spread over players’ contracts as amortisation, which is reported separately.
- Latest published year. 2024/25 is the latest year for which all these clubs’ accounts are available.
For how the biggest clubs compare on revenue across Europe, see the richest football clubs in the world.
How we built this
We took each club’s staff costs and revenue from its own annual accounts for the year to 30 June 2025, which Spanish clubs publish on their websites, and league totals from LaLiga and UEFA. The share of revenue is our own arithmetic. We did not use player salary estimates or media reports. The figures were checked on 28 October 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which La Liga club has the highest wage bill?
Real Madrid, with staff costs of €514.2m in the year to 30 June 2025, according to the club’s group accounts. Barcelona were second with €510.0m.
How much do La Liga clubs spend on wages in total?
LaLiga’s report gives squad wages of €2,362m in 2024/25 across the first and second divisions. UEFA puts the wages of top-division Spanish clubs at €2,424m in 2023/24, or 62% of their revenue.
Which club spends the largest share of revenue on wages?
Among the clubs in the table, Villarreal, whose staff costs were 119.5% of net turnover in 2024/25. The club also made a €94.7m gain from player sales, which is not counted in turnover.
Is LaLiga’s squad cost limit the same as a wage bill?
No. The limit is the maximum a club may spend on its squad in a season, and it includes transfer amortisation and agents’ fees as well as wages. Staff costs are what a club actually spent on pay.
Why does this page rank clubs and not players?
Spanish clubs publish their total staff costs but not individual players’ salaries. The club’s staff costs, from its accounts, are the official pay figure.
Sources
- Real Madrid, Informe Económico 2024-2025 (PDF)
- FC Barcelona, Memoria 2024/25 (PDF)
- Atlético de Madrid, annual accounts 2024/25 (PDF)
- Athletic Club, football results statement 2024/25 (PDF)
- Villarreal CF, financial transparency
- Real Betis, transparency
- Real Sociedad, annual accounts
- Valencia CF, transparency
- RC Celta, consolidated annual accounts 2024/25 (PDF)
- LaLiga, Informe Económico-Financiero 2024/25 (PDF)
- LaLiga, squad cost limits
- UEFA, The European Club Finance and Investment Landscape (2025 edition)
