Stones, Van Dijk, Maguire: Who's the highest-paid defender in the Premier League?

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·10 August 2021

Stones, Van Dijk, Maguire: Who's the highest-paid defender in the Premier League?

John Stones has officially put pen to paper on a new five-year contract at Manchester City.

The Athletic's David Ornstein first reported the news on Monday evening, with the reliable journalist stating that the English defender will receive an enormous pay rise to £250,000-a-week.

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That's up from £100,000-a-week, which shows just how impressively Stones has turned his career around over the past 12 months or so.

Prior to the 2020/21 season, it appeared as if the former Everton man's days at City were numbered, but he's managed to reclaim a place in Pep Guardiola's best starting XI.

Stones is also one of the first names on Gareth Southgate's England team sheet again and he played every single minute for the Three Lions at this summer's Euro 2020 tournament.

The City man really is back to his very best and is now deservedly one of the highest-paid defenders in world football.

But where does Stones' new salary rank among the rest of the Premier League's pragmatic stars? Well, we've used Spotrac to find out the answer to that very question.

Let's a look at the 15 highest-paid defenders in the English top-flight right now...

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15. Thiago Silva (Chelsea)

Wage: £110,000-a-week

14. Kyle Walker (Manchester City)

Wage: £110,000-a-week

13. Ruben Dias (Manchester City)

Wage: £115,385-a-week

12. Lucas Digne (Everton)

11. Victor Lindelof (Manchester United)

10. Aymeric Laporte (Manchester City)

Wage: £120,000-a-week

9. Yerry Mina (Everton)

Wage: £120,000-a-week

8. Ben White (Arsenal)

Wage: £120,000-a-week

7. Malang Sarr (Chelsea)

Wage: £120,000-a-week

6. Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea)

Wage: £145,000-a-week

5. Luke Shaw (Manchester United)

Wage: £150,000-a-week

4. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)

Wage: £180,000-a-week

3. Harry Maguire (Manchester United)

2. Ben Chilwell (Chelsea)

1. John Stones (Manchester City)

Wage: £250,000-a-week

Stones' new deal sees him take top spot among Premier League defenders - and by quite some distance too.

He's now pocketing £70,000-a-week more than Van Dijk, while earning more than double that of his teammate Dias.

Not bad, John.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the top 15 is Sarr. The 22-year-old is yet to play a game for Chelsea's first-team, but is on a higher salary than Silva.