Athletes

The 25 Highest-Paid MLS Forwards

Lionel Messi leads all forwards earning $12 million.
Only three forwards earn over $5 million.

Jul 03, 2024 | 05:12 pm

UPDATED Mar 31, 2025 | 09:54 am

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The MLS continues to grow in revenue and expand its number of teams, partially thanks to the arrival of internationally known players.

Lionel Messi tops all MLS forwards as the highest-paid of 2025.

Few players in the world can stir up global hype — and potentially double their team revenues — like Messi. He makes $12 million a year playing for Inter Miami. His groundbreaking arrival in the MLS last summer caused a flurry of new attention league-wide.

Messi’s salary and career numbers put him far ahead of the rest of the list. He’s the only player earning over $10 million and the only one with over 200 career goals.

Coming in second is Lorenzo Insigne of Toronto. Insigne earns $7.5 million a season as their star forward. He’s signed until 2026 and is set to make $22.5 million in his time with them.

His 127 career goals are third among the top 10 highest-paid forwards.

Third on the list is Red Bulls’ Emil Forsberg earning $5.41 million. Forsberg won the 2021 Swedish Golden Ball while playing for his native Sweden.

Sebastián Driussi makes $4.5 million to come in fourth. Driussi was signed in 2021 by Austin and played in its inaugural season in the MLS. Driussi has played in his native Argentina and Russia before signing a two-year deal to play in the MLS.

Rounding out the top five is Christian Benteke of DC United. He earns $4.25 million as part of a two-year, $8.5 million deal signed last August. Benteke earned $67.41 million during his time in the English Premier League.

Seven of the ten highest-paid MLS forwards play in the Eastern Conference.

Even though he doesn’t play in every MLS game, disappointing some clubs, Messi’s 594 career matches are over 100 more than the next closest player on the list.

Ranking The Highest-Paid MLS Forwards

Here is the entire list of the highest-paid MLS forwards. The list was compiled with data from Capology.

Updated: March 31, 2025

Rank	Player	Team	Total Compensation
1	Lionel Messi	Inter Miami	$12 million
2	Lorenzo Insigne	Toronto FC	$7.5 million
3	Emil Forsberg	NY Red Bulls	$5.41 million
4	Christian Benteke	DC United	$4.25 million
5	Carles Gil	NE Revolution	$4 million
6	Hany Mukhtar	Nashville SC	$3.8 million
7	Hugo Cuypers	Chicago Fire	$3.24 million
8	Joseph Paintsil	LA Galaxy	$3.14 million
9	Federico Bernardeschi	Toronto FC	$3.13 million
10	Denis Bouanga	LAFC	$2.92 million
11	Ryan Gauld	Vancouver Whitecaps	$2.88 million
12	Luis Muriel	Orlando City	$2.83 million
13	Olivier Giroud	LAFC	$2.8 million
14	Diego Rossi	Columbus Crew	$2.68 million
15	Ezequiel Ponce	Houston Dynamo	$2.56 million
16	Sam Surridge	Nashville SC	$2.5 million
17	Aleksey Miranchuk	Atlanta United	$2.4 million
18	Liel Abada	Charlotte FC	$2.3 million
19	Albert Rusnák	Seattle Sounders	$2.15 million
20	Kévin Cabral	Colorado Rapids	$1.95 million
21	Cristian Espinoza	San Jose Earthquakes	$1.82 million
T-22	Peter Musa	FC Dallas	$1.8 million
T-22	Mikael Uhre	Philadelphia Union	$1.8 million
24	Jonathan Rodríguez	Portland Timbers	$1.78 million
25	Jordan Morris	Seattle Sounders	$1.7 million