Sanchez will earn £350,000 a week at Old Trafford, dwarfing other pay packets
Alexis Sanchez’s swap from Arsenal to Manchester United is one of the most extraordinary transfers in English football history – not least because of the money involved.
While the fact no fee to Arsenal was paid for Sanchez by United is remarkable, and the fact that it involved Henrikh Mkhitaryan moving the other way is notable, the stand-out figure from the deal is the Chilean’s new wage packet.
Sanchez will earn £350,000 a week at Old Trafford – by far and away the biggest deal ever signed by a Premier League footballer
Sanchez surpasses the previous highest wage, paid to United team-mate Paul Pogba, by a full £60,000 a week – and it doesn’t stop there.
As well as £350,000 a week at United over a four-and-a-half-year contract, Sanchez’s pay will rise to £450,000 when his image rights are added in, and £600,000 including bonuses.
There is also another new name in the top three highest earners – Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne, who signed a new deal at the Etihad Stadium until 2023.
The list of the highest earners is dominated by Manchester, with City and United paying the eight biggest wages in the Premier League.
The only non-Manchester based players in the top 10 are Eden Hazard at Chelsea and new Liverpool signing, Virgil van Dijk.
Mkhitaryan has become Arsenal’s highest earner, at £170,000 per week – less than half what the man who replaced him at United takes home every seven days.