How much do England players get paid?

Modern England footballers are among the most handsomely paid players in the sport worldwide, earning hundreds of thousands of pounds each week.

Player wages have often been a point of serious debate and derision among the general public. There are those who think public sector workers should be more fairly compensated in comparison and some who find it generally unsavoury for anyone to earn that sort of money in a modern world filled with poverty.

Here’s the state of play for England players and how they are compensated financially at international level.

Football is a private industry which allows players and others in the sport to earn huge salaries.

However, it’s not as simple when it comes to international football as there is a more tangible link with the public purse.

It was reported by Wales Online during the 2022 World Cup that England players receive around £2,000 per match they play. That’s a lot of money to most people, but in the context of elite-level football it’s a pittance.

The players don’t see that money, however.

An agreement in place since 2007 sees all match fees donated to a charity pot, the England Football Foundation. That money is then distributed to various charities, with around £5m believed to have been raised by the England men’s national team since the scheme began.

It was reported by The Mail on Sunday in the build-up to the last World Cup that England players could be in line for £500,000 bonuses if they won the tournament, but it was not clear what the charity aspect of that figure was. The real financial benefit of winning a World Cup to a player is the improved commercial pull and the chance to use that gold medal as leverage in contract negotiations.

As for England boss Gareth Southgate, he was supposedly set to claim £3m if England had been victorious, which would have seen him take home £9m for that year. England were knocked out in the quarter-finals, meaning each player who featured in all five World Cup games contributed £10,000 each.

Jordan Henderson leapfrogged the likes of Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford as the highest-earning member of the England squad when he left Liverpool for Al Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League.

His wages shot up to a reported sum of around £600,000-700,000 per week, though there were immense complications that led to him receiving…