La Liga may not have the same figures thrown around or as much money involved as the Premier League, but when you look across the landscape of the Spanish top flight, you’ll still find plenty of contracts and wage figures.
Using data provided by FBRef.com, let’s take a look at the most overpaid player on every La Liga team for the 2025/26 season.
Girona
Why on earth Girona signed Axel Witsel remains a mystery. I get the idea of a club worried about relegation signing veteran players, but Witsel hasn’t been a starting-caliber player in ages and was a disaster for Atletico Madrid.
At 4.16 million euros per season, Witsel is Girona’s highest-paid player and is 36 years old. He has no real, defined position in 2025/26, and while he was once a top defensive midfielder at the Champions League level for Dortmund and an icon of the Belgian national team, he has no business being any La Liga side’s best-paid player.
Mallorca
Picking an overpaid player on Mallorca is tricky since the only player who makes more than four million euros per season is also, by far, their most important player, and that is star striker Vedat Muriqi.
And the others who make more than two million euros, defender Martin Valjent and La Liga icon Sergi Darder, are both vital players to Mallorca’s survival and continued hopes at being an upstart team in the top half of the table.
So for me, the most overpaid player is Johan Mojica. He’s stuck around as a starting left back in Serie A and La Liga for years, but he’s a massive liability defensively and offers no real end product, often holding onto the ball too long and then losing it cheaply.
At 1.88 million euros, Mojica is the fourth highest-paid player on Mallorca and is probably their least effective regular starter. His days in La Liga really should be numbered at this point now that he’s 32.
Real Sociedad
It’s remarkable thinking that Alvaro Odriozola ever played for Real Madrid, but the reputation of being a former Madrid player has carried on with his salary. At 2.7 million euros per season, Odriozola is Real Sociedad’s third highest-paid player behind stars Mikel Oyarazabal and Alex Remiro, as he makes more than even Takefusa Kubo.
Odriozola is buried on the depth chart, because he’s a major liability in the starting lineup for La Real. He’s just as suspect defensively in his return to the Anoeta as he was years ago in the capital, and he has nowhere near the athleticism or end product to make up for his defensive deficiencies.
But oh well, I guess he’ll always carry with him the reputation of being a former treble-winner at Bayern Munich.
Real Oviedo
David Carmo was supposed to be the next big thing to come out of the Portuguese top flight a few years ago at the center back position, so much so that even the mighty Real Madrid were in on him.
Now 26 years old, Carmo’s first foray into a top five European league after playing at the Champions League and Europa League level for Porto and Olympiacos is with newly promoted Oviedo.
He is the club’s highest-paid player at 1.1 million euros and has yet to start a single game this season. For now, he is the most overpaid player by default. That is subject to change, but, honestly, it probably won’t.
Valencia
Jose Gaya has been a train wreck this season and is Valencia’s highest-paid player. But while Gaya might be finished as an elite left back, I have a hard time calling a Valencia club legend the worst when Lucas Beltran is sitting right there at 3.75 million euros per season.
Beltran is a myth. That is to say, he’s never been good, and Fiorentina have been miles ahead without him. He is one of the worst strikers in European football and offers Valencia no value, which is why even they have stuffed him on the bench.
Celta Vigo
Because Bayern Munich are covering 50 percent of Bryan Zaragoza’s salary, I’ll hold off on making him the choice until the obligation to buy clause in his loan deal is activated.
So for now, Celta Vigo’s worst contract goes to Fran Beltran at 2.5 million euros per season. Borja Iglesias and Marcos Alonso both make more money, but they are at least somewhat useful to Celta.
Fran is barely a starter, and when he does start, he’s comfortably below average. It’s honestly been a whlie since Fran has been a relevant player in La Liga, and you’d have to think that Celta should be able to find a free agent or youth academy player for cheaper who can do a better job than him.
Rayo Vallecano
Alvaro Garcia is Rayo’s highest-paid player by almost double, but he’s also the only player on the team who makes two million euros per season. Because Rayo’s wage structure is so tight, it’s really hard to pick one player, but Oscar Valentin stands out.
The 31-year-old midfielder is nowhere near the starting lineup, nor should he be. He makes only 880,000 euros per season, so it’s tough to be super mad about this contract. That being said, for him to be one of the five highest-paid players on Rayo makes no sense.
Sevilla
Sevilla are a haven for awful contracts, as they have several well below-average La Liga players phoning it in and cashing three to four million euros per season. This club’s downfall since Monchi’s departure has been sad to watch.
Amongst the crowd of rubbish, Marcao stands out amongst the crowd for being particularly terrible. Sevilla have been smart enough to keep Marcao on the bench, but he is still the club’s highest-paid albatross contract at 4.38 million euros.
Levante
Mat Ryan and Jeremy Toljan are well-known (at least, for a club like Levante) players tied for the highest-paid on the team at 1.66 million euros. But stealing in there amongst them is wing back Robert Brugue, who is basically scamming the Frogs at this point.
He’s one of the worst players in La Liga, and for a small club like Levante to be spending this much money on the literal worst starting player (by far) in their lineup is a travesty.
