Al-Nassr are paying Cristiano Ronaldo about €4 million a week, according to a salary table published by The National, and no one else in the Saudi Pro League gets close. Karim Benzema, second on the list at Al-Hilal, earns €2.3m a week. The gap between first and second is bigger than the entire wage of the third-placed earner.
Ronaldo’s weekly cheque alone is worth more than the combined weekly pay of the other nine players in the top 10.
The 41-year-old is chasing his 1,000th senior goal this season, needing just 24 more after Al-Nassr clinched the league title last May with a 4-1 win over Damac on the final day.
The full top 10
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Al-Nassr): €4m a week
- Karim Benzema (Al-Hilal): €2.3m
- Sadio Mane (Al-Nassr): €769,000
- Kalidou Koulibaly (Al-Hilal): €667,000
- Ivan Toney (Al-Ahli): €490,000
- Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Al-Hilal): €490,000
- Darwin Nunez (Al-Hilal): €430,000
- Theo Hernandez (Al-Hilal): €394,000
- Kingsley Coman (Al-Nassr): €394,000
- Mateo Retegui (Al-Qadsiah): €385,000
Four of the ten are on Al-Hilal’s books, three on Al-Nassr’s, and Al-Ahli retain two after losing Riyad Mahrez and Franck Kessie in the summer. Aramco-owned Al-Qadsiah put one man in the group through the Italy international Retegui.
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Al-Nassr’s balance sheet is groaning
The scale of Ronaldo’s package sits awkwardly with the state of Al-Nassr’s finances. The Riyadh club is carrying liabilities reported at $280 million, with owners the Public Investment Fund said to have imposed a transfer restriction earlier this year and staff and some players reportedly having received wages late.
Ronaldo has taken home roughly $625 million in wages from Al-Nassr since arriving in January 2023, a figure that has bought exactly one Saudi Pro League title so far.
The wage bill has been softened only marginally in the top 10 by Kingsley Coman, who joined this summer at €394,000 a week and slots in level with Theo Hernandez.
Nunez heading for the exit
Darwin Nunez’s presence in seventh place is misleading. The Uruguayan has been frozen out at Al-Hilal since Benzema arrived in January, when the squad had to be cut to comply with Saudi Pro League foreign-player limits, and reached an agreement in May to leave at the end of last season.
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He has not featured for the club since February. With no permanent buyer at Al-Hilal’s asking price by early August, the striker is now expected to move on loan, with Trabzonspor and Premier League clubs among the interested parties.
Ronaldo’s competitive return set for 21 August
The 2026-27 Saudi Pro League season kicked off on 13 August, but the league’s highest earner is not playing yet. Al-Nassr’s Australian head coach Ange Postecoglou has given Ronaldo extended rest after Portugal’s World Cup exit and his August wedding to Georgina Rodriguez. He will sit out the opener against Al-Fateh and the King’s Cup meeting with Al-Diriyah, and is due back against Al-Riyadh on 21 August.
Al-Hilal, meanwhile, have already spent big elsewhere, adding Crysencio Summerville from West Ham for €64.5m as the summer’s headline signing while losing Marcos Leonardo to Ajax.
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