Major League Soccer continues to see Lionel Messi stand alone atop its salary rankings, with the Inter Miami Argentine superstar holding onto the position of the league’s highest-earning player, the MLS Players Association confirmed in an official announcement released Tuesday. Per the union’s latest public salary disclosure, Messi commands an annual base salary of $25 million, more than double the base pay of the second-highest paid player in the league, Son Heung-min of Los Angeles FC.
The updated salary figures reflect the multi-year contract extension Messi signed with the Florida-based club back in October, which locks him in at Inter Miami through the 2028 MLS season. Under the terms of the new deal, Messi’s base salary has doubled from his original 2023 contract, pushing his total guaranteed annual compensation to $28.3 million.
Claiming the second spot on the salary rankings is South Korean international Son Heung-min, the former Tottenham Hotspur captain who joined LAFC last August for a reported league-record $26 million transfer fee. Son’s base salary checks in at $10.36 million, with his total guaranteed compensation coming out to $11.2 million for the 2025 campaign.
It is important to note that the published salary data does not account for additional off-field income from player endorsement deals. For Messi specifically, the reported compensation also excludes the value of his option to purchase an ownership stake in Inter Miami, a franchise co-founded by English football legend David Beckham that the 8-time Ballon d’Or winner first joined in 2023.
At 38 years old, Messi remains one of the most productive players in MLS on the pitch, even as he prepares to lead Argentina’s defense of their FIFA World Cup title in the 2026 tournament kicking off next month. Across 64 MLS regular-season matches with Inter Miami, Messi has scored 59 goals. He led the entire league in goals with 29 strikes last season, and earned the league’s Most Valuable Player award for the second consecutive year.
Rounding out the top five highest-paid players in MLS are Messi’s Inter Miami and Argentina teammate Rodrigo De Paul, Mexico star Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, and Atlanta United playmaker Miguel Almiron. De Paul ranks third with $9.7 million in total guaranteed compensation, while Lozano takes fourth with $9.3 million despite not appearing for his club San Diego FC since November. Almiron closes out the top five with $7.9 million in guaranteed pay.
Across the entire league, total player compensation hit $631 million in the latest reporting period. The average guaranteed compensation per MLS player now sits at $688,816, representing an 8.9% increase from the salary figures published by the players association last October.