Lionel Messi remains the highest-paid player in Major League Soccer, the MLS Players Association disclosed this season, with an annual base salary of $25m and $28.3m in guaranteed compensation after the contract extension he signed in October.
The updated pay figures put Messi well ahead of every other player in the league. LAFC’s Son Heung-min is second with a $10.4m base and $11.2m in guaranteed pay, and Rodrigo de Paul sits among the top three earners with $9.69m in guaranteed compensation this season.
The numbers released by the players’ association list a short roll of high-profile names clustered beneath that gap: Hirving Lozano will receive $9.33m at San Diego FC this season; Thomas Müller will be paid $5.15m by the Vancouver Whitecaps; and Timo Werner will earn $4.27m in California.
Those figures do not include income from endorsements and, in Messi’s case, do not reflect his option to acquire a stake in Inter Miami — details the association’s release makes explicit. The updated totals reflect the October amendment to Messi’s deal, which raised his guaranteed compensation this season.
Messi’s pay package follows a short but transformative MLS résumé: he joined Inter Miami in 2023, has scored 59 goals in 64 regular-season MLS games, led the league with 29 goals last season, was named MLS Most Valuable Player in both 2024 and 2025, and helped Miami win the MLS Cup in 2025.
The weight of those accomplishments is stark against the payroll spread. Messi’s $28.3m guaranteed is more than double the next-highest guaranteed figure on the list, and nearly three times Son’s base salary — a gap that recalibrates how clubs and the league measure star power, roster construction and market signals inside the competition.
Context matters: the players’ association figures are a ledger of base salaries and guaranteed compensation, not a full accounting of total earnings or equity arrangements. That distinction softens, but does not erase, the headline — the union’s numbers are the clearest public snapshot of how MLS is paying marquee talent in real dollars this season.
The tension in the numbers is immediate. On the field, Messi’s production — two MVP awards in as many full seasons and the goals that drove Miami to a 2025 MLS Cup — offers an obvious justification for top-tier pay. Off the books, however, endorsements and ownership options leave parts of elite players’ economic profiles invisible to the official tally, making public comparisons incomplete.
For roster strategists and rival teams, the broad margin between Messi’s compensation and the rest forces a choice: spend heavily to match star impact or build depth and balance around significantly lower contracts. The published figures are likely to sharpen debates inside club front offices about how to allocate salary budget against competitive aims.
Messi’s presence and pay now shape daily conversation about the league. Fans can see the immediate, tangible result — 59 goals in 64 regular-season games and a championship haul — and also the business it has produced. For a reader who follows the fixture list, a related matchup is covered in our recent report on the Columbus Crew meeting the Los Angeles Galaxy, which you can read here: Columbus Crew Vs Los Angeles Galaxy: Tight MLS Meeting at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field.
Given the numbers and the on-field résumé, the clearest conclusion is this: Messi’s contract extension has made him by far the league’s highest-earner on guaranteed pay, and that reality will shape how clubs, players and the league reckon with star compensation going forward.
