Highest paid player in Nigeria league: NPFL 2026/27 salaries

In Abuja on 24 June 2026, Shehu Dikko, chairman of the National Sports Commission, met officials of the NFF and the league. He came out with a number no NPFL dressing room had heard before. From the 2026/27 season, he said, no registered player should earn less than ₦2 million a month. That is more than the best-paid home-based player was reported to earn in October 2025.

So who is the highest paid player in the Nigeria league right now? Nobody can say for sure. The honest answer is that nobody has published a verified figure for 2025/26 or 2026/27. Here is what is actually on the record.

At a glance

The last published figures

Salaries in the NPFL are rarely disclosed. Not officially, anyway.

Most top-ten lists online, including the one this page carried in 2024, never pointed to a named press report. We have removed every name and amount we could not trace. What remains is short. Writing in Vanguard in October 2025, after Mamelodi Sundowns beat Remo Stars 5-1 in Abeokuta, Patrick Omorodion stated that the highest paid player in the NPFL was Remo Stars' Sikiru Alimi on ₦1.3m a month, against roughly ₦64m a month for Themba Zwane at Sundowns. In the same piece, Remo Stars proprietor Kunle Soname was quoted describing the general pay scale in the league.

Treat the Alimi figure as historical. According to his FotMob profile, he left Remo Stars on a free transfer in August 2025 for JS Saoura in Algeria. He no longer plays in the league. You can follow the club he left, the 2024/25 champions, on our Remo Stars players and salary page.

“There isn't enough money in our league to compete. Players in the Nigerian league earn N500,000, N700,000, or maybe a maximum of N800,000 monthly.” Kunle Soname, quoted by Vanguard

The ₦2 million question

Dikko framed it simply. “Players must earn a living wage,” he said, according to Daily Trust, adding that this was how to build a league that commands respect at home and abroad. The same package lifted the champions' prize to ₦1 billion from ₦200 million, with ₦500 million for the runners-up and ₦300 million for third place.

The arithmetic worried people almost at once. Adams Mouktar Mohammed, chairman of the FCT FA, told Blueprint that a 30-man squad at the minimum would cost ₦720 million a year in wages alone, and that the 20 clubs together would need more than ₦14 billion a year before a single coach, physio or bus is paid for. Rivers United chairman Chris Green told The Guardian that the NSC “should be ready to give each club at least N100 million” if it wanted the wage paid. His captain was blunter. In August, Stephen Manyo called the plan “just a mere statement for now” until sponsors arrive. There is more on that dressing room on our Rivers United players and salary page.

Not everyone is sceptical. Players, unsurprisingly, like it. Barau FC forward Joseph Atule told Daily Trust that a ₦2m wage would make the league “very competitive”.

Arrears are still the real story

History counsels caution. It has been here before. The LMC's ₦150,000 minimum faded because many clubs simply could not pay it, Daily Trust recalled, and Heartland players protested 11 months of unpaid wages in 2022. In January 2026, Premium Times reported that the Katsina State Government had cleared five months of arrears owed to Katsina United players, who were then moved onto the state payroll after a biometric data capture exercise. Six weeks into the new season, we have found no report confirming that every club now pays ₦2m. None names the best-paid player under the new structure either.

The benches are no different. As our look at what NPFL coaches really earn found, no club publishes its coach's salary, and arrears follow managers too.

On the pitch, the season has started unevenly. Barau FC were still unbeaten going into Matchday 6 in late September, while Enyimba were still looking for their first points, as our Enyimba page follows.

Our view

A top-earner list built on guesses does readers no favours, and in 2026 it would also be out of date, since the new minimum on paper is higher than any salary the press has ever attached to a named NPFL player. If the ₦2m floor is honoured, who earns the most will matter less than whether every squad is paid on time. That is the test. When a club, the NPFL or a reputable outlet publishes a named 2026/27 salary, we will add it here with the date and the source. Until then, the safest reading of the market is the one told by goals and moves; our NPFL top scorer list shows who is earning attention this season.

This article was most recently revised and updated 49 seconds ago