Arsenal’s Alessia Russo: The first WSL player to earn £1million in a year?

After completing her transfer to Arsenal, 24-year-old Alessia Russo could become the highest-paid Women’s Super League player ever in terms of her club, country and commercial earnings.

She signed for Manchester United in 2020, but arguably it wasn’t until July 26, 2022, when Russo scored that audacious backheel in the Women’s European Championship semi-final against Sweden, that her value and brand skyrocketed.

It was a finish so glorious that Russo won Goal of the Tournament and was nominated for the 2022 FIFA Puskas Award.

Another look at that Alessia Russo goal? Oh, go on then. 😍
Live: #BBCFootball #BBCEuros
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 26, 2022

That goal and her super-sub status — coming off the bench for all six Euros games, scoring four goals — propelled Russo to stardom ahead of the 2022-23 season. Over the past domestic season, she then scored 12 goals in all competitions for Manchester United and was named the club’s women’s player of the year.

The timely combination of a tournament-winning summer with England and Manchester United’s best-ever season in the Women’s Super League (WSL), combined with the wave of increased attention across the women’s game, could potentially make Russo the highest-paid player in the WSL’s history.

Past earnings

Manchester United

While it’s hard to find an exact figure for Russo’s salary at Manchester United, last August the BBC reported that the average salary in the WSL is around £47,000 ($59,600) per year, based on available published results from seven of the 12 teams in the WSL.

Russo signed a two-year deal (with an option to extend for a third) with United in September 2020, at a time when the women’s football landscape looked a little bleaker in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic and fans were prevented from attending games in person.

This was a pre-Euros era. The FA Player, showing women’s matches live, had only launched the year before, while the FA were yet to sign a broadcast deal with Sky and the BBC (the three-year contract was agreed in 2021).

Due to this, WSL players at the time would not have been demanding the level of salary reported by the BBC in 2022. My best estimate — based on my own WSL salary at a club with Premier League financial backing — is that Russo is likely to have initially been on between £35,000-45,000 a year, rising incrementally after each year of her contract, most likely ending around the £60,000-100,000 mark at the time of her leaving (depending on the terms agreed for her optional third year). On top of this, Russo would have earned goal and/or win bonuses.

A salary at this level would have placed Russo amongst the highest earners within the WSL. Kieran Maguire, associate professor in football finance at the University of Liverpool said: “Players in certain positions, particularly strikers, scoring goals, which go out on social media, attract greater attention, which the player and agent can utilise to demand higher salaries and commercial deals.”

With this in mind and with an eye on the gravitas of some of the WSL’s star strikers, only Chelsea’s Sam Kerr and Arsenal’s Vivienne Miedema and Beth Mead are likely to come close to Russo’s earning power.

(Photo: Richard Heathcote via Getty Images)

The Lionesses

In February 2020, Russo received her first call-up to the England senior squad. Both the England men’s and women’s squads are paid £2,000 per game. Between 2020-2023, the Lionesses played on average 11 games a year, meaning each individual playing in those fixtures would earn roughly an additional £22,000 per year on top of their WSL wages.

As a result of winning the European Championships in 2022, the Lionesses squad received around £1.3million. This is not money that is necessarily shared with players and discretion is usually given to the individual federations to determine what each player will receive. The FA confirmed that each Lionesses player received a £50,000 bonus for winning the tournament.

UEFA stipulated that each player participating in the Euros would be compensated at a rate of €500 (£430) a day (including 10 preparation days plus one additional travel day). These payments were paid to players between October and December. The Euros ran from July 6 to July 31 and, if we add the additional preparation and travel days, that meant a total of 37 days. In all, the Lionesses would have been paid approximately €18,500 (£15,960) by UEFA for participating in the Euros.

This past year, we’ve also seen the Lionesses compete in the Arnold Clark Cup which, from the limited information available, does not appear to pay any prize money to the winning nation, and also the Finalissima, which pays the winning team $1.5million (£1.2m). Again, it is not clear how much of this prize fund, if any, was allocated to individual players.

This would bring the total individual Lionesses earnings from the last year to within the region of £88,000 (not taking into account any additional money they may have received from the Arnold Clark Cup and Finalissima wins).

Commercial deals

Post-Euros, the Russo brand has exploded. Russo came eighth in the Women’s World Cup Instagram influencers list. The day before her move to Arsenal, Russo had 465,000 Instagram followers, which had grown more than 280 per cent in the past year. Following her Arsenal announcement, Russo gained more than 20,000 additional followers, taking her to 486,000 (at the time of writing). The BBC placed an average value of £14,016 on one of Russo’s branded posts.

This season alone, the striker has appeared in campaigns for Adidas and Gucci, had a paid partnership with PlayStation and has featured on the cover of Women’s Health magazine. Russo is also a brand ambassador for Beats by Dre and has recently followed Kylian Mbappe and Alexia Putellas in penning a deal with Oakley sunglasses this month.

