Willian’s £220K-a-week Arsenal deal sees him become one of the top 10 highest Premier League earners

Despite making a move at the age of 32, and leaving a Champions League club for one in the Europa League, Willian has now joined the ranks of the Premier League’s best-paid footballers.

The Brazil winger has secured a sumptuous payday at Arsenal, and the figures which are now emerging of his new contract are quite astonishing.

Arsenal have pulled out all the stops to get their man, handing Willian a lucrative package worth up to £220,000 per week to persuade him to invest the final years of his career at the elite level in north London.

The move comes at a time when the Gunners have found themselves under increased public scrutiny, following their announcement that 55 members of staff are to be made redundant.

This news arrived even after the senior squad members each agreed to take pay deferrals, yet now the club have welcomed Willian on huge wages. When bonuses, a signing-on fee and loyalty payments over the three years are included, it will amount to £220,000 per week, or around £35m over the course of his contract.

Willian therefore, despite his ageing years, will find himself as the ninth-best-paid player in the entire Premier League. 

Willian has secured a move to Arsenal and will now pocket £220,000 per week at the Emirates

To put that into context, Willian is now earning more than each one of Liverpool’s famed front three of Mohamed Salah (£200,000 p/w), Sadio Mane (£200,000 p/w) and Roberto Firmino (£180,000 p/w), who are widely hailed as the best attacking trio in world football and have just delivered a record-breaking league triumph for their club.

Willian’s deal sees him surpass these players, despite all three having only just signed new contracts in recent years. 

In 2018, Salah penned a new long-term deal at Anfield that will keep him at the club until 2023 and made him one of the highest-earning players in Liverpool history.

Liverpool duo Mo Salah and Sadio Mane are vital at Anfield, but now pocket less than Willian

Arsenal gambled with another big payout, considering top earner Mesut Ozil doesn’t even play

But Willian has ensured to keep his stock high, and will now be pocketing £10.6m annually with the Gunners until he is at least 35. 

David de Gea (£375,000 p/w) is the Premier League’s highest earner while Manchester United also dish out colossal wages to Paul Pogba (£300,000 p/w), and Anthony Martial (£250,000 p/w). 

But Willian still trumps their star player Marcus Rashford in earnings with the England star on £200,000 per week. 

David De Gea is the Premier League’s top earner on an eye-watering £375,000 per-week

Tottenham talisman and England captain Harry Kane now earns less than Willian

Were he to have headed to Manchester City and taken the current wage packet, Willian would have been as high up as fourth top-earner at the Etihad, behind only Kevin De Bruyne (£350,000 p/w), Raheem Sterling (£300,000 p/w) and Sergio Aguero (£240,000 p/w).

Despite having slipped from their status as Champions League regulars, Arsenal are still paying big bucks.

Willian is not the top earner at the club who finished eighth in the league this season. 

Mesut Ozil (£350,000 p/w) has surely the most bizarre wage packet in the Premier League considering he is also entering the twilight of his career and is currently at odds with management and unable to break into the team, or often even the matchday squad.

It is presumed Willian’s wage will quickly be overtaken by the club’s star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, should the Gabon international opt to sign a new deal at the Emirates. He is currently paid £200,000 per week.

Players including Hector Bellerin, Granit Xhaka and Bernd Leno all earn half of what Willian now does, on their current Arsenal contracts. 

Boss Mikel Arteta was desperate to get his man and Willian is set to play a key role in the club’s transformation under the Spaniard.

Arsenal confirmed the news of his arrival officially on Friday morning, when it was revealed Willian would be taking the No 12 shirt.

Chelsea had remained keen on handing him a contract extension, though were unwilling to match the lofty wages and wanted the forward to take a pay cut on his previous Stamford Bridge deal.

The Blues are busy in the transfer market this summer, after Frank Lampard was finally permitted to sign players following the expiration of the club’s transfer ban.

Chelsea are understood to have already broken their salary record, after making new boy Timo Werner the highest paid player at the club on weekly wages in the region of £270,000.  

Willian also now earns more than Harry Kane, who is Tottenham’s star striker and the England captain. 

Kane is the tenth-best-paid player in the league, level with Salah, Mane and Aubameyang.

Chelsea wouldn’t meet Willian’s demands; Timo Werner is their top earner on £270,000 p/w