Sports Footballer Salaries Then & Now

[450SEL6.9]

I continue to hear on World Cup telecasts commentators talk about some mediocre players earning £100,000 a week from their clubs. I decided to take a look at my old football magazines to get an idea of where wages were. Here are some historical wages of superstar players.

(Unless otherwise noted, all figures are US dollars)
Alfredo di Stefano, Real Madrid 1960 - $30,000 per year, had higher offer from Glasgow Rangers for $40,000
George Best Man U 1966 - £35,000 per year
Pele, New York Cosmos 1975 - Between $2.8 million and $7 million for three years, many reports suggest $4.5 million
Johan Cruijff Barcelona 1975 - $250,000 per year
Franz Beckenbauer NY Cosmos 1977 - About $500,000 per year
Michel Platini Juventus 1982 - $300,000 per year
Franco Baresi AC Milan mid-1980s - $400,000
Diego Maradona Napoli 1989 - $2.5 million, contract value about $23m for 9 years starting in 1984/85
Roberto Baggio Juventus 1990 - $1.5m per year
Marco Van Basten AC Milan 1991 - £2.5m, £50,000/week
Paul Gascoigne Lazio 1992 - £2.0m, £40,000/week
Ruud Gullit AC Milan 1993 - £2.0 m, £40,000/week
George Weah AC Milain 1995 - $3m per year
Eric Cantona Manchester United 1995 - £20,000/week
Paul Gascoigne Rangers 1996 - £16,000/week, £4m for 5 years
Peter Schmeichel Man U 1996 - £18,000/week

In the early 1990s, the highest wages were in Italy. Now wages are high everywhere. The average English Premiership player earns about £700,000 before win bonuses! How can these wages be sustained? The debts of several big clubs are soaring.

 

[Zonda]

Sponsors

 

[450SEL6.9]

Sponsors can only pay so much. The clubs need to make a profit or at least stop losing money and piling on debts. Wages have gone insane in the past 5 yr. and the game will suffer.

Does anyone have any player wages to add to the list?

 

[siko]

Although the numbers might vary, this is a trend that can be observed in every professional sport !

 

[Imhotep Evil]

I continue to hear on World Cup telecasts commentators talk about some mediocre players earning £100,000 a week from their clubs. I decided to take a look at my old football magazines to get an idea of where wages were. Here are some historical wages of superstar players.

(Unless otherwise noted, all figures are US dollars)
Alfredo di Stefano, Real Madrid 1960 - $30,000 per year, had higher offer from Glasgow Rangers for $40,000
George Best Man U 1966 - £35,000 per year
Pele, New York Cosmos 1975 - Between $2.8 million and $7 million for three years, many reports suggest $4.5 million
Johan Cruijff Barcelona 1975 - $250,000 per year
Franz Beckenbauer NY Cosmos 1977 - About $500,000 per year
Michel Platini Juventus 1982 - $300,000 per year
Franco Baresi AC Milan mid-1980s - $400,000
Diego Maradona Napoli 1989 - $2.5 million, contract value about $23m for 9 years starting in 1984/85
Roberto Baggio Juventus 1990 - $1.5m per year
Marco Van Basten AC Milan 1991 - £2.5m, £50,000/week
Paul Gascoigne Lazio 1992 - £2.0m, £40,000/week
Ruud Gullit AC Milan 1993 - £2.0 m, £40,000/week
George Weah AC Milain 1995 - $3m per year
Eric Cantona Manchester United 1995 - £20,000/week
Paul Gascoigne Rangers 1996 - £16,000/week, £4m for 5 years
Peter Schmeichel Man U 1996 - £18,000/week

In the early 1990s, the highest wages were in Italy. Now wages are high everywhere. The average English Premiership player earns about £700,000 before win bonuses! How can these wages be sustained? The debts of several big clubs are soaring.

Sponsors revenues, TV rights revenues, stadium revenues, franchise/asociated revenues, and buying cheaper and selling pricyer.

And ofcourse multi billionaires.

Some of the revenues of certain palyers, while huge are still small relative to their market value.

 

[450SEL6.9]

But what about surging club debts and losses? Revenues have not risen to the point to justify wages and market values of players rising at these levels. The alarming thing is that most of the rise was attributed to the past 5 yr. The implicit wage ceiling in the English League was £40,000/week in 2000, 2001. Now the limit is really no limit.

Some clubs will collapse eventually. Euro leagues operate using business model that are not viable. There are clubs that must do well in Champions League just to breakeven for the year. FIFA exec Michel Platini, who I put in the list above as earning a mere $300,000 per year, suggested that clubs be forced to have their internal finances validated before each season. They are spending money they don't have on players and it will threaten the game.

Siko, other sports have had rising wages as well, but it's been more consistent and not a sudden jump. The NBA had its first $100 million contract well over ten years ago.

