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Thursday, January 22, 2026

The 15 Highest-Paid Players at the Women’s World Cup

  • Nine of the top-10 highest-paid World Cup players are on the USWNT.
  • The rankings from Forbes combine both on-field and off-field earnings.
Alex Morgan ranks first at $7.1 million, followed by Megan Rapinoe.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

U.S. Women’s National Team players make up 11 of the 15 highest-paid players on Women’s World Cup rosters, according to new rankings from Forbes.

For USWNT players Forbes calculated their total earnings based on their U.S. Soccer and NWSL club contracts, off-field earnings from endorsements, appearances, licensing, memorabilia, and other business activities.

This summer’s Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia is the first held since U.S. Soccer reached a new collective bargaining agreement in 2022 to split prize pool bonuses among the men’s and women’s national teams, as we all equalized payments for appearance fees, performance bonuses, and commercial revenue.  

While the $110 million prize pool for this year’s Women’s World Cup is quadruple the 2019 tournament’s $30 million total, it is still only a quarter of FIFA’s prize pool for the men’s World Cup. FIFA threatened to blackout European broadcasts of this year’s Women’s World Cup because networks made lowball offers before settling for deals that fell $100 million short of its targeted rights fee goal.

FIFA aims pay equity among World Cup prize pools by 2027. Visa recently extended its sponsorship with U.S. Soccer through 2028, promising that at least 50% of Visa’s investments will go towards Women’s National Team and women’s soccer initiatives.

Below is the list of Forbes’s top-15 Women’s World Cup earners, with several players tied for spots.

RankPlayerCompensationNation
No. 1Alex Morgan$7.1MU.S.
No. 2Megan Rapinoe$7MU.S.
No. 3Alexia Putellas$4MSpain
No. 4Trinity Rodman$2.3MU.S.
No. 5Crystal Dunn$2MU.S.
No. 6Julie Ertz$2MU.S.
No. 7Sophia Smith$2MU.S.
No. 8Lindsey Horan$1.5MU.S
No. 9Rose Lavelle$1.4MU.S.
No. 10Sofia Huerta$1.3M  U.S.
No. 11Ada Hegerberg$1.2MNorway
No. 12Chloe Kelly$1.2MEngland 
No. 13Sam Kerr$1.2MAustralia
No. 14Kelley O’Hara$1.2M U.S.
No. 15Alyssa Naeher$1.1M U.S.

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