Here's how much Hany Mukhtar and other Nashville SC players are making in 2025
Nashville SC has the eighth-highest team payroll in Major League Soccer and three of the league's 32 highest-paid players, according to the 2025 MLS Players Association Spring-Summer Salary Guide.
The guide, which was released on June 25, provides salary information for all 30 teams as of May 23. Nashville is set to pay its players $21,751,786 this season, slightly lower than last season's payroll of $21,864,490 which ranked fifth in MLS.
Nashville's total payroll reflects guaranteed compensation, which includes signing bonuses, marketing bonuses and agent fees on top of a player's base salary.
Nashville's three highest earners are its designated players: forwards Hany Mukhtar and Sam Surridge and defender Walker Zimmerman. Each team in MLS is allowed three designated players, who can be paid more money than the league's salary cap would normally allow.
Mukhtar, the 2022 MLS MVP, will earn $5,311,667 this season, making him the 11th-highest paid player in the league. Zimmerman (28th) will make $3,456,979 in guaranteed compensation and Surridge (32nd) will make $3,182,639. Zimmerman is also the highest-paid American player in MLS.
Nashville is one of three teams in MLS with three players making over $3 million. The others are Inter Miami's trio of Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets and Atlanta United's Miguel Almiron, Aleksey Miranchuk and Emmanuel Latte Lath.
Messi, last season's MVP and widely regarded as the greatest soccer player of all time, is the highest-paid player in MLS. He'll make $20,466,667 in guaranteed money in 2025, a figure greater than the payrolls of 21 teams. Thanks largely to Messi's contract, Miami has by far the highest payroll in MLS at $46.8 million.
Other teams with higher payrolls than Nashville include Toronto FC ($34.1 million), Atlanta ($27.6 million), FC Cincinnati ($23.2 million), the Los Angeles Galaxy ($22.9 million), Los Angeles FC ($22.4 million) and the Chicago Fire ($22.1 million).
How much are Nashville SC players making in 2025?
After its three DPs, Nashville's next highest-paid players are midfielder Gaston Brugman ($1,409,000), forward Tyler Boyd ($1,105,000) and defender Jack Maher ($895,467). Boyd is signed through 2026 with an option for 2027, while Maher is under contract through 2027.
Nashville moved off of several expensive contracts from last season, including midfielders Randall Leal and Sean Davis, both of whom earned over $1 million in 2024. It also traded defender Shaq Moore ($881,500) to FC Dallas and let midfielder Anibal Godoy and his $721,250 salary go in the offseason.
Midfielder Edvard Tagseth, who signed a two-year contract with NSC with an option for 2027 last November, is slated to earn $487,667 this season. Forward Ahmed Qasem, who came over from IF Elfsborg in February, will make $650,000 in the first year of a three-year contract, which includes an option for 2028.
Defender Jeisson Palacios, another key newcomer, will earn $526,667 in 2025. Veteran defender Andy Najar, who is second among MLS right backs in All-Star Game voting, has been a bargain pickup on a $280,000 salary.
Among returning players, defender Josh Bauer had the biggest leap in his compensation, which more than doubled from $94,202 in 2024 to $203,667 this offseason. Bauer signed a new contract in December, which will keep him in Nashville for at least the next two years.
Nashville has roughly $7.8 million committed to players whose contracts are up at the end of the season, including Zimmerman and Brugman, who has a player option for 2026. Najar, midfielder Alex Muyl ($535,000), defender Daniel Lovitz ($542,500) and goalkeeper Joe Willis ($658,533) have club options for next season as well.
The average guaranteed compensation of an MLS player in 2025 is just under $650,000.
Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.