Premier League wages dwarf those around Europe with top-flight players in England earning an average of £2.3million a year... almost 60 per cent more than in Germany

Premier League footballers earn £2.3million a year each on average, or £43,717 a week, giving them wages almost 60 per cent bigger in 2014 than their closest earnings rivals in Germany's Bundesliga, an exclusive Sportsmail study of football leagues around the world has revealed.

Players in Germany's top division earn £1.46m a year on average, or £28,011 a week, with players in Italy's Serie A next best remunerated on £1.3m a year (£25,263 a week), followed by those in Spain's La Liga on £1.2m a year (£23,327 a week).

France's Ligue 1 follows La Liga, with players averaging £988,000 a year, then the Russian Premier League is next on £902,000 before a drop to the only other league where players earn more than £500,000 a year - Brazil's top division, where average yearly pay is £583,000.

Scroll down to see full table of average player earnings for global professional leagues

Premier League stars such as Wayne Rooney (left) earn an average of £2.3million a year, almost 60 per cent more than Bundesliga players such as Bayern Munich's Arjen Robben (right)

Average wages in Ligue 1 have been pushed up by PSG's spending big on stars like Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo (left) earns considerably more than the La Liga average of £23,327 a week, while Serie A players such as Paul Pogba (right) earn an average of £25,263

Players in England's Championship are next, earning £486,000 on average, a staggering sum for a second tier - and higher than most top divisions around the world. The Sportsmail study has considered 34 leagues from across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australia.

Players in Major League Soccer, where Frank Lampard will star next year for Sheikh Mansour's New York City FC, are earning an average of £135,945 in 2014 - or £2,614 a week.

That puts them in 22nd place of the 34 leagues, where the bottom three slots are occupied by Croatia's Prva League and the top divisions in South Africa and Nigeria. 

The average annual player wage in Croatia of £45,500 is roughly the same as the average weekly wage in the Premier League.

In South Africa the average annual pay is £33,659 a year and in Nigeria, where domestic football has been in crisis, it is just £6,776 a year, or £130 a week. 

The Russian Premier League pays the sixth best wages, with players earning an average of £17,338 a week

These extraordinary numbers are detailed for the first time today as part of a wide-ranging study by Sportsmail of leagues around the globe and how they compare - for players and fans.

Money is one thing considered, as are crowd levels, ticket prices, goals, the quality of the managers in each league, the leagues' relative success in club competitions at continental level, the 'stardust' factor in each league, talent production levels, competitive balance, each league's contribution to their national team, and governance.

Wage levels across all leagues generally mirror income levels of income, with higher-earning leagues spending more on salaries. The massive wages paid to Premier League players are made possible because of huge revenues, largely driven by enormous TV contracts, domestic and international. 

Championship clubs such as Fulham pay their players an average of £9,347 a week in England's second tier

The Premier League is by far the richest league in the world, with the 20 clubs now earning an average of around £155 million per season. This is underpinned by a domestic TV deal with Sky and BT worth £1bn each year, overseas TV deals in 212 countries bringing in £733 million a year and assorted other highlights, near-live and clip deals bringing in hundreds of millions more.

To put the incredible money-making in perspective, the Premier League now earns a similar amount from selling goal clip rights to the UK mobile market alone as Scottish domestic football does combined from all its live television rights - about £15million a year.

Scotland's Premiership comes in at No 18 in the pay table, with players earning an average of around £183,000 a year, although this has fallen with the absence of Glasgow giants Rangers from the top flight and will continue to drop while the Edinburgh pair of Hearts and Hibernian remain below elite level, as they are this season.

It is worth stressing that the average figure for each league is just that - total spending on all player wages divided by the total number of players.  

Manchester United midfielder Angel di Maria is among the best-paid players in the Premier League

There are big variations in average pay between the highest and lowest paid clubs within every league in the world.

The Premier League is no exception, and pay levels range from £4m to £5m per player at the wealthiest clubs - Manchester City and United, Chelsea, with Arsenal catching up by the season - to £1m a year or so per man at the smallest and most prudent clubs, notably Burnley and Leicester this season. 

But one extraordinary fact about the English top-flight now is that every club from top to bottom earns between £62m and £100m in central income each year from the Premier League and the majority are capable of paying £2.3m-a-year salaries - and do.

Given the relatively modest pay levels at the vast majority of leagues and even at most clubs even in Europe's 'Big Five' leagues, the financial advantage of Premier League clubs should mean, in theory, they can offer more attractive terms and attract better players than those leagues and clubs.

That is the theory at least. Whether the league makes the most of its richest is explored elsewhere in the study.

Source: Dailymail