Rolling in the dough
Bailey the highest-paid Jamaican in the EPL
Published:Thursday | January 16, 2025 | 12:13 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
ASTON VILLA winger Leon Bailey is the highest-earning Jamaican player in the English Premier League (EPL) and the joint sixth top-paid player at his club.
Bailey, who collects a weekly salary of £120,000, which amounts to over £6.2 million per year, tops the list of highest-earning Jamaicans in the EPL over West Ham striker Michail Antonio, who pockets £85,000 per week and an annual salary of £4,160,000.
Leicester City’s attacker Bobby Reid is next on the list of Jamaicans, with a yearly income of £1,820,000 at £35,000 per week.
The other Jamaican in the EPL, Brentford defender Ethan Pinnock, takes home £30,000 per week or an annual salary of £1,560,000.
At Aston Villa, Bailey is the sixth-highest earner behind the likes of French midfielder Boubacar Kamara, Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, and Belgium midfielder Youri Tielemans, who each earn £7,800,000 annually and £150,000 weekly.
The other players who earn more than Bailey are Senegalese midfielder Amadou Onana, who takes home £7,280,000 per year (£140,000 a week) and striker Ollie Watkins, who gets £6,760,000 per year (£130,000 a week).
Bailey, French defender Lucas Digne, and Scottish midfielder John McGinn are all on equal weekly salaries.
Antonio is the joint 12th highest earner at West Ham behind top earners in England striker Jared Bowen and Brazilian midfielder Lucas Paqueta, who both collect an annual income of £7.8 million.
At Leicester City, Reid is joint 14th in the salary table, which is headed by the club’s legendary striker Jamie Vardy, who pockets £7.2 million per year, the equivalent of £140,000 per week.
At Brentford, a club with one of the smallest budgets in the EPL, Pinnock is joint 11th, behind top earner Aaron Hickey, who is on £3.2 million annually or £70,000 per week.
When Bailey arrived from Bayer Leverkusen in the 2021-22 season, he was among the top five earners at Aston Villa, with only Brazilian Phillippe Coutinho (£6.5 million), Danny Ings, Digne, and Martinez (£6.2 million) earning more.
Although he slipped to seventh in highest earners at the club in 2022-23, due to the arrival of new players and some players getting improved contracts, Bailey now sits just outside the top five earners after he got an improved contract last season following an outstanding campaign in which he had 10 goals and nine assists.