One Surprise Non-European Boss Sneaks Into 2024’s Highest Paid Football Managers

2024’s highest paid football managers may not be as cut and dry as you may expect, with a few surprise names earning a pretty penny for their services.

Mammoth player salaries often steal the limelight when it comes to renumeration in football. However, those in positions of power at elite clubs have found that high-value managers also need rewarding handsomely.

By and large, the highest paid football managers at this moment in time almost certainly warrant their multi-million pound contracts, but a select few on this list may raise a few eyebrows.

Highest Paid Football Managers 2024

8. Arne Slot – Liverpool (£6.8m Per-Year)

Although Arne Slot is set to earn less per-year than his predecessor Jurgen Klopp after being named the Global Head of Soccer at Red Bull, Liverpool have put considerable faith in the Dutchman.

So much so that his £6.8m per-annum salary puts him among the top eight highest paid football managers. This also marks a pay bump of nearly £3m per-year compared to his contract at former employers Feyenoord.

A slight transitional period was widely expected given Liverpool hadn’t endured a managerial shake-up in nine years, but Slot’s high-energy, possession-centric football has catapulted the Reds top of the Premier League after seven games.

If recent performances are a sign of things to come, £6.8m per-year may be a retrospective bargain price.

7. Simone Inzaghi – Inter Milan (£8.8m Per-Year)

A man who almost certainly warrants a hefty pay check is Inter Milan’s Simone Inzaghi.

His imprint is plastered all over the pitch, with his ultra-transitional 3-5-2 formation equally effective in a low-block as it is in a high-press.

Having narrowly missed out on a Champions League triumph against Manchester City in 2022, Inzaghi would go on to mastermind Inter’s 20th Scudetto by a breathtaking margin of 19 points last season.

A highly sought after figure outside of his native Italy, Inzaghi will take some wooing if he is to vacate a very comfortable position at high-lying Inter.

The club recently handed him a bumper two-year extension in recognition of six titles in three seasons, bringing his salary up to £8.8m per-season.

6. Erik Ten Hag – Manchester United (£9m Per-Year)

Moving swiftly on from a man with iron-clad job security to one teetering on the edge of vacating his, Erik Ten Hag.

Eight points in seven games is far from the ideal start for Manchester United, who, now under new ownership, may be quietly assessing the managerial market in preparation for a change.

Two domestic trophies in two seasons is typically not the record of a man who deserves to be cut loose, but the club’s worst ever Premier League finish may indicate otherwise.

The new INEOS-led hierarchy have not shied away from letting their feeling about Ten Hag known, with it believed that Sir Jim Ratcliffe would have preferred to install his own choice upon purchasing the club.

Nevertheless, Ten Hag continues to tick along with a cushty £9m per-year salary.

5. Mikel Arteta – Arsenal (£9.5m Per-Year)

Arsenal recently rewarded Mikel Arteta with a bumper new contract, perhaps very strategically too in the days leading up to their North London derby victory in September.

Despite having little to show for his efforts since taking over in 2019, the former Gunners captain has changed the complexion of the club in a very short space of time; no longer are Arsenal the feeble, fragile laughing stock that characterised much of the last decade.

Considerable challenges to Manchester City’s crown over the last two seasons are a direct result of Arteta’s cultural overhaul, with the Spaniard responsible for everything from masterminding a tactical renovation, to bringing in a mood-boosting support dog named ‘Win’ to the training ground.

4. Carlo Ancelotti – Real Madrid (£9.6m Per-Year)

Fears that Carlo Ancelotti may depart Real Madrid in favour of an international role appeared very real last season.

That was until the enigmatic Italian put pen-to-paper on a three-year extension, bringing his salary up to £9.6m per-year.

Not many, if any, would have predicted Ancelotti’s romantic renaissance; a journey that took him on a turbulent tenure in Naples and on to an extraordinary escapade at Everton that felt more like a fever dream than reality.

A decade after winning his maiden Champions League for Los Blancos in his first stint, he lifted it again for a third time and fifth overall as a manager.

In a footballing landscape saturated by rigid tactics and an incessant need for ‘identity’, Don Carlo’s adaptable, free-flowing football offers a refreshing respite.

3. Steven Gerrard – Al-Ettifaq (£15.2m Per-Year)

Yes, Steven Gerrard is indeed still managing in Saudi Arabia. You would be forgiven for letting that forgettable chapter in football history slip your mind.

Not many can blame Gerrard for jumping ship in favour of a cool £15.2m per-year salary, particularly after cutting his teeth in the Premier League; a disastrous tenure to say the least.

What the future holds for an undeniably talented manager – as seen at Rangers – remains to be seen, but for now a wage package of epic proportions seems to be enough to keep him in the Middle East.

2. Pep Guardiola – Manchester City (£20m Per-Year)

You also may be forgiven for thinking the world’s best manager would have the highest salary.

Pep Guardiola’s £20m per-season contract at Manchester City is justified, and then some.

His arrival has sparked unparalleled success, both in the context of Manchester City’s history and English football as a whole.

Despite rumours linking him with roles such as the England job, there is just as much truth in City wanting to tie him down to complete a decade under his stewardship.

🚨🇪🇸 Pep Guardiola is considering renewing his contract at Manchester City for another 12 months, reports @TeleFootball. ✍️ pic.twitter.com/jYZ134EwKk

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) October 15, 2024

You would be hard pushed to find a man more utterly obsessed and zealous towards football, but this infatuation with winning has seen him lift 15 trophies with City.

More than worth the £20m per-year contract.

1. Diego Simeone – Atletico Madrid (£30m Per-Year)

The longest-serving manager in Spanish football has never really looked like leaving, even if the press may have indicated otherwise.

No one man typifies the tenacity, discipline and dedication of Altletico Madrid more than Diego Simeone, who has been at the helm since 2011.

Two La Liga titles, two Europa League triumphs and runner-up in two Champions League campaigns makes him by far and away the club’s most successful manager.

The Argentine has achieved near-God-like status in the San Blas-Canillejas district. His loyalty knows no bounds given the clubs that have requested his services over the past 13 years, which has been handsomely rewarded with the highest managerial salary in football.