Ex-Liverpool star Shaqiri named the highest-paid MLS player, he takes up nearly half of his club's entire wage budget

A former Liverpool star is the highest-paid player in Major League Soccer, it has been revealed.

The MLS has somewhat shed its unfair reputation as a ‘retirement league’ in recent seasons.

While Europe’s elite of yesteryear are often offered lucrative deals to ply their trade in the US, there has also been tremendous growth on and off the pitch.

MLS clubs are now building robust and already fruitful academy systems and more and more of the league’s young players are garnering interest from abroad. Meanwhile, the standard in competition has risen incrementally.

Yet, like any league, there remains the odd contract that raises eyebrows. Indeed, former Liverpool winger Xherdan Shaqiri is the highest-paid player in the MLS, earning significantly more than any of his Chicago Fire teammates.

Shaqiri’s MLS contract

According to statistics published by the MLS, Shaqiri had a salary of $8.15million (£6.55million) during his first season at Chicago Fire.

Shaqiri ended a three-year spell at Liverpool in 2021 to move to Lyon in a £5million deal, only to join the Fire a year later.

And in his first season Stateside the Swiss international made 29 appearances claiming seven goals and seven assists in that time. Four of those goals are from the penalty spot.

Despite such relatively modest figures, Shaqiri’s eye-watering salary takes up a staggering 41.8 percent of Chicago’s total wage budget.

The club finished 12th in the Eastern Conference in the Swiss international’s first season, while they currently sit 13th, with Shaqiri having started fives games and come off the bench twice this term.

Chicago head coach Ezra Hendrickson was sacked earlier this month because of poor results.

Elsewhere Lorenzo Insigne (£6million) and Federico Bernardeschi (£5million), both of Toronto, earn the second and fourth highest wage in the league, with former Manchester United star Javier Hernandez (£5.9million) sitting in third.