Inter Milan wages: Top 10 highest-paid players on biggest Serie A payroll

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Nicolo Barella, Marcus Thuram and Benjamin Pavard

Barella, Thuram and Pavard are all in Inter's top 10 earners - but who else is?

Inter Milan have the highest wage bill in Serie A and it paid off last season when they clinched the Scudetto – a title they’re hoping to seal again in the next few weeks.

Also one of the four semi-finalists in the 2024-25 Champions League, Inter have the highest-paid head coach in Serie A, Simone Inzaghi, and have assembled a valuable squad for him to work with.

Here are the top 10 highest-paid Inter players, with their wages per week revealed. Impressively, Inter signed four of these players on free transfers and produced another from their own academy.

Note, the conversions to pounds are rounded to nearest thousand and are based on the exchange rates at the time of writing but are subject to change.

10. Benjamin Pavard (€123,269 / £106,000)

Inter signed Pavard in 2023 after four years of service to Bayern Munich by the 2018 World Cup winner.

Pavard was being paid €5m per season at Bayern, but earned an increase to €6.41m per season by moving to Italy.

The versatile defender only made 23 Serie A appearances in his debut season after dealing with an injury midway through, but ended it with a league winner’s medal nonetheless to follow up the four Bundesliga titles he won with Bayern.

He went on to score against his former employers in the Champions League quarter-final second leg in April 2025.

9. Joaquin Correa (€124,615 / £107,000)

Correa followed Inzaghi from Lazio to Inter in the summer of 2021 and signed a four-year deal worth €6.48m per season.

Despite being one of Inter’s top 10 earners, Correa has made more appearances as a substitute than as a starter for the Nerazzurri. In fact, even if he was to start all their games before his contract expires this summer, that would still be the case.

The Argentina forward, who is now 30, spent the 2023-24 season on loan at Marseille, who covered the majority of his salary for that campaign.

8. Stefan de Vrij (€135,385 / £116,000)

De Vrij ran down his deal with Lazio in 2018 to join Inter on a free transfer, which also earned him a significant increase in salary.

The Dutch defender was on €2.39m per year at Lazio, but his Inter salary since day one has been €7.04m per year.

He stayed on those terms when his initial five-year contract ran out in 2023 and he signed a two-year extension.

Should he sign a renewal this year, it will likely be on a lower salary due to his age of 33, despite his good performances over the years at San Siro.

READ MORE: The FOUR Inter Milan players out of contract in 2026: Keep or sell?

7. Federico Dimarco (€142,500 / £122,000)

Inter’s best-paid academy product, Dimarco made his senior debut in 2014, but it’s only really been since 2021, after returning from a loan spell at Hellas Verona, that he’s been a first-team regular.

It was worth the wait, though. Dimarco is now regarded as one of the best left-backs in the world. His salary has increased over time to reflect that.

When Inter bought Dimarco back from Sion in 2018 and loaned him to Parma, he earned €7,115 per week.

Midway through his comeback season, in December 2021, Dimarco was rewarded with an upgraded €64,038-per-week deal. The Italy international achieved another extension two years later, jumping into the top bracket of Inter’s earners on a deal until 2027.

6. Marcus Thuram (€147,885 / £127,000)

An astute bit of business by Inter in 2023 was to bring in Thuram on a free transfer after his €61,538-per-week contract with Borussia Monchengladbach expired.

Inter handed the striker a deal worth more than twice as much, securing his signature on a contract until 2028.

Thuram scored 13 Serie A goals in his debut season, claiming a league winner’s medal, and has improved on that domestic goal tally in his second season as well.

The France international currently has a €95m release clause but could be given a new contract by Inter to remove it.

5. Piotr Zielinski (€160,192 / £138,000)

Zielinski has spent his entire career in Serie A, so his experience in Italy’s top flight made him an attractive proposition for Inter when his Napoli contract expired in 2024.

His Napoli salary was worth €124,615 per week, but he earned better terms with the move to Inter, who pay him €1.85m more annually plus bonuses.

Like Correa, though, he has been a sub more than a starter in Serie A this season and that won’t change by the end of it.

Zielinski’s terms are due to last until 2028, when he will be 34 years old.

4. Alessandro Bastoni (€195,962 / £168,000)

One of the best left-footed centre-backs in the world, Bastoni joined Inter in 2017 but was sent out on loan until linking up with their first team two years later.

By the time he made his Inter debut, Bastoni had already earned an upgrade on his original contract, since they renewed his terms between his loan spells with Atalanta and Parma.

He subsequently took a massive leap up their list of earners when he signed a new deal in May 2021, on the back of becoming a Serie A champion for the first time.

That renewal was only due to last until 2024, but a year before its expiry, Inter managed to tie Bastoni down for the long term, increasing his salary to more than €10m per year as a result.

He went on to be named the best defender in Serie A at the league’s annual awards for his form the following season.

3. Hakan Calhanoglu (€213,654 / £184,000)

The fourth player in this top 10 to have joined Inter without a transfer fee, Calhanoglu’s arrival at the club was controversial, given he came straight from rivals AC Milan.

To keep him at San Siro but in blue and black rather than red and black, Inter offered Calhanoglu a salary worth exactly double what Milan had been paying him.

“Everyone thinks I left for money. That’s not the case. At Inter I feel important,” Calhanoglu clarified in a January 2024 interview.

Two years after joining, the midfielder signed an even more lucrative deal which is worth more than €11m per season.

He proved to be good value for his new contract, winning the Serie A best midfielder award at the next time of asking.

Calhanoglu recently turned 30, but has another couple of years remaining on his contract and has now made more appearances for Inter than he did for Milan.

2. Nicolo Barella (€231,538 / £199,000)

Barella was a big prospect after making his name at Cagliari and Inter won the race to sign him in 2019, when he was 22 years old.

He has since become one of the best midfielders in the world and was recognised as the best in Serie A for the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons.

Barella’s first Inter contract was worth €4.63m per year, but he doubled it in November 2021 with a five-year extension.

His latest contract update came in June 2024, again for another five years, and this time being offered more than €12m per year, which he gladly accepted.

Barella is the best-paid Italian player in Serie A, which is justified given that he’s been named in the league’s team of the year on more occasions than anyone else.

1. Lautaro Martinez (€320,577 / £276,000)

The best-paid player at Inter, and second-best in Serie A behind only Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic, is club captain Martinez.

Inter brought Martinez to Europe in the summer of 2018 and he has since made more than 300 appearances for the club.

Martinez was only 20 years old when he joined Inter, who gave him a salary worth €53,462 per week. He is now on a much higher salary.

In October 2021, Inter managed to remove Martinez’s release clause and upgraded his salary after the sale of strike partner Romelu Lukaku that summer. The Argentina forward began earning €213,654 per week.

And he put pen to paper on fresh terms again in the summer of 2024, signing up for five years on €320,577 per week. In total, that will earn him more than €83m over the course of the five years.

Martinez is now in Inter’s top 10 goalscorers of all time and if he does stay until 2029 as scheduled, he could feasibly end up in the top three.

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