15 Highest Paid Volleyball Players in 2026: The Complete List

Here’s something most sports fans don’t expect: the two highest paid volleyball players in the world are both women. Zhu Ting and Paola Egonu out-earn every man on this list.

Professional volleyball salaries have climbed steadily over the past decade, driven by TV deals, lucrative leagues in Turkey and Asia, and rising endorsement opportunities. The richest volleyball players now pull in well over a million dollars a year.

Here are the 15 highest paid volleyball players in 2026, ranked by estimated annual earnings.

How Volleyball Players Make Their Money

Volleyball income comes from four streams: club salaries (the biggest piece), national team bonuses, endorsement deals, and tournament prize money. Where you play matters enormously. Turkish and Asian leagues pay the most because they limit foreign players to one or two per roster, which drives up the price for elite imports.

15 Highest Paid Volleyball Players in 2026

1. Zhu Ting — $1.6 Million

Outside Hitter | China | Imoco Volley Conegliano (Italy)

The most dominant female volleyball player of her generation. Zhu Ting first made headlines when she signed a €1.35 million deal with VakifBank Istanbul in 2017, making her the highest paid volleyball player in the world at just 22. She’s held that position ever since.

2. Paola Egonu — $1.5 Million

Opposite Hitter | Italy | Imoco Volley Conegliano (Italy)

Egonu is volleyball’s most marketable athlete. Beyond her club salary, she earns from fashion partnerships including Emporio Armani. She’s reportedly turned down Turkish offers worth €1.5–2 million to stay in Italy — she values team culture over maximum pay.

3. Wilfredo Leon — $1.4 Million

Outside Hitter | Poland/Cuba | Bogdanka LUK Lublin (Poland)

Born in Cuba, Leon moved to Poland and became the highest paid male volleyball player in history. At Perugia, La Gazzetta dello Sport estimated his Italian salary at €900,000 — the highest in Serie A by a wide margin. His move to PlusLiga pushed his total package even higher.

4. Earvin N’Gapeth — $1.35 Million

Outside Hitter | France | Fenerbahce HDI Istanbul (Turkey)

N’Gapeth helped France win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 2020 and 2024. That pedigree commands premium contracts. He signed an 18-month deal with Fenerbahce in January 2025, and his endorsement portfolio adds significantly to his club salary.

5. Gabi Guimarães — $1.3 Million

Outside Hitter | Brazil | VakifBank Istanbul (Turkey)

Brazil’s captain and one of the most decorated players in women’s volleyball. The Turkish Sultanlar Ligi is the highest-paying women’s league in the world, and Gabi’s combination of leadership and on-court dominance keeps her at the top of the pay scale.

6. Maxim Mikhaylov — $1.3 Million

Opposite Hitter | Russia | Zenit Kazan (Russia)

Russia’s domestic league historically offered some of the largest contracts in volleyball. Mikhaylov, a London 2012 Olympic gold medalist, has spent the bulk of his career at Zenit Kazan — one of the sport’s wealthiest clubs.

7. Kim Yeon-Koung — $1.2 Million

Outside Hitter | South Korea | Retired

Kim is South Korean volleyball royalty. She played across Turkey, Japan, China, and her home league, earning top-tier contracts at every stop. In Asian leagues, the single-foreigner rule drives up salaries dramatically — and Kim’s star power made her one of the sport’s highest earners for over a decade.

8. Tijana Bošković — $1.1 Million

Opposite Hitter | Serbia | Eczacibasi Istanbul (Turkey)

At just 26, Bošković is already among the sport’s all-time greats. The opposite hitter position is the scarcest and most valuable in volleyball. One insider noted that the market for elite opposites is so thin that “you have to pick among Egonu, Bošković, Haak, and Vargas if you want to win a trophy.”

9. Bartosz Kurek — $1.1 Million

Opposite Hitter | Poland | Tokyo Great Bears (Japan)

Named Polish Sports Personality of the Year in 2019, Kurek moved to Japan’s SV League where the single-foreigner rule creates massive paychecks for elite imports. Japan offers shorter seasons with higher per-game compensation than most European leagues.

10. Jordan Larson — $1.0 Million

Outside Hitter | USA | Retired

The most successful American female volleyball player in history. Larson earned her seven-figure salary through Turkish club contracts, where she spent several seasons commanding premium pay. Her Olympic medals and national team leadership added endorsement value on top.

11. Dmitriy Muserskiy — $950,000

Middle Blocker | Russia | Suntory Sunbirds (Japan)

At 7’2”, Muserskiy is one of the tallest players in professional volleyball history. His rare combination of height and skill at the middle blocker position made him one of Russia’s most valuable exports. His move to Japan’s SV League brought a significant salary bump.

