Juventus Lead Drastic Salary Cuts as Serie A Reduces Annual Wage Bill by €72m
By Max Cooper
Serie A has seen a dramatic drop of €72m from its collective wage bill this season, with Italian giants Juventus reducing their costs by €58m, in an attempt to stabilise their current financial predicament.
The Serie A champions boasted a severely bloated squad and wage bill at the end of the last campaign, and they - along with the majority of their rivals - have set about cutting loose some of their major earners.
And the latest figures show that their scrimping has been rewarded. There has been a significant decrease of €72m in the current total salary expenditure in Italy, with Juve's squad being cut by €58m, as the likes of Blaise Matuidi, Gonzalo Higuain and Miralem Pjanic have all been allowed to leave the club, as reported by Football Italia.
Unsurprisingly, Cristiano Ronaldo remains the highest paid player in Serie A, earning €31m of their total sum. Behind the Portuguese superstar sits Matthijs de Ligt, who takes home €8m a year, making him the second best earner in Turin, only slightly ahead of Paulo Dybala's €7.3m.
AC Milan also cut €25m from their wage bill, dropping from €115m to €90m, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic returning to become the club's highest paid player on €7m. Second to him is young goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who earns €6m a year.
The major anomaly comes in the form of Antonio Conte's Inter, after I Nerazzurri recruited a number of high profile signings to aid their title tilt, taking their spending up to €149m a year. Achraf Hakimi, Aleksandar Kolarov and Arturo Vidal are some of the big names to have arrived at San Siro in the recent transfer window, adding to their already hefty wage bill.
Elsewhere, AS Roma have managed to cut €13m from their current annual spending, while Atalanta and Lazio have increased theirs by €6.6m and €11m respectively, following successful seasons and achieving a top-four finish.