When Arsenal formally announced Bukayo Saka’s new contract on February 19 2026, it was a statement about where Nigerian-heritage talent now sits in the global football economy.
Bukayo Saka’s parents, Adenike and Yomi Saka, are of Nigerian Yoruba descent and emigrated to London in the 1990s as economic migrants.
His family is among the many Nigerians who left the country during that period.
The Ealing-born Arsenal winger has just signed a five-year deal worth in excess of 300,000 pounds per week until 2031, making him now Arsenal’s highest earner.
Nairametrics understands that over the life of the deal, Saka will earn £78 million in base salary, even before image rights, bonuses, and his endorsement partnerships with Adidas, Pepsi, and others.
More than ever before, the market value of Nigerian and Nigerian-descent footballers is at an all-time high. From Istanbul to Madrid, from Bergamo to north London, Nigerians in the diaspora, playing the most followed sport in Nigeria, are reshaping the financial map of world football.
Nairametrics’s Nigerian business in diaspora desk ranks the ten highest-earning footballers of Nigerian heritage in 2026 based on weekly wages, contract value, club status, and endorsement power.
- Weekly Wage (Est.) : 50,000 pounds
- Annual Salary (Est.) : 3 million pounds
- Contract Until: 2027
Taiwo Michael Awoniyi’s football-in-the-diaspora story is filled with ups and downs. He is one of the few Nigerians born here who make their way abroad to play the global game. He was born on 12 August 1997 in Ilorin, Kwara State.
He developed his game here before European scouts saw him and signed for Liverpool in 2015. He faced his first crossroad with work permit issues. He could not play a senior match for them until he left the club.
Liverpool loaned him across Europe. He was in Belgium, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, among others. A breakthrough came for him at Union Berlin in Germany, and in July 2022, he moved to Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League, where he has been a regular forward.
Life happened to the twin again. he sustained a life-threatening injury while his Forest team was playing against Leicester City in May 2025. He suffered a serious abdominal injury after colliding with the goalpost while attempting to score late in the game. He ruptured his intestine, was rushed to the hospital for urgent surgery and placed in a medically induced coma to aid his recovery. He recently recovered from that injury.
For our national team, he had played 10 times and scored twice since his debut in 2021. If he’s fitter after this unfortunate incident he recently recovered from, his stock may even be higher.
