The fact that Leicester City’s relegation from the Championship has occurred 10 years after winning the Premier League title is one thing, but the size of the wage bill they have gone down with is another.

Leicester’s fate was sealed on Tuesday night with a 2-2 draw at home to Hull City, which means League One football awaits at the King Power Stadium next season.

While no one ever expected Leicester to become Premier League champions a decade ago, it would have been unthinkable at the time that they would be a third-tier club 10 years on.

But that’s the reality after back-to-back relegations.

Among their confirmed League One opponents next season will be the likes of Mansfield Town and Wycombe Wanderers, who were in League Two when Leicester were winning the top flight, and Bromley who were a mid-table National League side.

While a deduction of six points didn’t help their cause, Leicester’s fall from grace will lead to many questions.

Most urgently, the financial impact of becoming a League One club will have to be addressed. Leicester are still receiving parachute payments after their Premier League relegation last year, but have plenty of relatively big-name players on expensive salaries.

Their wage bill is the biggest in the Championship, so how does it compare to their forthcoming opponents? Here, according to Footy Stats, are the 10 highest-paid players in League One currently.

League One highest-paid players

1. Calum Chambers – £32,000 per week

2. Bailey Peacock-Farrell – £23,000

3. Marcus Forss – £21,000

4. Gabriel Osho – £21,000

5. Callum Robinson – £20,000

6. Ben Osborn – £19,000

7. David Turnbull – £17,000

8. Alfie May – £16,000

9. Alexander Robertson – £14,000

10. Four players – £13,000

All figures are estimates and rounded to the nearest thousand.

Cardiff City employ five of the highest-paid players in League One this season. Former Arsenal and Aston Villa defender Calum Chambers is believed to lead the way on £32,000 per week.

His teammates Gabriel Osho, Callum Robinson, David Turnbull and Alexander Robertson are also in the top 10. Osho was playing top-flight football in France last season; Robinson last played in the Premier League in 2021; Turnbull was at Celtic until February 2024 and Robertson is a former Manchester City academy graduate.

In second place is Blackpool goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell, who was at Birmingham City last season.

Marcus Forss is third while on loan at Bolton from Middlesbrough, and another Championship loanee is in sixth: Ben Osborn, who has been lent by Derby County to Stockport County for this season.

Huddersfield Town’s Alfie May is also in the top 10, while there are four players tied for 10th: two playing for Luton Town and one each for Bolton and Cardiff.

Cardiff have already earned an immediate promotion back to the Championship. Bolton will be in the play-offs, with Stockport and Luton among the teams tussling to join them.

But league champions Lincoln City have no representatives among League One’s 10 highest-paid players.

Leicester will be hoping to follow in Cardiff’s footsteps by jumping straight back up from League One to the Championship – and looking at their current wage bill, it would be a failure if they don’t manage to.

Leicester City highest-paid players

1. Harry Winks – £90,000 per week

2. Ricardo Pereira – £80,000

3. Patson Daka – £75,000

4. Jannik Vestergaard – £60,000

5. Hamza Choudhury – £50,000

6. Oliver Skipp – £50,000

7. Jamaal Lascelles – £50,000

8. Harry Souttar – £40,000

9. Joe Aribo – £35,000

10. Bobby De Cordova-Reid – £35,000

Of course, relegation may make it unsustainable for Leicester to keep some of their top earners.

Within their top 10 highest-paid players, according to Capology, Jamaal Lascelles has 177 Premier League appearances to his name, Bobby De Cordova-Reid 151, Harry Winks 150, Ricardo Pereira 112, Oliver Skipp 101 and Jannik Vestergaard 100.

If the 2026-27 League One season was to commence with the same squads as this season, Leicester would take over the whole top 10 of the highest-paid players in the third tier.

Their best-paid player Winks is reportedly on £90,000 per week, which is the same as what his former club Tottenham are currently paying Micky van de Ven and Richarlison.

In his position of central midfield, Winks earns more than Archie Gray, Rodrigo Bentancur, Pape Sarr, Lucas Bergvall and Yves Bissouma at his former club.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, £90,000 per week would get you Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Pascal Gross, Chris Wood, Tomas Soucek, Aaron Wan-Bissaka or Jurrien Timber, among others.

Considering League One’s current highest-paid player is going up, even Leicester’s 14th and 15th highest-paid players, Caleb Okoli and Victor Kristiansen, would outrank the remaining best-paid player in the division on £25,000 per week each.

There will be some big changes to the Leicester squad this summer – the contracts of their three highest earners expire on June 30 – but it is damning that they have sunk to where they have with the resources behind them.

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