Short answer: Paris Saint-Germain had by far the biggest wage bill in Ligue 1 in 2024/25: €535.0m in payroll, including social charges, against €155.1m at Olympique Lyonnais and €153.7m at Olympique de Marseille. The figures come from the individual club accounts for 2024/25 published by the DNCG on the LFP’s website.
Paris Saint-Germain had by far the biggest wage bill in Ligue 1 in 2024/25: €535.0m in payroll, including social charges, against €155.1m at Olympique Lyonnais and €153.7m at Olympique de Marseille. The figures come from the individual club accounts for 2024/25 published by the DNCG, French professional football’s financial regulator, on the LFP’s website.
This page ranks clubs, not players. French clubs and the LFP do not publish what individual players earn, so lists of player salaries rest on estimates. A club’s payroll, from its accounts, is the pay figure that is published.
Which Ligue 1 clubs have the highest wage bills in 2024/25?
Payroll is the DNCG’s “rémunération du personnel chargée”: salaries plus social charges for all of a club’s staff. Revenue is the DNCG’s “total produits hors mutation”, which leaves out income from player transfers. The table covers the 18 clubs of the 2024/25 Ligue 1 season; all figures are in euros.
| Rank | Club | Payroll 2024/25 | Revenue excluding transfers | Payroll as a share of revenue | Net result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris Saint-Germain | €535.0m | €837.0m | 63.9% | -€40.1m |
| 2 | Olympique Lyonnais | €155.1m | €159.0m | 97.6% | -€208.6m |
| 3 | Olympique de Marseille | €153.7m | €188.7m | 81.4% | -€104.8m |
| 4 | Stade Rennais | €116.1m | €93.4m | 124.4% | -€27.0m |
| 5 | AS Monaco | €109.4m | €116.9m | 93.6% | €3.0m |
| 6 | OGC Nice | €89.8m | €93.4m | 96.2% | -€40.5m |
| 7 | LOSC Lille | €89.0m | €191.8m | 46.4% | €81.7m |
| 8 | RC Strasbourg | €66.9m | €38.8m | 172.6% | -€78.3m |
| 9 | RC Lens | €59.8m | €68.8m | 87.0% | €4.3m |
| 10 | FC Nantes | €55.6m | €41.4m | 134.2% | €0.1m |
Source: DNCG, Comptes individuels des clubs, saison 2024/2025, each club’s income statement. The share of revenue is our own calculation. The DNCG reports each club on its own perimeter: Paris Saint-Germain’s includes the club’s merchandising company and its handball and judo sections, and Lyon’s covers OL SASU, the club company. Stade Brestois (€44.0m), Montpellier (€42.7m) and Stade de Reims (€42.0m) came next.
What do the Ligue 1 wage bills show?
PSG pay more than the next four clubs together
Paris Saint-Germain’s €535.0m is slightly more than the payroll of Lyon, Marseille, Rennes and Monaco added together (€534.3m), and nearly three and a half times Lyon’s. The DNCG says PSG accounted for 30.9% of Ligue 1’s payroll in 2024/25, down from 35.3% in 2023/24. Because PSG’s revenue is also the largest, its payroll took 63.9% of it, the second-lowest share in the top 10 after Lille.
Lille kept wages below half of revenue
Lille’s payroll was 46.4% of revenue, the lowest share in the top 10, and the club made a net profit of €81.7m. Brest, just outside the top 10, had a similar share (46.3%). Both played in the Champions League in 2024/25; our guide to Champions League prize money shows what that is worth to a club.
Several clubs paid more than they earned
At three of the 10 clubs, payroll was higher than revenue excluding transfers: Strasbourg (172.6%), Nantes (134.2%) and Rennes (124.4%). Lyon (97.6%), Nice (96.2%) and Monaco (93.6%) were close behind. Strasbourg’s payroll of €66.9m compared with revenue of €38.8m, and the club lost €78.3m. Lyon’s net loss of €208.6m was the largest in the league.
What are the Ligue 1 totals for revenue, wages and losses?
The DNCG’s report on French professional football in 2024/25 gives these totals for Ligue 1:
- Revenue excluding transfers fell by 15%, from €2,550.9m to €2,161.1m.
- Salaries fell by 7% to €1,334.5m, and social charges by 8% to €398.2m: €1,732.8m in all, about 80% of revenue.
- The clubs’ combined net loss was €466.1m, against €164.2m in 2023/24.
- Payroll including social charges was 51.7% of the clubs’ operating costs excluding transfers.
UEFA’s European Club Finance and Investment Landscape, which uses its own definitions, puts French top-division clubs’ wages at €1,851m in the 2024 financial year (2023/24), or 73% of revenue.
What do the payroll figures include?
- All employees. Payroll covers everyone a club employs, not only the first team, and includes employers’ social charges.
- Not transfer fees. Transfer fees are spread over players’ contracts as amortisation, which is reported separately, and transfer income is left out of revenue.
- Latest published season. 2024/25 is the latest season for which the DNCG has published club accounts.
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 payroll, revenue and net result from the DNCG’s individual club accounts for 2024/25, and league totals from the DNCG’s report on the season, both published on the LFP’s website. 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 Ligue 1 club has the highest wage bill?
Paris Saint-Germain, with payroll of €535.0m including social charges in 2024/25, according to the DNCG’s club accounts. Olympique Lyonnais were second with €155.1m.
How much do Ligue 1 clubs spend on wages in total?
€1,732.8m in 2024/25: €1,334.5m in salaries and €398.2m in social charges, about 80% of the clubs’ €2,161.1m revenue excluding transfers, according to the DNCG.
Which top-10 club spends the largest share of revenue on wages?
RC Strasbourg, whose payroll of €66.9m was 172.6% of revenue excluding transfers in 2024/25. Lille spent the smallest share among the top 10, at 46.4%.
Why does this page rank clubs and not players?
French clubs and the LFP do not publish individual players’ salaries. The club’s payroll, from the DNCG’s accounts, is the official pay figure.
Do these figures include transfer fees?
No. Payroll covers salaries and social charges for all staff. Transfer fees are reported separately as amortisation, and transfer income is not counted in the revenue shown.
Sources