Atletico Madrid
At 20.8 million euros, Jan Oblak is Atletico Madrid’s highest-paid player by nearly double, and while he honestly isn’t worth that much, he is still a great goalkeeper after a huge bounce-back season in 2024/25, so I’ll leave him off.
I’ll also spare Antoine Griezmann, for now, though he is quickly entering “finished” territory with his start to the 2025/26 season. But owing to the “class is permanent” adage, I’ll settle on midfielder Conor Gallagher, who has been totally useless for Atleti since joining from Chelsea and yet makes nine million euros per season, essentially as much as Griezmann does. And he’s not even worth Atleti starting.
Osasuna
Ante Budimir, Lucas Torro, Catena, and Jon Moncayola are all key players worth their one million euros in wages, but veteran Ruben Garcia is raking in 1.3 million euros – as much as star striker Budimir – and he’s only started one game.
Garcia has fallen off and is no longer a vital player for Osasuna. As painful as it is to say, there really isn’t another contender for this position.
Elche
I’m not sure there is a team on this list with a more obvious choice. Despite not being a relevant striker for years, Andre Silva made a transfer to Elche from Werder Bremen, where he did precisely nothing.
Silva has scored once this season, but he’s not an every game starter for Elche and makes four million euros, double what star man Rafa Mir earns.
Deportivo Alaves
Denis Suarez would be an obvious choice on any other team at 1.8 million euros and someone who belongs nowhere near the starting lineup, but there’s an even more obvious selection in striker Mariano Diaz.
The definition of a meme, Mariano is probably somwhere in Alaves bench pressing and enjoying his 1.5 million euros. It’s not a Real Madrid salary, but obviously no top club would touch him – and neither should have Alaves, who already made the mistake of actually starting him in a game.
Villarreal
For some dumb reason, Villarreal decided to sign Thomas Partey, who is apparently making 3.1 million euros to tie him amongst club legend Dani Parejo as one of the Yellow Submarine’s highest-paid players.
Predictably, Partey has been terrible for Villarreal, starting just one of four games. He is one of their worst players, he was a fraud supported by a horde of brainless Arsenal fans who will support anyone, and he is stealing money from Villarreal and minutes from a far better player in Parejo. Get this guy out of La Liga.
Getafe
Borja Mayoral honestly isn’t worth the 4.7 million euros that Getafe are paying him as their clear highest-paid footballer, and he has been surpassed by 20-year-old Adrian Liso as the team’s star striker.
However, Mayoral is still somewhat useful to Getafe. Former Real Betis standout Juanmi is not. The 32-year-old is toast at this point, and 2.5 million euros is far too much to be spending on a player with no role to play in the attack.
Athletic Club
I just know people are going to riot about this, but let’s be objective here even though we all love him. On what planet is Inaki Williams worth paying 11.4 million euros per season?
The guy hasn’t scored in four games to start the season, and if he were named anyone else, he’d probably never start for Athletic Club again. He misses chances, bobbles the ball, and can’t beat defenders anymore. He’s likely toast, too.
Real Betis
It boggles my mind why on earth Real Betis agreed to sign Sofyan Amrabat from Fenerbahce on loan when they are having to cover every cent of his 6.25 million euros in wages.
He hasn’t been a relevant player in years, and it’s hard to see how he fits La Liga. Amrabat is the definition of a player who lacks invention and thrives off sideways passing, and I have no idea which so-called tacticos started hyping him up as a player worthy of going to Manchester United.
Espanyol
Espanyol’s only player who makes two million euros per season also happens to be their most well-known attacker, Javi Puado, and while he’s nothing to write home about, I’d rather pay him two million euros than Charles Pickel nearly 1.5 million.
I don’t know what a Charles Pickel is. I have never seen one. I have never heard of one, and I eat a lot of sandwiches. Bad jokes aside, Pickel hasn’t started a game for Espanyol this season, and it’s better it stays that way for this season’s early surprise side in La Liga.
Barcelona
At 16.67 million euros, Marc-Andre ter Stegen is making as much money as the literal best player in world football, Lamine Yamal.
There are players on Barcelona making more money than Ter Stat- I mean Ter Stegen, but they aren’t miscreants riding the bench and disunionizing the team.
Ter Stegen has exposed himself as one of the most fraudulent goalkeepers of our days, and it is laughable to think that some fans tried to pretend like he was on Thibaut Courtois’ level.
Joan Garcia is the present and future of Barcelona and the biggest goalkeeper phenom in the world, though Wojciech Szczesny and even Inaki Pena had already made Ter Stegen a fleeting memory.
Real Madrid
Antonio Rudiger is rapidly becoming a bad contract now that people are realizing he is overrated, and Trent Alexander-Arnold is a transfer flop waiting to happen whose own contract will soon be derided by Madridistas as much as Eden Hazard’s was.
Despite all that, the honor for worst contract is 100 percent David Alaba’s. He’s far more likable than the other two and was such a vital player to winning the 2021/22 Champions League after Sergio Ramos’s departure to Paris, but an ACL tear in the 2023/24 season has doomed the Austrian legend’s career.
Alaba isn’t the most finished player in La Liga, but he has no business making 22 million euros – let alone being paid more than anyone besides Kylian Mbappe on a superstar-rich team like Real Madrid.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling.