Profligate Premier League champions Manchester City have recently tied most of their biggest stars down to new contracts, with captain Vincent Kompany and midfield duo David Silva and Samir Nasri earning bumper new deals. When you put their wages together, the trio take home a combined £520,000-a-WEEK. Welcome to the wacky world of the Premiership where stars are awarded with heaps of cash for the pleasure of kicking around a bag of air once every weekend (or twice a week if they're in the Champions League, the poor souls). England's topflight clubs pay recession-defying, eye-watering figures to their biggest stars, with the division's biggest earner picking up a pay-packet that could probably rescue a third world country from poverty twice over. But then, the Premier League has always been about commercial revenue. Since its inception in 1992, the league has gone on to generate a reported 2.2 billion per year in domestic and international television rights with its 20 members playing 38 matches each, totalling 380 matches throughout the season. As such, players are paid handsomely to make the magic happen, though some take home sickeningly-high sums. The lowest-paid player on this list rakes in "just" £120,000-a-week while our No.1 pulls in a figure you simply have to see to believe. Here, we take a look at the 15 Highest Paid Players In The Premier League.
15. Vincent Kompany - £120,000-a-week
Manchester City tied down captain Vincent Kompany's services with a bumper new contract earlier this month to make the centre-back one of their highest-earners. Kompany joined the Citizens in 2008 from Bundesliga side Hamburger SV and since then has matured into one of the best centre-halves in the Premier League. The Belgian international kept 14 clean sheets as his side conceded just 37 times last season, with only Chelsea (27) letting in fewer, while Kompany captained his side to their second league title in three seasons. As such, he was rewarded with a fresh deal on August 13 and will start picking up a reported £120,000-a-week over the course of his five-year contract at Etihad Stadium. As you'll soon find out, that doesn't make the defender City's highest-paid player - not by any stretch of the imagination - with the profligate Abu-Dhabi-owned Manchester club paying some of the highest wages in the division in an attempt to persuade the best players in the world to join their new revolution.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
