Do Soccer Players Get Paid During Off Season?

A soccer league is usually somewhere between 8 to 9 months long, which means that some soccer players will have no games to play during most of the remaining 3~4 months of a soccer year. Do these players still get paid during these off season months?

It all depends on their contracts, But most of the time, yes they do get paid.

Soccer players usually do get paid during their off seasons. There is an annual base salary that a professional soccer player gets from their club, and some of this annual salary amount will definitely be paid during the off season. But it’s different when it comes to bonuses.

Again, it always depends on the contract between the soccer player and their club, but most of the time, a professional soccer player is paid at least once a month, no matter how much they play during each month.

But what about when a player gets injured? Or when a coach decides not to use a certain player at all? Do these players still get paid?

Do soccer players get paid when injured?

Soccer players do get paid their base salary even if they get injured for months. As long as their contract doesn’t include any payment cuts when it comes to injuries, and usually they don’t, then the players will get paid their salaries even if they can’t play due to injury.

You can already tell how much of a loss a soccer club will face if one of their big soccer players gets injured. There is literally no soccer player that is immune to any kind of injury.

Just to give you an idea, here are the highest-paid soccer players world wide in the year 2020.

Statistic: Highest-paid (salaries & endorsements) soccer players worldwide in 2020 | Statista
Find more statistics at Statista

The salary and bonuses of Lionel Messi in the year 2020 was 92 Million dollars for the full year. 

Imagine losing Lionel Messi for 2 months due to injury. This would mean that the club will have to pay 15.33 million dollars (92 millions divided by 12 months multiplied by 2 months)while still not being able to use Lionel Messi during this period.

The number can even be higher than that if you exclude the off season months from the equation because you already know that Messi will most probably not be playing non-friendly matches with their team during the off season.

This gives you an idea of how expensive an injury can be for soccer clubs that pay high wages for their players.

Do players get paid if they don’t play?

Can you guess the answer to this one? Yes, they do get paid.

Soccer players get paid even if they do not play at all during the whole season. If for some reason a soccer coach decides not to include one of the team’s players in any soccer match throughout the whole season, this player will still get paid their salary.

Basically, the player will be making money while technically contributing nothing to their team. The player will definitely be participating in the club’s regular practice sessions, and they will attend events for their club.

But in soccer, all of what matters is having some play time with your team in an official soccer match, and even if a soccer player does not play a single official minute for their club, they will still get paid.

Is this fair for the clubs? I personally believe that it is fair since the clubs are paying for the ownership of the player instead of paying for the matches that they play. But this is just my personal opinion on the matter and nothing else.

Do soccer players miss out on anything if they do not participate in matches?

I might have made it seem that the players do not lose anything if they do not participate in some of their club’s games, but this is totally not the case.

Soccer players can miss out on a lot of things if they do not regularly play for their team. The following are some of the things that players lose if they do not play regularly due to injury or due to a coach decision:

  • Bonuses included in their contracts
  • Increasing their market value
  • Gaining popularity and fame

Most of the time, a contract between a soccer player and a club includes some bonuses for the player if the player manages to achieve certain things. These bonuses are meant to encourage the player to give their best to the club.

For example, if a player scores and x number of goals, they get a bonus. If the player participates in a y amount of matches, they get a bonus and so on.

So you get the point. If a soccer player does not play for their team, then they will most probably miss out on most of the bonus payments that they could have gotten if they had some play time.

Players will also lose their market value if they do not play a lot with their team. Usually, the more play time a soccer player gets, the more experience they gain and the more interest they gain from other clubs.

The main reason behind this is that usually a soccer club won’t give a player a lot of play time if they think that the player isn’t worthy of that time.

The same thing can be said about the player’s popularity and fame. If a player gets a lot of play time, they will have more chances to impress the soccer fans and win their trust.

One last note before we wrap up this article. You might not be surprised to know that soccer teams pay their players during the off season and during injuries, but did you know that some soccer clubs also pay players that do not even play for their team?

How is this possible? Well, this usually happens if a player goes out on loan to another team. If Team A sends one of their players on a loan to another team, then team A might still pay part of the salary of the player loaned.

Soccer clubs usually send their players on loans to help them gain more experience, but there are other reasons for loans in soccer. If you want to learn more about soccer loans and how they work, you can check this article.

With that said, I will wrap up my article here. Here is a summary of what you have just read.

SUMMARY

Soccer players get paid during off seasons and they also get paid even if they do not play at all due to injuries or due to any other reasons. However, soccer players miss out on winning some of their bonuses if they do not get to play a lot of minutes with their team.