Rudiger the world’s best-paid defender? What Madrid, PSG and Bayern may offer

Robin Bairner

• 10 Dec 2021 13:20 CST
• 6 min read

Antonio Rudiger’s future at Chelsea remains up in the air.

The Germany international defender’s contract expires at the end of June and at present there is no breakthrough with regards a new deal.

As of January, he will be able to open negotiations with foreign clubs, with several top outfits eager to snap up one of the game’s most in-form players on a free transfer.

Among the teams hovering are Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.

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It has been suggested that some of the interest has been whipped up as agent talk, and a report from the Daily Mail now suggests that there are offers of up to £400,000 per week (€470,000) in the pipeline for the defender.

This would make an annual wage of just short of €25 million – making him one of the best-paid players in the game and by far and away the world’s richest defender.

Certainly, there is no prospect of Bayern Munich paying such a wage-structure shattering wage for the centre-back.

Real Madrid may be more tempted to pay such a wage given that they are presently in the market for a central defender, having lost Sergio Ramos to PSG and Raphael Varane to Manchester United in the summer.

Furthermore, they will seek to shed the wages of Gareth Bale, who will leave at the end of his contract, and Eden Hazard, who still has more than two years to run on his. These players are Madrid’s highest earners at present.

PSG, meanwhile, showed this season that they are willing to dip into the free transfer market, but having been burned by the acquisition of the injury-prone Ramos, they may not be so willing to commit such a wage to one player. Any deal may also ride on them being able to offload Thilo Kehrer and Abou Diallo.

Who are the world's best-paid defenders?

Presently, the defenders who earn big money include PSG's Marquinhos, who reportedly scoops around €14.4 million per year, and Manchester City's John Stones, who is on around €15m per year.

Equally, Virgil van Dijk on around €13m per year is another centre-back on a big wage.

David Alaba at Real Madrid claims around €16m but the Raphael Varane of Manchester United is the best paid with a wage of around €20m each year.

Chelsea certainly are threatened, particularly by Real Madrid, and Rudiger may well be destined for a bumper deal, but these figures appear inflated.