The top 11 highest paid goalkeepers in the EFL Championship | OneFootball

They can make the difference between success and failure for a team, so here's a list of the best-paid Championship goalkeepers.

Having a strong goalkeeper is near the top of the list for any manager looking to build a successful team, so here's a list of the top eleven best-paid custodians in the Championship.

Of all the positions on a football pitch, the goalkeeper is by a long way the most specialised. We see this on the rare occasions that outfield players have to deputise for them during matches. It takes years of training to become a professional in this position.

Taking this into account, it may come as something of a surprise to learn that goalkeepers are not among the best players in the Championship. Indeed, of Capology's ranking of the 50 best-paid players in the entire division, only two occupy that position.

There are also a couple of notable absentees from this list. Carl Rushworth has won considerable acclaim for his role in Coventry City's title-winning team, but Capology estimates his earnings at £6,250-a-week. The same goes for Birmingham City's James Beadle.

This is, of course, on account of their ages. At 24 and 21 respectively, these two are relatively young goalkeepers, although as we'll see, this isn't necessarily an impediment to making good money in the Championship.

11 ? ? Viktor Johansson - £18,750-a-week

Signed from Rotherham United in 2024, Swedish goalkeeper Viktor Johansson ended 2024-25 as the Stoke City player of the year, but this season has been a disappointing one, with Johansson missing the second half of the season after suffering a shoulder injury against Sheffield United at the end of December.

Johansson reappeared for Stoke's final game of the season, but had a nightmare start with a first-minute error which handed Bristol City their first goal in a 2-0 win. Prior to his injury, though, his form had been much better, and he managed eight clean sheets in 25 appearances for them in total.

10 ? ? Daniel Iversen - £18,750-a-week

Danish goalkeeper Daniel Iversen was signed by Preston North End from Leicester City in the summer of 2025. Capology estimates him to be one of their better-paid players, although they do tend to keep many of their wages at around the same level.

Iversen kept eight clean sheets in 36 appearances for Preston throughout the 2025-26 season as his team finished 14th in the Championship. Having only arrived last summer, he still has three years to run on his Preston contract.

9 ? ? Lawrence Vigouroux - £18,750-a-week

The Swansea City goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux is the second of three Championship goalkeepers estimated to be making this amount of money. Swansea finished the season in 11th place in the table, and were the only team in the top half to end with a negative goal difference.

If anything, though, the Swans' issues were at the other end of the pitch. The 57 goals that they scored were the joint-lowest in the top half, while Vigouroux demonstrated his importance to Swansea with 12 clean sheets from 45 appearances for them.

8 ? ? Egil Selvik - £18,750-a-week

Watford's Norwegian goalkeeper Egil Selvik will almost certainly be going to the World Cup with Norway this summer, and that international status may inform his relatively high wage at Watford, although Capology do not estimate him to be one of their best-paid players.

Selvik kept seven clean sheets in 40 appearances for the Hornets in 2025-26, but as can be seen from his Fotmob player ratings, his form suffered dramatically in the closing weeks of the season as his team slumped to five consecutive defeats from their last five matches, finishing 16th in the Championship table.

7 ? ? Michael Cooper - £21,875-a-week

With eight clean sheets from 34 appearances, Sheffield United's highly-rated young goalkeeper Michael Cooper had a mixed 2025-26, which ended early when he was ruled out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury at the end of February. He managed eight clean sheets for them in 34 appearances.

Cooper was subject to intense transfer speculation last summer, with Everton and West Ham United among those rumoured to be interested in signing him. It remains to be seen whether the Blades' relatively mediocre performance this season will mean that Cooper is excused such pressure again this summer.

6 ? ? Gavin Bazunu - £25,000-a-week

When Viktor Johansson got injured at the end of last year, Stoke City needed a replacement and the player they brought in on loan was Southampton's Gavin Bazunu.

Bazunu has had a difficult time of things since an achilles tendon injury kept him out of the Southampton team from April 2024. Loaned out to Standard Liege the following January, that loan had to be cut short early due to a knee injury.

Bazunu started the season in goal for Southampton and made 19 appearances for them throughout the first half of the season, but went to Stoke after they loaned Daniel Peretz from Bayern Munich for the remainder of the season. But he only ended up making six appearances for Stoke and conceded in every match. In total for the season, he kept five clean sheets in 25 Championship appearances, all of them for Southampton.

5 ? ? Thomas Kaminski - £25,000-a-week

Belgian goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski signed for Charlton Athletic from Luton Town in the summer of 2025, and is listed as their second-highest paid player behind Conor Coady by Capology.

It may be slightly surprising that the team with the lowest payroll in the division has a goalkeeper on this list, but Kaminski has justified his income with 11 clean sheets in 37 appearances for Charlton this season. Given that they ended the season by retaining their Championship place for another season, his transfer might be deemed a success.

4 ? ? Vladan Kovacevic - £25,000-a-week

Having signed from Sporting CP last summer, Vladan Kovacevic had a reasonably successful first season at Norwich City, keeping eight clean sheets in 45 appearances for the Canaries as they survived an atrocious start to rally and finish 9th in the table.

Speaking in April, the Norwich head coach, Philippe Clement, expressed his delight with the progress his goalkeeper has made over the course of the season, saying, "It's also good for him that he can shine one moment, because we had a lot of games where he didn't have so much to do, and there were other people who were in the spotlight, so he deserves a spotlight for today."

3 ? ? Ryan Allsop - £25,000-a-week

Following an outstanding 2024-25 season which saw him named in the League One Team of the Season, this season has turned out to be a disappointment for Ryan Allsop, who lost his place as their first-choice goalkeeper to James Beadle at Birmingham City at the end of September and has been unable to win it back.

The season hasn't been an unmitigated disaster for the 33-year-old, though. He signed a two-year extension to his contract at St Andrew's in November. But in total, he only made 11 appearances for the Blues all season, keeping two clean sheets, though he's only played for them once in the league so far in 2026.

2 ? ? Christian Walton - £34,375-a-week

One goalkeeper who did have an outstanding season is Ipswich Town's Christian Walton, who took over from Alex Palmer in October and ended 2025-26 as their Players' Player of the Season.

Walton ended the season with his team promoted back to the Premier League following a year away, having kept 16 clean sheets in 37 appearances for them, the second-highest in the division behind Coventry City's Carl Rushworth.

The goalkeeper signed from Brighton in 2022, but has had an up and downtime of things since joining Ipswich. He was their first-choice in their 2022-23 League One title-winning team, but was unable to tie down a place over the two years that followed. The question facing his manager Kieran McKenna now is whether to give him the opportunity to shine in the Premier League next season at Portman Road.