MLS: Player Salaries (2022) - All Teams Payroll - Soccerprime

What is the Average Salary in the MLS?

If you’re a backup fullback in MLS, your paycheck might not even cover Lionel Messi’s massage tab. Welcome to Major League Soccer — the league where one guy drives a Rolls and another carpools in a 2012 Civic.

The latest 2025 MLS Salary Guide reads like a love letter to capitalism: the average MLS player earns $634,103 in guaranteed compensation, while the median sits at $338,347. And the most common salary (mode)? A modest $80,622 — the league minimum for many young or supplemental players.

Translation: a few stars are flying private while most are checking the “free baggage” limit on Spirit Airlines.

The Great Divide: From $80K to $20 Million

At the top of the heap, there’s Lionel Messi, still printing pink Inter Miami jerseys and collecting roughly $20 million in guaranteed money this season. Just below him sits Heung-min Son, the new LAFC showstopper, banking over $11 million.

Meanwhile, hundreds of solid pros grind out six-figure salaries that wouldn’t crack the NBA’s per diem budget. It’s a league of outliers — a champagne tower with a shot glass at the bottom.

Average vs. Median vs. Mode: Three Numbers, Three Realities

• Average (Mean): $634,103 — pulled way up by the Messis and Sons of the league.
• Median: $338,347 — the middle-class reality of MLS; half the league earns less.
• Mode: $80,622 — the most common paycheck, shared by dozens of bench players and rookies.

That spread tells the real story. MLS is no longer the retirement home of global stars, but it’s still a league where 25 players make more than $3 million a year — and more than 300 make under $150K.

Blame (or Thank) the Designated Player Rule

The culprit — or the catalyst, depending who you ask — is the Designated Player Rule.Every MLS club can sign up to three “DPs” whose salaries don’t count fully against the league’s salary cap. It’s the loophole that brought Beckham, Ibrahimović, and now Messi to America.

Without it, MLS wouldn’t have the global spotlight. With it, the wage gap looks like the Grand Canyon.

DP Rule 101

What Is a Designated Player (DP)?

In 2007, MLS wanted David Beckham. The salary cap said “nope,” so the league built a loophole: the Designated Player Rule.

Teams can sign up to three superstars whose wages smash the cap, while only a small chunk counts against it.

That’s how you get Messi in Miami and Son in LA. DPs sell jerseys, pack stadiums, and keep MLS in the global chat.

Everyone else plays by the rules. These guys rewrite them.

These DPs warp the stats. Remove their contracts and the average guaranteed pay drops closer to $350,000–$400,000, the figure you see quoted by ESPN or SI. Add them back in, and the math gets drunk on dollar signs.

Top 10 Highest-Paying MLS Clubs in 2025 (Guaranteed Compensation)

1. Inter Miami CF — $48.97 million (Messi & Busquets’ tropical tax haven)
2. LAFC — $30.09 million (Son-powered Hollywood glamour)
3. Atlanta United — $28.48 million (still spending like expansion never ended)
4. Chicago Fire FC — $23.11 million
5. FC Cincinnati — $23.19 million
6. New York Red Bulls — $22.07 million
7. Nashville SC — $22.44 million
8. San Diego FC — $22.25 million (new team, big wallet)
9. LA Galaxy — $22.26 million
10. Portland Timbers — $22.44 million

Together, these ten clubs control nearly half of the league’s total $590 million in guaranteed salaries. The rest of the league splits the other half — proving MLS parity looks better on paper than on payroll.

From Paychecks to Progress

For all its quirks, this is good news. The league’s total payroll has exploded past half a billion dollars. The median salary has doubled since 2018, and the minimum keeps rising.

The pay gap may be huge, but so is the ambition. MLS is becoming a legitimate global destination — a league where superstars can thrive and homegrown kids can dream.

Somewhere in between the $80K dreamers and the $20 million legends lies the real MLS — messy, maturing, and moving fast.

Top 5 Highest-Paid MLS Players

The pay gap in the MLS is enormous; here are the 5 highest-paid players in the MLS as of April 30, 2023. (Especially since Messi is now at $54,000,000.) Messi and Busquets were both signed in July 2023 to Inter Miami.

5. Ricard Puig Martí – $5,125,000 guaranteed

• Club: LA Galaxy

He came from Barcelona, brought the flair, and found his groove under the California sun. Puig’s $5.1 million salary makes him one of the highest-paid midfielders in the league — and one of its smoothest. Think of him as the Spanish silk that helps stitch the Galaxy back into relevance.

4. Hany Mukhtar – $5,311,667 guaranteed

• Club: Nashville SC

Still the heartbeat of Music City, Mukhtar earns every dollar of his $5.3 million deal. The former MVP is Nashville’s offense, conductor, and closer — often all in the same play. In a league obsessed with DPs from abroad, he’s the rare MLS-made superstar who stayed to keep the band together.

3. Miguel Almirón – $6,056,000 guaranteed

• Club: Atlanta United

The prodigal son returns — literally. After conquering the Premier League, Almirón came back to Atlanta with unfinished business and a salary that says “hero’s welcome.” At just over $6 million guaranteed, he’s both nostalgia and ambition wrapped in one Paraguayan playmaker package.

2. Heung-min Son – $10,368,750 guaranteed

• Club: LAFC

Hollywood finally got its superstar. Son brings global shine, South Korean fandom, and a goal-scoring smile that could light up Sunset Boulevard. LAFC didn’t just sign a forward — they signed a phenomenon. And his $10 million-plus paycheck proves that MLS is no longer afraid to shop in Europe’s luxury aisle.

1. Lionel Messi – $20,400,000 guaranteed

• Club: Inter Miami CF

The king is still the king. Even at 38, Messi’s paycheck reads like a Powerball win — about $20 million guaranteed for season three of the Miami magic show. Every goal, every nutmeg, every pink jersey he sells keeps MLS in headlines around the world. He’s not just a player — he’s the league’s most powerful marketing campaign wrapped in a left foot.

Explainer

Why the Top 5 Looks Smaller in 2025

If you’re wondering why the fifth-highest salary in 2023 was bigger than this year’s, you’re not crazy. It’s the math of Messi.

When the GOAT landed in Miami with a $54M deal, he didn’t just bend defenses—he bent the salary curve. One paycheck distorted the top tier.

Two years later, MLS is paying smarter. The top one or two guys make global money, while teams spread cash across deeper rosters.

Result: total payroll is up, but the “Top 5” slice looks smaller because the wealth isn’t stacked as steeply at the top.

Call it the Messi Effect: fewer $6M men, more $600K pros, and a league growing out—not just up.

Key Takeaway

In a sport defined by passion and patience, the paycheck tells the story of a league still finding balance. From Messi to the minimum, MLS is the great American experiment in soccer economics — a place where the next kid off the bench could be tomorrow’s millionaire.

And that, in its own chaotic way, might just be the most American story in sports.

Player salaries in other top leagues:

• La Liga Salary
• Serie A Salary
• Ligue 1 Salary
• Premier League Salary
• Bundesliga Salary