FIFA World Cup prize money: What each USMNT player stands to earn

By Weston Blasi

Thanks to a landmark 2022 agreement, U.S. women's soccer players will get part of the World Cup prize pool, too. Here's how it works.

An artist adds final touches to a painting featuring Argentina's Lionel Messi and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo.

The United States men's national soccer team won its 2026 FIFA World Cup opener 4-1 over Paraguay, as the opening week of tournament kicked-off. This year, each of the 48 nations are competing for the famed gold trophy and a record $50 million championship prize.

However, if you're wondering how much each World Cup team gets paid to play, or what your favorite USMNT player stands to make, it can get a little complicated. The Americans operate under a unique pay model, for example.

Here's what you need to know if you want to be able to talk about World Cup compensation like a pro while watching all the USMNT games.

For starters, FIFA doesn't actually pay any players directly. It distributes prize funds to each national team's soccer federations (like U.S. Soccer, the English Football Association or the French Football Federation); for this summer's tournament, those funds will be a record $871 million. Each nation's federation gets $12.5 million for participation in and preparation for the tournament, and collects additional funds depending on how far the team advances in the tournament.

Below are the performance-based allocated prize amounts for the 2026 FIFA World Cup:

 
Stage of elimination             Performance prize money (USD)  Total FIFA payout (with $2.5M prep fee included) 
Group-stage exit (16 teams)      $10,000,000                    $12,500,000 
Round of 32 exit (16 teams)      $11,000,000                    $13,500,000 
Round of 16 exit (8 teams)       $15,000,000                    $17,500,000 
Quarterfinal exit (4 teams)      $19,000,000                    $21,500,000 
Fourth-place finish (1 team)     $27,000,000                    $29,500,000 
Third-place finish (1 team)      $29,000,000                    $31,500,000 
Runners-up (2nd place) (1 team)  $33,000,000                    $35,500,000 
Tournament champions (1 team)    $50,000,000                    $52,500,000 

Out of the total $871 million prize-money pool, $655 million is performance-based, with the remaining amounts given for tournament participation. That breaks down to each nation being guaranteed $10 million for qualifying for the tournament, plus an additional $2.5 million for preparation grants, according to FIFA.

The prize pool is nearly doubled from the $440 million distribution for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, mainly attributed to the growth of the game and the tournament's expansion from 32 teams to 48 teams this year.

FIFA's prize money goes directly to national football federations, but each federation has the discretion to divvy up the funds however it wants, according to FIFA's official governing documents. A federation can give equal payouts to players, coaches and team personnel, or give a bulk to players - it's up to each federation.

This makes it difficult to calculate how much each World Cup player is getting paid during the tournament, as the exact disbursement breakdown for all 48 soccer federations is not fully known.

It's been reported that the French Football Federation has offered appearance fees to players for each match played in the past. Other nations have historically given bonuses linked to tournament progress.

For example, in the 2018 tournament, 19-year-old French attacker Kylian Mbappe made roughly $500,000 after winning the tournament ($22,300 each game, plus bonuses for winning), and later announced he'd donate it to charity. Mbappe, now a Real Madrid player, has since become one of the highest-paid players in world soccer, making over $400 million throughout his career.

England's players reportedly received around GBP2,000 ($2,683) per match during the 2022 World Cup and 2024 European Championships. But for English players, it's become a longstanding tradition to donate that money to charity. Through its football federation, English players can earn additional bonuses based on team performance, although those bonus figures are not fully known.

How does that compare to possible payouts for the U.S. men's national team? The U.S. operates under a different model.

Following a landmark agreement in 2022, U.S. Soccer announced it would pool and share 80% of FIFA World Cup prize money earned by its men's and women's national teams, which created one of the most notable equal-pay arrangements in sports history. After taking its 20% cut, the federation will split the rest equally among 52 players - 26 players on the roster of each team.

"Been a long process for all sides but proud of everyone involved for reaching and achieving this. It now truly is One Nation, One Team," Tim Ream, a current USMNT defender, said about the equal-pay news back in 2022.

This year, advancing to the 2026 World Cup knockout stage could net each USMNT player around $200,000, assuming the money is split evenly among the players. Coaches, team personnel and medical personnel are paid from a separate fund, so the 80% allocation to players remains unchanged independent of those costs.

But if the USMNT were to win the World Cup - for the first time in history - its prize money would grow substantially, leading to an approximately $800,000 payout per player.

So do the teams that get paid more win more?

For a few top teams, there actually appears to be an inverse relationship between the most successful teams and how much their players are paid. England and France are the two most wagered-on favorites to win the tournament, but both of those elite soccer federations reportedly pay their players a lot less than the U.S.

Ultimately, for the top soccer players in the world, the payouts for the World Cup matter less than the prestige that comes with actually playing for your country and winning in the tournament. Part of that may be because international soccer, like the World Cup, is their side hustle, while their "day jobs" playing for their club teams are where they earn their real salary. Some of the highest-paid players at the World Cup include Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo (Saudi Arabia's Al-Nassr, $300 million), Argentina's Lionel Messi (MLS's Inter Miami, $140 million), France's Kylian Mbappé (Spain's Real Madrid, $95 million) and Norway's Erling Haaland (England's Manchester City, $80 million), according to Forbes.

The 2026 World Cup, which is being co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. In their opening matches, Canada drew 1-1 against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico triumphed over South Africa 2-0, and the U.S. won 4-1 against Paraguay.

Read: We asked AI to predict the 2026 World Cup winner. It picked a country that's never won.

-Weston Blasi

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06-13-26 1420ET