Top 12 highest paid EFL Championship strikers in 2026/27 | OneFootball

Which centre-forwards are set to earn the most money in the second tier this season?

The 2026-27 Championship season is fast approaching, and there's set to be some fascinating angles when it comes to the promotion race.

The three sides relegated from the Premier League will all be fancied, with Wolves and West Ham looking particularly strong on paper despite selling a few key names, whilst Burnley may be the most affected by squad upheaval out of the three.

But the chasing pack from last season's Championship will be gunning to steal an early match - Southampton, Norwich City, Middlesbrough and Derby County are just some of the sides that could be in for good seasons.

One big factor that can turn teams from a mid-table side to a promotion-chasing one is having a prolific striker, but they can also cost the most money out of anyone in the squad.

But which of the new season's centre-forwards are going to be earning the most per week in the second tier of English football? FLW takes a look at the top TWELVE highest-paid strikers - based off Capology's estimates*.

*Raul Jimenez is perhaps a notable admission from this list - he does not appear as a Wolves player yet in Capology's estimates.

12 ? ? Adam Idah/Carlton Morris/Tom Cannon/Marvin Ducksch/Sam Gallagher

There are a handful of Championship strikers said to be earning around the £25,000 a week mark, and they all come from different clubs.

Some have been more successful so far in their careers for their respective clubs. Carlton Morris has been a big success story for Derby County, scoring 12 times in 31 Championship outings last season for the Rams as they narrowly missed out on the play-offs, but his other similar earners haven't had such a good time.

Adam Idah and Tom Cannon's big-money moves to Swansea City and Sheffield United respectively haven't really worked out yet, Marvin Ducksch's Birmingham City switch has provided goals, but he's getting no younger at the age of 32, whilst Sam Gallagher has proved to be injury-prone at Stoke City once more.

The likes of Idah and Cannon have got something to prove going into 2026-27, especially for the money that they are earning, having scored a combined 12 goals in the second tier last season.

11 ? ? Mathias Kvistgaarden - Norwich City

Spending the best part of nearly £7 million on a player from the Danish Superliga could've gone drastically wrong if he didn't manage to cope with the physicality of the Championship, but Norwich City's Mathias Kvistgaarden had a solid, yet unspectacular first year in Norfolk.

Brought in to strengthen the Canaries' attacking unit behind Josh Sargent, Kvistgaarden at times ended up in a supporting striker or number 10 role behind the likes of Sargent (prior to his departure to Toronto FC) and Jovon Makama, who ended up overshadowing the Dane after his move from Lincoln City.

In the end, Kvistgaarden netted six times in the Championship, which was the same as the aforementioned Idah and Cannon, but he needs to have a good start to the new season and help out Makama and Mohamed Toure in the final third, especially as he's on an estimated £30,000 a week.

10 ? ? Kieffer Moore - Wrexham

Despite the fact he turns 34 in early August, Kieffer Moore has aged like a fine wine, having been in and around the Championship for the best part of nine years.

Eyebrows were somewhat raised in January 2017 when Ipswich Town signed the Welsh striker for just £10,000 from Forest Green Rovers of the National League, but Moore has made a great career from being a Championship target man, having passed through Barnsley, Wigan Athletic, Cardiff City, Bournemouth, Sheffield United, and then Wrexham.

Moore landed at the Red Dragons last summer for a fee of around £2 million, and despite his advancing years, the Wales international found the back of the net 11 times in the league, becoming the focal point of Phil Parkinson's attack when fit.

With the riches that Wrexham have, they could easily bag a younger model for their target man role, but Moore is still effective, and on an estimated £30,000 a week, he's still providing value for money.

9 ? ? Patrick Bamford - Sheffield United

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Given their previous distasteful words towards each other, Patrick Bamford and Chris Wilder coming together at Sheffield United last season was certainly an unlikely partnership - yet it's one that proved rather fruitful.

In what was a forgettable season in the end for the Blades, which saw them finish in mid-table after a torrid start to the campaign under the brief management of Ruben Selles, the November addition of the experienced Bamford on a short-term deal ended up working wonders.

Having barely kicked a ball since late 2024, it was quite surprising to see the ex-Leeds United hitman start life at Bramall Lane so well, and he ended the season with 12 goals from 28 outings.

For wages of £30,000 a week, you'd have hoped that Bamford would've been able to find the back of the net a few times, but he exceeded a lot of expectations, and he goes into the new season with perhaps different goals to what he did less than a year ago.

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For a player who has been contracted to Burnley for three years now, Zeki Amdouni only appearing 43 times for the Clarets has been bitterly disappointing for all involved - and that includes the Switzerland international himself.

Brought in from Basel in 2023 for £15 million when the Lancashire outfit were a Premier League club, Amdouni showed some promise in the top flight, but was loaned to Benfica following their relegation back to the Championship, but they did not decide to activate their buy option last summer, leaving him a Burnley player once more.

However, an ACL injury last pre-season caused Amdouni to miss all but the final four matches of Burnley's Premier League struggle in 2025-26, which means he returns to the second tier of English football with a point to prove, having appeared just twice at the level prior to his Benfica loan.

