Roma’s Daniele De Rossi can lay claim to being Serie A’s highest earner after figures were released on Tuesday detailing the wages paid to players in the Italian league.
The Italy midfielder earns £5.2m (€6.5m) a year or £100,000 a week net, a healthy enough amount but dwarfed by the £300,000 a week (gross) of the Premier League’s highest-paid player, Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney.
The figures published by Gazzetta dello Sports show that the Italian league is falling behind on Europe’s pay scale with, for example, Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi all earning over £200,000 a week in La Liga.
Fernando Torres, who left Chelsea to sign a two-year loan deal with Milan, has surrendered his £175,000 a week for £60,000 a week in Serie A.
Another Premier League émigré, the former United captain Nemanja Vidic, will make around £50,000 a week at Internazionale while Micah Richards, who left Manchester City for Fiorentina, will earn £26,000 a week.
Juventus are the biggest payers and are the only Italian club to increase their wage bill from the 2013-14 season with Carlos Tevez and Arturo Vidal earning upwards of £60,000-per-week, though the promising Paul Pogba has to exist on a relatively meagre £23,000 a week.
The top-earning coach is Napoli’s Rafael Benítez on £2.8m with his centre-forward Gonzalo Higuaín the league’s second-best paid player on £4.4m.