The perfect earbuds to lock in and workout 🔊 With 3 new colours, Beats Fit Pro get me match ready in style ⚽️
— Alessia Russo (@alessiarusso7) February 28, 2023

According to one agency that represents a number of high-profile WSL players — speaking on condition of anonymity to protect relationships — in-demand clients can now expect to see six-figure sums being offered in exchange for representing brands or becoming partners.

Commercially valuable players, especially Lionesses, are regularly being approached by brands across a wide array of industries — from jewellery and drinks to technology and fashion. The agency confirmed that the level and quantity of offers significantly increases as players move towards a major international tournament. We are yet to see commercial deals hit the seven-figure mark, but it is anticipated that we are not too far off.

With Russo affiliated with multiple international brands, we can estimate she is likely to have earned in the region of £300,000-£500,000 through sponsorships and partnerships this past year.

Future earnings

Arsenal

The three-year Arsenal deal will make Russo amongst one of the highest-paid players in the WSL.

It is likely that a part of the deal will have included the sale of Russo’s image rights to Arsenal. The package would have included the rights to use Russo’s name, photo and likeness, signature and personal brand and can be valued and sold separately to the wages a player receives for playing. Maguire advised that, in order to sell their rights, a “player would set up a new company to look after the invoices for commercial contracts, image rights etc, which is more tax efficient”.

Maguire went on to explain that WSL players’ marketing rights were a “new part of their armoury, particularly following the success of the Lionesses last year”. But Russo was a cut above the rest: “One contract with a successful player, especially in the aftermath of her move to Arsenal (which will be very good for her profile), will likely earn her six figures (for her image rights)”.

In terms of the sale of the rights, Maguire advised that the current relationship between HMRC and clubs dictates that image rights cannot be more than 20% of a player’s overall package. Within the women’s game, historically, the cap has been redundant given significant value was not being placed on these rights. Maguire notes that the position has now “changed in the last 12 months”.

Estimated value of image rights and Arsenal contract: six figures.

Commercial contracts

Russo is already a UK household name, but this year could be her first time in the starting XI in a major international tournament. Maguire advised that more impressive performances, more outstanding goals and the Lionesses having a successful World Cup campaign, could see her brand grow significantly.

On top of this, Russo has already established a track record of delivering, “helping to transform Manchester United from nothing to now competing for the highest honours” with “blue chip brands wanting to align themselves to the standout players”.

Maguire identified Russo’s move to Arsenal as being a further factor driving her brand value: “Arsenal have committed to more games at The Emirates this season and the club have a track record of achieving very high attendance figures for these games, which can only help. Russo, playing in front of at least 40,000 people half a dozen times, and delivering on the pitch, will cause her to be the player on a lot of brands’ lips and help to create a real social media buzz”.

Maguire advised that Russo’s agents will be all too aware of her brand growing and “as her profile increases, so will her value. Russo will want to make sure that any deals she signs with sponsors and partners are tiered so she will get a greater share in her success as her profile grows”.

In terms of the types of partnerships Russo will be considering, Maguire felt there needed to be a “good crossover amongst brands, appealing to a younger market, those with a disposable income and those interested in health and lifestyle”. Financial institutions, particularly banks, are “desperate” to use big sports names to help target younger audiences. Maguire felt Russo’s personality, her being very good at her job and delivering on platforms both domestically and internationally would put her at the top of a lot of brands’ shopping lists.

Estimated value of commercial contracts: multiple six-figure deals.

The Women’s World Cup

If the Lionesses win the World Cup this summer, they will play a total of seven games (and receive £14,000 from the FA).

FIFA has recently guaranteed that every player competing in the tournament will directly receive at least £23,500, with every World Cup-winning player to receive at least £213,000.

If the Lionesses do go all the way, I would initially have expected the FA to pay each player a win bonus of at least £50,000 (to match what was paid following the Euros). However, the Lionesses are currently engaged in a dispute with the FA over the payment of bonuses, with the FA seemingly of the view that FIFA’s direct payments are a suitable replacement.

Potential individual World Cup prize money: £37,500 – £227,000

With around £88,000 being paid to players as a result of the Euros win, £227,000 being paid if the Lionesses win the World Cup, six figures per year from Arsenal, six figures for image rights and multiple six-figure deals from commercial partners (past and future), Russo could be the first WSL player to earn £1million in a single year.

Statistically speaking, Russo is not the best player in the WSL. Last season, Russo ranked joint-fifth for goals (10), sixth for shots on target (29) and aerial duels won (28), and seventh for touches in the opposition box (116).

But what she does have is WSL superstar status: the ability to produce brilliance in crucial moments (such as the 91st-minute winner against Arsenal last season), to inspire a young fanbase and to capitalise on the heightened attention surrounding the Lionesses. Russo’s personality, particularly when bouncing off former United team-mate Ella Toone, is easy to love.

Russo is the current golden child of the WSL, the one everyone wants to know about. One thing she does need to be wary of is that her shine doesn’t dull when placed against the platinum goalscoring elite at Arsenal. Russo will need consistent game time, Emirates exposure, Lionesses glory and continued commercial savvy to ensure she maintains her stellar earning power.

(Top photo:Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)