How Anthony Gordon’s ‘Doubled’ Salary Compares to Barcelona Teammates

Gordon’s wages are still thought to be “significantly” lower than the salary that Marcus Rashford would command.

Anthony Gordon (center) is set to team up with Lamine Yamal (left) and Raphinha at Barcelona. | Eric Alonso/Newcastle United/Eric Alonso/Getty Images

As Anthony Gordon was at pains to point out during his much-delayed Barcelona unveiling, he had agreed everything with the club two days earlier. The speed of those contract negotiations are partially explained by reports that the England international has “doubled” the salary he was entitled to at Newcastle United.

Gordon spent the final month of the season on the bench while speculation around his future continued to swirl. Many expected the jet-heeled forward to move to Bayern Munich but Barcelona trumped their German counterparts with an offer that Gordon certainly couldn’t refuse and Newcastle have been convinced to accept.

The most testing part of negotiations are thought to have revolved around the payment structure of the $93.1 million (£69.3 million, €80 million) transfer fee agreed between the two clubs, per The Guardian. The same report claims that there was no such delay to the discussion of Gordon’s new salary, which will supposedly stand at around $403,000 per week.

That is thought to be twice what Gordon was earning at Newcastle and immediately propels him towards the top of Barcelona’s current earners.

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How Anthony Gordon Compares to Barcelona’s Top Earners

Lamine Yamal (left) and Raphinha aren’t playing for free. | Ruben De La Rosa/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Player	Contract Expiry	Gross Annual Salary
Lamine Yamal	2031	$34.9 million
Raphinha	2028	$21 million
Anthony Gordon	2031	$20.9 million
Marc-André ter Stegen	2028	$16.3 million
Frenkie de Jong	2029	$14 million
Pedri	2030	$14 million
Dani Olmo	2030	$14 million
Ronald Araújo	2031	$14 million

Reported figures have been converted to dollars at the time of publication.

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Barcelona’s ability to sign Gordon has been massively boosted by the departure of the club’s top earner, Robert Lewandowski. The outgoing Pole was on an annual salary in the region $41.9 million during the last year of his Barcelona contract, per The Athletic. Following his exit, Lamine Yamal is now thought to be the club’s best-paid player after signing a contract extension until 2031 last summer.

After previously banking around $3.5 million per year, Yamal is entitled to 10 times that sum just from his base salary. When all the bonuses and add-ons are taken into account, the teenager could claim as much as $46.6 million per year before taxes.

No one else on the roster is in the same wage bracket as Yamal, although Gordon has slotted himself straight into the second tier of earners. The new recruit is thought to take home slightly less than Raphinha, who is on around $21 million a year according to UOL, while outstripping Marc-André ter Stegen.

Barcelona have done their best to rid themselves of Ter Stegen’s swollen salary for years, with the threat of a legal battle swirling during an ugly stand-off last summer when there was a disagreement about how long the German goalkeeper would be injured for.

While Ter Stegen held firm—accepting a loan move to Girona where he promptly injured himself again—Frenkie de Jong agreed to a restructured pay packet after long months of negotiations with Barcelona. Having penned his initial deal in the pre-COVID-19 age of free-spending, De Jong was perennially (and unfairly) upheld as a villain by global media for continuing to accept the money he was legally entitled to while Barcelona were facing financial crisis.

The outspoken Dutchman was so incensed by reports about his earnings that he went on the attack. “If the BBC says Frenkie earns 40 million a year, it’s their responsibility to ensure the information they publish is accurate,” De Jong seethed last October. “And when something isn’t true, as was the case here, I feel I have the right to criticize them: they published something false.”

De Jong has since signed a new deal which entitles him to the same sum earned by the likes of Pedri, Dani Olmo and Ronald Araújo, as local media claim.

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How Can Barcelona Afford Gordon Salary If Rashford Deal Was Too Expensive?

It will be an interesting England camp for Anthony Gordon (left) and Marcus Rashford. | Eddie Keogh/The FA/Getty Images

One of the main reasons used to explain why Barcelona have ploughed forward with a move for Gordon rather than paying a fraction of the fee for Marcus Rashford is that the former Everton man would command a far smaller salary than his compatriot.

A weekly wage of $403,000 is nothing to sniff at but The Guardian insist that Rashford’s proposed salary would still be “significantly higher.”

There is also the question of what Barcelona would be getting for that salary. Rashford’s attacking output during his season on loan at Camp Nou was highly impressive: the 28-year-old averaged a goal or an assist every 105 minutes across all competitions, a ratio which only Yamal and Fermín López could better.

However, it was what Rashford did off the ball—or didn’t do—which prevented him from dethroning Raphinha as a first-choice option on the wing. Hansi Flick regularly praised Rashford’s efforts but it became clear that relentless pressing simply isn’t one of his strengths. The same, however, cannot be said for Gordon, who is just as swift covering ground when defending or attacking.

Unsurprisingly, he was also pretty quick to sign his Barcelona contract.

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