Football
The Highest-paid Footballer in the EFL Championship 2024
The Premier League is paying football players exorbitant amounts of money, but the highest-paid footballer in the EFL Championship is also cashing in.
Image Credits: Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
Jamie Vardy is the highest-paid footballer in the EFL Championship. Vardy earns £140,000 per week for Leicester City, which is double the amount the tenth-highest-paid Championship player makes.
The Leicester striker, who led the club to an incredible Premier League triumph under Italian manager Claudio Ranieri, is a cult hero with Foxes fans. In 2016, the 5,000-1 Premier League underdog East Midlands club completed their fairytale story off the back of Vardy’s sublime goal scoring form.
The England striker broke the record for consecutive games with a goal in the Premier League. He netted 11 times in a row on his way 24 goals and the Premier League Player of the Season award. Vardy’s goals saw Leicester qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time, where they were knocked out in the quarter-finals in 2016/17.
Vardy’s contributions to the club have not been forgotten by the club’s hierarchy. The owners rewarded the prolific goal scorer with the highest wages in the Championship for the 2023/24 season.
He paid back the Midlands club by leading them back up to the Premier League for the 2024/25 campaign, and he is sure bet to be among the highest goal scorers in next season’s top division.
At SportsBoom, we have listed the highest-paid footballers in the English Football League Championship in 2024.
Image Credits: Peter Woodentop // CC BY-SA 2.0
The top 10 Highest-Paid Footballers in the EFL Championship 2024
All professional footballers earn large salaries for entertaining fans; however, players’ salaries vary from club to club, league to league.
This is, of course, the same for footballers down the divisions of the football pyramid throughout the world. However, some football players earn more for teams in lower divisions for assorted reasons.
Most of the highest-paid football players in the EFL Championship come from the Premier League’s recently relegated clubs. All relegated clubs will have clauses in place to reduce their wage bill in the event of relegation.
Relegated teams from the English top-flight get parachute payments for three years following their drop to the second division of the football pyramid.
This helps the clubs to manage their finances and player salaries off the back of lower television money, sponsors, and lower ticket prices.
Most of the highest-paid football players in the Championship in 2024 come from the three relegated Premier League teams from the 2022/23 season.
In fact, eight of the top 10 best-paid Championship players come from Leicester City, while Leeds United - also relegated in 2023 - have a player each on the list.
Southampton, who came last in the previous Premier League campaign, does not have any players in the top 10 list of best-paid players, but they have six of the 25 highest earners on their books.
The salaries quoted are the players’ weekly and yearly earnings paid by their clubs for the duration of their contracts.
The players’ personal endorsements, image rights, and other off-field earnings are not disclosed in this article.
Highest-Paid Footballers in the 2023/24Championship
| Rank | Player | Football Club | Per Week | Per Year |
| 1 | Jamie Vardy | Leicester City | £140,000 | £7.28m |
| 2 | Harry Winks | Leicester City | £90,000 | £4.68m |
| 3 | Kelechi Iheanacho | Leicester City | £80,000 | £4.16m |
| 4 | Aaron Ramsey | Cardiff City | £80,000 | £4.16m |
| 5 | Ricardo Pereira | Leicester City | £80,000 | £4.16m |
| 6 | Conor Coady | Leicester City | £80,000 | £4.16m |
| 7 | Patson Daka | Leicester City | £80,000 | £4.16m |
| 8 | Wilfred Ndidi | Leicester City | £75,000 | £3.9m |
| 9 | Dennis Praet | Leicester City | £75,000 | £3.9m |
| 10 | Patrick Bamford | Leeds United | £70,000 | £3.64m |
Who are the highest-paid footballers in the Championship?
Leicester City pay their highest earner £140,000 per week. Cardiff City, who have not been in the top-flight of English domestic football for many years, pay their highest earner £80,000 per week, while Leeds United’s highest salary is £70,000.
When you dig a little deeper, only two more Championship clubs have players outside the top 10 list but have players in the top 25 highest earners in the league. Southampton and Ipswich Town are the other two clubs with players in this high-paying category, although Ipswich only has one player earning top 25 wages.
Southampton have six players inside the next 25 best-paid players list. Leeds United have four more players, and Cardiff City just one outside the top 10, but inside the best 25 paid players’ list. The rest are, unsurprisingly, made up of Leicester City players.
Kevin de Bruyne waits to take a free kick in the Manchester Derby
Highest-Paid Championship Player at Leicester City
Jamie Vardy is the highest earner at Leicester. Vardy is on £140,000 per week, £50,000 more than the next highest-paid Championship footballer.
Moreover, many City players are handsomely rewarded despite the previous season’s relegation. These players can earn these salaries because of the Premier League parachute payments.
Harry Winks is the second-best paid footballer at the club behind Vardy. Winks earns £90,000 per week at the East Midlands club. Kelechi Iheanacho, Ricardo Pereira, Conor Coady, and Patson Daka all make £80,000 per week for the Foxes.
Wilfred Ndidi and Dennis Praet also make the list of highest-paid Championship football players, earning £75,000 a week. The Foxes’ other big salaries are paid to Jannik Vestergaard, Hamza Choudhary, and Wout Faes, who all earn between £50,000 and £70,000, weekly.
Image Credits: Ronnie Macdonald // CC BY 2.0
Highest-Paid Championship Player at Cardiff City
Cardiff City’s top earner is Aaron Ramsey, who makes £80,000 per week for the Welsh club. Cardiff’s only other player on in the top 25 of the league’s best-paid footballers is Nathaniel Phillips, who is on loan from Liverpool.
Phillips earns £65,000 per week, although most of his wage is subsidised by his parent Liverpool. This salary makes the defender the fifteenth highest-paid player in the Championship.
Highest-Paid Premier Championship Player at Leeds United
Patrick Bamford is the highest-paid footballer at Leeds United. Bamford is the only player from the West Yorkshire club to make the top 10 list of highest earners in the Championship.
Georginio Rutter, Junior Firpo, Daniel James, and Pascal Struijk all earn between £50,000 and £70,000 per week. These players can earn these high wages, like Leicester, because of the parachute payments from Premier League television money.
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Highest-Paid Championship Player at Southampton
Southampton do not have a player inside the top 10 highest-paid footballers on their books; however, Joe Aribo sits just outside in eleventh. Five other players are among the 25 best-paid footballers in the Championship in 2024.
Aribo earns £70,000 per week, five thousand more than Stuart Armstrong (£65,000), the Saints’ next big salary. Jan Bednarek and Adam Armstrong earn £60,000 and £55,000 per week, respectively.
David Brooks and Alex McCarthy both get paid £50,000 a week on the English south coast. Like Leicester and Leeds, Southampton receive parachute payments from the Premier League.
Highest-Paid Championship Player at Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town were promoted to the Premier League for the 2024/25 season after a magnificent 2024 campaign. They only have one player on the top 25 biggest division earners list.
Brandon Williams, on loan from Manchester United, is the sixteenth best-paid player below England’s top-flight. Williams makes and £65,000 per week, but United subsidise the young fullback’s wages.
One thing is certain, football players eye-watering amounts of money playing the Beautiful Game. It does not matter which division players ply their trade; fame and fortune will follow.
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Kaylan Geekie is a sports fanatic. He attended Durban High School before moving to Scotland, where he lived for 15 years. During his time in the United Kingdom, Kaylan graduated with a first-class BA Honours Degree in Sports Journalism at the University of the West of Scotland. Kaylan worked for nine years as the Match-Day Editor of SuperXV.com, reporting on Super Rugby, The Rugby Championship, the 2015 Men's Rugby World Cup and the 2017 British & Irish Lions series for the website.