12. Aleksandar Atanasijević — $920,000

Opposite Hitter | Serbia | Olympiacos (Greece)

Serbia’s highest paid volleyball player. Atanasijević has played across Italy, Poland, and Greece, earning top contracts at each stop. His consistency as an opposite hitter — the position that commands the highest professional volleyball salary — has kept him in the upper tier for years.

13. Arina Fedorovtseva — $900,000

Opposite Hitter | Russia | Eczacibasi Istanbul (Turkey)

The youngest player on this list, Fedorovtseva represents the next generation of high-earning volleyball stars. She moved to Turkey’s Sultanlar Ligi where her scoring ability commands a contract that puts her among the top earners in women’s volleyball.

14. Gyorgy Grozer — $870,000

Opposite Hitter | Germany | Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie (Poland)

Known as “The Iceman,” Grozer is one of the hardest hitters in volleyball history. He’s played across Germany, Russia, Italy, and Poland — consistently earning top-tier contracts wherever he goes.

15. Matt Anderson — $850,000

Outside Hitter | USA | Nippon Steel Sakai Blazers (Japan)

The highest paid American male volleyball player. With no men’s professional league in the US, elite American players earn their living abroad. Anderson has played in Russia and Japan, where foreign talent commands premium pay.

What Drives Volleyball Salaries?

Three factors determine how much a professional volleyball player earns.

League economics matter most. Turkey, Italy, Poland, and the Asian leagues (Japan, South Korea, China) pay the highest club salaries. In the US, the league now known as Major League Volleyball — formed when the Pro Volleyball Federation and a rival MLV venture combined ahead of the 2026 season — published a top base salary of $175,000 for 2025, but that’s still a fraction of what the best volleyball players in the world earn overseas.

Position is everything. Opposite hitters and outside hitters dominate this list because they’re the hardest positions to fill, especially under foreigner quotas that limit teams to one or two imports. Liberos and defensive specialists earn considerably less. Physical profile feeds into it too, which is why the pay gap tracks so closely with the average volleyball player height at each position.

Endorsements multiply the base. Players like Egonu and Zhu Ting earn substantial income from brand partnerships beyond their club contracts. For the richest volleyball players, endorsements can make up 30–40% of total annual income.

Other Names Fans Search For

The fifteen above are the top earners, but they are not the only players whose contracts get talked about. Search interest also runs to net worth rather than salary — worth knowing that published net-worth figures for volleyball players are almost always estimates stacked on top of unconfirmed contract reports, so treat them accordingly. Club affiliations below are deliberately left out, because in this sport they change nearly every summer.

• TJ DeFalco (USA, outside hitter) — a fixture in the US men’s starting lineup and one of the Americans who built a full career in Europe’s top leagues.
• Yuki Ishikawa (Japan, outside hitter) — Japan’s captain and the face of the country’s men’s volleyball boom, with a long run in the Italian league behind him.
• Micah Christenson (USA, setter) — the long-serving US setter, and a useful reminder that setters sit lower on the pay scale than the hitters they feed.
• Melissa Vargas (Turkey, opposite hitter) — one of the four elite opposites the market revolves around, alongside Egonu, Bošković and Haak.
• Isabelle Haak (Sweden, opposite hitter) — the fourth name in that group, and one of the highest-valued players in the women’s game.
• Alessandro Michieletto (Italy, outside hitter) — the standout of Italy’s current men’s generation and one of the sport’s most bankable young players.
• Ran Takahashi (Japan, outside hitter) — a genuine crossover star at home, with a following that translates into commercial income most volleyball players never see.
• Hande Baladın (Turkey, outside hitter) — a Turkish international in the league that has set the women’s market for a decade.

If you enjoy this side of the sport, our roundup of volleyball facts covers more of the numbers behind the game.

Capture Your Own Volleyball Highlights

Watching these elite players is inspiring, but studying game film is how players actually improve — and at club and high school level, nobody is filming for you. If you’re coaching a volleyball team or building a highlight reel for recruiting, the XbotGo Falcon could be a good fit — it’s a standalone 4K AI camera that tracks the action automatically through a three-step setup, so you can watch the match instead of holding a phone above your head for two hours.

On a volleyball court, where you put the camera matters more than what you buy. Gyms are dark, ceilings are low, and there is rarely room to back up far enough to fit the court in frame — so height and angle do most of the work. If you’re still deciding, we compared the best volleyball cameras for recording; if you already own a Falcon, the guide to how to record on a volleyball game gives the exact tripod height and placement.

Wrapping Up

The highest paid volleyball players in 2026 earn well over a million dollars a year, with women like Zhu Ting and Paola Egonu leading the way. League economics, position scarcity, and endorsement deals determine who reaches the top. With volleyball’s global audience growing every year, these numbers are only heading up.