Barcelona's £10m per player wages set new record as Man Utd lead Premier League charts

Barcelona have set a new salary-spend record by becoming the first team in any sport with an average wage per player of £10.45 million ($13.76 million) a year, according to the 2018 version of the  Global Sports Salary Survey.

This season, the Spanish giants will pay their first-team squad an average of over £200k ($265k) per week before bonuses, with that figure rising by 33 per cent since 2017-18.

Lionel Messi's contract renewal that he signed in 2017 boosted that number , with the signings of Philippe Coutinho, Arthur Melo, Malcom and Arturo Vidal contributing further to the overall increase of the wage budget.

There were also new deals for the likes of Gerard Pique, Sergi Roberto, Samuel Umtiti and Sergio Busquets to further nudge the average spend per player up to more than £10m ($13m) per year.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, feature in second place in the table, with their players earning an average of £8.1m ($10.6m) a year.

The next six spots are all filled by teams from the NBA, with Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors in third and fourth overall with salary averages of £7.84m ($10.32m) and £7.82m ($10.33m) respectively.

Manchester United lead the way in terms of the highest annual salary spend for the Premier League, paying their players an average of £6.5m ($8.6m) per player, per year.

Jose Mourinho's side are 10th in the overall standings covering all team sports, with Manchester City - paying £5.9m ($7.8m) on average - behind them in 20th overall.

Goal/Sporting Intelligence

Chelsea are then the next best-placed Premier League side in 35th place, followed by Liverpool (38th) and Arsenal (39th).

PSG have, perhaps surprisingly, slipped from fifth place overall in the standings in 2017 to 18th, with an average salary spend per player of £6.1m ($8m).

Following Cristiano Ronaldo's arrival at Juventus, the Serie A leaders have jumped from 32nd in the world to ninth, while Bayern Munich have moved from 27th last year to 15th in 2018.

The latest survey found that the Premier League remained the richest football league in the world, with first-team squad players earning £2.99m ($3.37m) a year on average. 

La Liga (£2.2m/$2.5m) is second in the list, with Serie A in third (£1.5,/$1.7m), almost half the amount of the total in England's top flight.

The NBA remains the highest-paid league in the world, however, with average salaries of £5.9m ($7.8m) per year this season.