Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the highest-paid player in Serie A, but Mario Balotelli is the Italy international with the biggest pay packet.
Futebol Finance in Portugal analysed the top earners in world football and found Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo top of the pile with €12m per season.
He is followed by Barcelona hero Leo Messi on €10.5m, Fernando Torres of Chelsea and Manchester City’s Yaya Toure on €10m.
The highest-paid Serie A player is Milan striker Ibrahimovic, who is sixth in Europe overall with his €9m per season wages.
Inter hitman Samuel Eto’o is in joint ninth position with Carlos Tevez and Franck Ribery on €8m.
However, the Italian with the biggest monthly pay packet is Balotelli, who is 19th in the total rundown thanks to the €6.5m he receives from Manchester City.
SuperMario is on a par with Premier League colleagues Edin Dzeko and Rio Ferdinand.
Gigi Buffon of Juventus and Milan veteran Andrea Pirlo are both on €6m per season in joint 26th place, followed by Francesco Totti on €5.5m.
Bizarrely, the survey discovered that Amauri – who is on loan at Parma from Juventus – is paid €4.2m. That’s $200,000 per season more than Juve captain Alessandro Del Piero, who is 85th in the overall charts.
Luca Toni is a bigger earner than both with €5m per campaign.
Other Serie A figures in the top 100 are Daniele De Rossi (61st on €4.6m), Alessandro Nesta, Diego Milito, Julio Cesar and Mathieu Flamini (all joint 62nd on €4.5m), Robinho, Del Piero, Wesley Sneijder, Esteban Cambiasso and Clarence Seedorf (all joint 82nd on €4m) and Douglas Maicon (joint 96th on €3.8m).
5m a season?? Fuck my life
