Ryan Gauld may struggle to get into Steve Clarke's Scotland squad but he is the stand out earner amongst former SPFL players in the MLS.
The 27-year-old, who plays for Vancouver Whitecaps, currently earns more than former Celtic stars Giorgos Giakoumakis and Victor Wanyama. Gauld has been a standout player for the Canadians since moving in 2021 from Portuguese side Farense and is now the highest earner at the club. The former Dundee United and Hibernian player is just outside the top 10 in the salaries list in the MLS this year. Ex-Liverpool attacker Xherdan Shaqiri tops the list with a salary of $8.15m (£6.5m) , while former Napoli star Lorenzo Insigne is second with a wage of $7.5m (£6m) at Toronto FC in the MLS's annualised average guaranteed compensation.
That figure includes a player's base salary and all signing and guaranteed bonuses annualised over the term of the player's contract and any marketing bonus and agent's fees, but doesn’t include performance bonuses since there’s no guarantee players will hit those bonuses.
A number of players from Scotland have headed to the MLS to ply their trade with some earning mega bucks, while Rangers fans will also be keen to keep an eye on Jose Cifuentes as the LAFC star reportedly nears a move to Ibrox.
He reportedly earns an annual salary of £410,536, but that could rise should he arrive in the Scottish Premiership. Here is what some of the former SPFL and Scottish players are getting paid in the USA and Canada:
Ryan Gauld - $2.5m / $48,076 per week (£2m)
Victor Wanyama - $1.8m / $34,615 per week (£1.4m)
GIorgios Giakoumakis - $1.7m / $32,692 per week (£1.3m)
Lewis Morgan - $1.3m / $25,000 per week (£1m)
James Sands - $1.05m / $20,192 per week (£842,000)
Johnny Russell - $1m / $19,230 per week (£802,000)
Connor Ronan - $512,000 / $9846 per week (£410,000)
Christian Ramirez - $445,833 / $8750 per week (£357,570)
Sam Nicholson - $360,313 / $6929 per week(£288,981)
Danny Wilson - $354,750 / $6822 per week (£284,559)
Jon Gallagher - $300,000 / $5769 per week (£240,641)
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