Pulisic tops USMNT pay as Balogun closes gap

highest paid – Christian Pulisic is still the highest-paid USMNT player on current estimates, earning about $6.03 million gross fixed salary for AC Milan’s 2025-26 season. But the distance from the rest of the pool is shrinking fast: Malik Tillman ($5.55m), Timothy Weah ($5.

Christian Pulisic’s name still sits at the very top of the USMNT salary conversation, but it’s no longer sitting alone.

On current estimates, the AC Milan winger is expected to earn an estimated $6.03 million in gross fixed salary for the 2025-26 season, excluding bonuses. He remains narrowly ahead of Malik Tillman, whose move to Bayer Leverkusen is estimated to come with an annual salary of about $5.55 million.

Timothy Weah follows at roughly $5.35 million after his switch to Marseille. Johnny Cardoso’s jump to Atlético Madrid places him just behind at about $4.90 million. The top of the list doesn’t just show who makes the most—it shows how tightly the top group is starting to cluster.

Salaries in the USMNT pool now read like this:

Christian Pulisic. AC Milan: $6.03m
Malik Tillman. Bayer Leverkusen: $5.55m
Timothy Weah. Marseille: $5.35m
Johnny Cardoso. Atlético Madrid: $4.90m
Sergiño Dest. PSV: $4.61m
Tyler Adams. Bournemouth: $4.25m
Antonee Robinson. Fulham: $4.25m
Folarin Balogun. Monaco: $3.79m
Weston McKennie. Juventus: $3.78m
Brenden Aaronson. Leeds United: $3.18m
Yunus Musah. Atalanta: $3.01m
Matt Turner. New England Revolution: $1.78m
Giovanni Reyna. Borussia Mönchengladbach: $1.33m.

The gap that once felt like a wide canyon has begun to look more like a staircase. Pulisic’s deal still sits in a tier of its own, yet the numbers beneath him show multiple Americans operating in the same financial bracket—and several still years away from their peak.

That shift is tied to what’s happening in global transfers, where American players aren’t being treated like rare exceptions anymore.

Pulisic’s $74.1 million move from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea in 2019 remains the benchmark, but the next wave is arriving quickly. Folarin Balogun’s transfer to Monaco. Johnny Cardoso’s move to Atlético Madrid. and Malik Tillman’s switch to Bayer Leverkusen all reinforce the same trend: USMNT players are no longer outliers in the eight-figure market.

Even deals slightly below that threshold can still carry major weight. Patrick Agyemang’s move from Charlotte FC to Derby County, reported at around $8 million, ranks among the most significant fees ever for an MLS SuperDraft pick.

Look at the structure of the list and a pattern emerges through the names themselves. Players like Tyler Adams. Antonee Robinson. and Sergiño Dest are already firmly established in Europe’s top leagues with salaries to match. Younger names such as Tillman. Musah. and Balogun are earning at levels that once tended to require years of Champions League experience.

For a US team building toward the 2026 World Cup on home soil, that change matters. Pulisic remains the headline figure, but the supporting cast is no longer catching up.

It has already arrived.

USMNT Christian Pulisic Malik Tillman Timothy Weah Johnny Cardoso Folarin Balogun highest paid USMNT players AC Milan Bayer Leverkusen Marseille Atletico Madrid Monaco Tyler Adams Antonee Robinson Sergiño Dest transfer fees