On an estimated £35,000 a week, Burnley can either utilise Amdouni this season under new head coach Nicky Hayen or they can loan him out or sell him - it's hard to see the Clarets recouping the eight-figure fee they spent though on the 25-year-old's services.

7 ? ? Sasa Kalajdzic - Wolves

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Wolves are blessed with attacking talent going into the 2026-27 season, with Raul Jimenez's return to Molineux adding further depth to their ranks.

One player that has perhaps been forgotten about though is the gangly Austrian centre-forward Sasa Kalajdzic, who has failed to really get going at the Midlands outfit since his £15 million move from Stuttgart in 2022.

The towering 6ft 7in striker made just one appearance in his first season for Wolves though, as a knee injury ended his season incredibly early, and after being loaned out to Frankfurt for the second half of 2023-24, disaster struck again with yet another ACL tear - his third in five years.

Missing the entirety of 2024-25 to recover, Kalajdzic joined LASK in his home nation for the majority of 2025-26, scoring seven times in all competitions, but it's fair to say that his competitive level may have dropped quite a bit since his fitness setbacks.

Going into the new season, Kalajdzic has just one year remaining on his Wolves contract, but there's every reason to believe that if the 27-year-old stays fit, he could prove to be a useful option off the bench at Championship level - on an estimated wage of £35,000 a week though, he needs to show some semblance of goalscoring form if he is to remain at Molineux.

6 ? ? Callum Robinson - Cardiff City

Despite no longer leading the line on a regular basis for newly-promoted Cardiff City, Callum Robinson is still estimated to be one of the highest earners both within the Welsh capital and when measured against other strikers throughout the Championship.

The 38-cap Republic of Ireland international is entering his fourth campaign with the Bluebirds after joining in a £1.5 million deal from West Bromwich Albion in 2022 and it would be fair to say he has endured a mixed career in South Wales.

Robinson's debut season was a success as Cardiff narrowly avoided relegation but he would notably struggle under Erol Bulut before scoring 12 times as the Bluebirds slipped into the third-tier last year.

By that stage, however, Robinson had lost his place to star striker Yousef Salech and is yet to wrestle it back, having found the back of the net on eight occasions in under 1,200 minutes of League One football in a season which saw Cardiff return to the Championship at the first tine of asking.

Now aged 31 with just one year remaining on his current contract, one must wonder whether a parting of ways is in the best interests of both parties this summer - and if Cardiff are indeed paying the striker anything close to his estimated salary of £35,000 per-week salary, they may well look to get him off the books.

5 ? ? Cameron Archer - Southampton

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It would be a frank yet fair assessment to say that it simply hasn't worked out at Southampton for Cameron Archer, who joined the Saints from Aston Villa two summers ago and is yet to rekindle the same sort of form that once lit up the Championship in previous loan stints at both Preston North End and Middlesbrough.

Not without bags of talent, things haven't gone Archer's way as he scored just twice from 35 Premier League outings in his debut campaign and struggled to match expectations back in the second-tier by recording four goals and three assists in Southampton's run to the play-offs, albeit with flashes of promise towards the end of the season.

It's been a costly investment for Southampton, having shelled out an initial £15 million figure on the forward's signature, and the Saints are also paying him an estimated weekly wage of £40,000.

Should Archer remain with Tonda Eckert's side this summer, there's still an opportunity to redeem his career on the south coast - but patience is wearing thin and Southampton need to see some sort of bang for their buck sooner rather than later.

4 ? ? Armando Broja - Burnley

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With Armando Broja, you get the sense that everybody is wondering when - or if - the penny will finally drop for the once-highly-rated Albanian international frontman, and while Burnley may well have the same questions, there's every chance he will be out of Turf Moor by the time the window ends.

Broja is currently being linked with a switch to Italian giants Lazio, which may come as a surprise off the back of a dismal debut term at Burnley which saw the striker score just once from 24 Premier League games after joining in a £20 million package from Chelsea.

The Albanian's addition was a marquee one at the time, and that's why he's also estimated to be taking home a £45,000 weekly salary, but the Clarets have collected no return on their investment to date and could just decide to cut their losses.

Previously billed as a precocious talent emerging at Chelsea, Broja's reputation only blossomed from productive loan spells with Vitesse Arnhem but less-successful stints at Fulham and Everton followed before joining Burnley and injuries have also been a recurring theme for the often-unfortunate 24-year-old.

3 ? ? Hwang Hee-chan - Wolves

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We're venturing into a different ballpark of salaries in the form of the second Wolves attacker to feature in Hwang Hee-chan, whose earnings are perhaps to be expected considering his years of top-flight pedigree in both England and Germany.

A £13 million acquisition from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2022 following a reasonable season on loan at Molineux, Hwang's future with the Old Gold now feels somewhat uncertain heading into the Championship - not least because he's a top-earner with limited contributions throughout his time in the Black Country.

Hwang notably scored 12 goals in a breakout 2023/24 campaign but has failed to get close to those levels before or since, and the livewire South Korean international striker could only muster two strikes as Wolves' long top-flight residency came to an abrupt end last time out.