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.) : 115,000 pounds
- Annual Salary (Est.) : 6 million pounds
- Contract Until: 2030
During the January transfer window in Europe, Ademola Lookman completed a landmark, almost 40 million-pound move from Atalanta to Atlético Madrid. He will be there for four-and-a-half years (at least). The deal nearly doubles his wages at Atalanta and places him third on this list.
Lookman was born in Wandsworth, London, to Nigerian parents. He switched his international allegiance from England to Nigeria in 2022.
Since then, Looman has been a standout performer both professionally and financially. He was key to the Nigerian team that reached the 2023 AFCON final and won the 2024 CAF African Player of the Year award. The award has seen his market value surge highly and made his rise to prominence one of the great second-act stories in recent football.
Like many in this list, Lookman’s rise in market value and prominence did not come cheap. He previously played for Charlton Athletic (England), Everton (England), RB Leipzig (Germany), Fulham (England), Leicester City (England), before his name became prominent when he moved to Atalanta (Italy)
