Ex-England Star Reveals How Three Lions 'Payslip' Compares to Club Wages

A former England international has explained how player wages work in international football.

Thomas Tuchel and his Three Lions side are currently in camp ahead of what could prove to be a tough test against Serbia in Belgrade on Tuesday (September 9).

Since joining England in the autumn of 2024, Tuchel has a perfect record in World Cup qualifiers and boasts two victories over Andorra and one over both Latvia and Albania with his only failure coming in a 3-1 friendly defeat against Senegal in June.

Tuchel was appointed as head coach of England with the sole aim of winning next year’s World Cup, and he will be paid handsomely for his work throughout his initial 18-month contract.

Somewhat surprisingly, the German took a pay cut to become England boss.

During his time at Chelsea, where he won the Champions League, the 52-year-old reportedly earned around £10million per year, as per The Standard.

However, he pockets around £5m per year in his role as Three Lions boss or around £97,000 per week.

Thomas Tuchel replaced Gareth Southgate as England manager (Credit:Getty)

At Bayern, he earned around £7.5m per year.

But do England’s players earn directly from playing for their country?

Stars such as Marcus Rashford, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane are currently part of Tuchel’s plans and are among the highest earners in Europe.

And the players’ earnings are supplemented by brand deals and bonuses with their respective clubs.

But they do not directly benefit financially from playing for England, according to former Three Lions goalkeeper Ben Foster.

Foster, who earned eight England caps between 2007 and 2014, revealed exactly how things work when speaking on the Fozcast in 2021.

"Some countries will pay you a set amount of money, and it could be good money as well,” Foster explained.

“The way England works is you get a match fee for playing the game - it's nothing major in broader football terms.”

The 43-year-old then detailed that players received around £2,000 per game, which is then “signed off to charity”.

However, despite sacrificing their match fee, the Three Lions players do receive a “percentage of the sponsorship”.

Foster added: "Every company that sponsors an international team, everybody that sponsors England - whether it's McDonald's, Carlsberg, Heineken - all of that goes into a big pot.

"The players will then receive a certain per cent. I don't know the exact amount I can't be sure, but I'll throw something out there, like maybe 20 per cent or something. The players will then get a pro rata and that's basically how much players will receive for playing for England."

It must be noted that the way in which payments work could’ve changed since Foster’s time with England.