 

[450SEL6.9]

I suppose incompetence pays off, Real offers David Beckham £25 million per year! This will come crashing down in a pile one day. When are clubs going to realize this overpaying is stupid?

 

[donau]

I continue to hear on World Cup telecasts commentators talk about some mediocre players earning £100,000 a week from their clubs. I decided to take a look at my old football magazines to get an idea of where wages were. Here are some historical wages of superstar players.

(Unless otherwise noted, all figures are US dollars)
Alfredo di Stefano, Real Madrid 1960 - $30,000 per year, had higher offer from Glasgow Rangers for $40,000
George Best Man U 1966 - £35,000 per year
Pele, New York Cosmos 1975 - Between $2.8 million and $7 million for three years, many reports suggest $4.5 million
Johan Cruijff Barcelona 1975 - $250,000 per year
Franz Beckenbauer NY Cosmos 1977 - About $500,000 per year
Michel Platini Juventus 1982 - $300,000 per year
Franco Baresi AC Milan mid-1980s - $400,000
Diego Maradona Napoli 1989 - $2.5 million, contract value about $23m for 9 years starting in 1984/85
Roberto Baggio Juventus 1990 - $1.5m per year
Marco Van Basten AC Milan 1991 - £2.5m, £50,000/week
Paul Gascoigne Lazio 1992 - £2.0m, £40,000/week
Ruud Gullit AC Milan 1993 - £2.0 m, £40,000/week
George Weah AC Milain 1995 - $3m per year
Eric Cantona Manchester United 1995 - £20,000/week
Paul Gascoigne Rangers 1996 - £16,000/week, £4m for 5 years
Peter Schmeichel Man U 1996 - £18,000/week

In the early 1990s, the highest wages were in Italy. Now wages are high everywhere. The average English Premiership player earns about £700,000 before win bonuses! How can these wages be sustained? The debts of several big clubs are soaring.

Note how the big paydays started happening after the American money for Pele and Beckenbauer. The exception being Johan Cruyff, my all-time favorite player whom I think of as the Wayne Gretzky of Soccer, not stats -wise, but in many other ways. For him to get R250,000 from Barcelona in 1975 was pretty good. Now, there was a flying Dutchman And the guy smoked all the time too...and was still the best....

 

[450SEL6.9]

Cruijff was an amazing player. I think he too spent time in America earning the big bucks for eventual retirement. I think Platini's salary must be wrong. Maradona was earning about $1.5 million at Barcelona around that time so Platini should not have been at $300,000 but that's what my magazine said.

I think America might lead salaries higher again. Right now the Euro clubs do not compete with MLS. If American teams start trying to land stars like Ronaldo and Beckham, wages in Europe will go sky-high in response. These wages are destructive, poison the beautiful game.

 

[Imhotep Evil]

Cruijff was an amazing player. I think he too spent time in America earning the big bucks for eventual retirement. I think Platini's salary must be wrong. Maradona was earning about $1.5 million at Barcelona around that time so Platini should not have been at $300,000 but that's what my magazine said.

I think America might lead salaries higher again. Right now the Euro clubs do not compete with MLS. If American teams start trying to land stars like Ronaldo and Beckham, wages in Europe will go sky-high in response. These wages are destructive, poison the beautiful game.

What are you talking about ?!
America has nothing like real Madrid, Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea, Milan and so on.
I find it very dificult to belive that the poor and inseginficant american clubs could superstar wages.

 

[450SEL6.9]

What are you talking about ?!
America has nothing like real Madrid, Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea, Milan and so on.
I find it very dificult to belive that the poor and inseginficant american clubs could superstar wages.

That's what everyone said last time! MLS was nothing in the 1970s. All of a sudden, Pele gets the biggest deal in football history from American soccer. It would only take a Ronaldo or Beckham to play in America. Becks, Mr. Posh, has other reasons to play there of course. All the aging players that went to MLS in the 1970s earned three, four times more than what they could have earned at home and wages in Europe started slowly growing after that. I don't think it's out of the question that it happens again. I know there are many big clubs are in Europe, but if one major American television network decides to give soccer a go and demands the best players be brought in, then the MLS teams will have all the millions they need to buy players.

Take a look at the salaries of footballers in Europe in the late-1970s, early-1980s. They started rising because Euro clubs realized the American teams could pay the big bucks for talent. It's just my opinion, but I think that could happen again. A Ronaldo or Beckham in MLS would boost the tour, give it an instant media deal.

 

[Imhotep Evil]

That's what everyone said last time! MLS was nothing in the 1970s. All of a sudden, Pele gets the biggest deal in football history from American soccer. It would only take a Ronaldo or Beckham to play in America. Becks, Mr. Posh, has other reasons to play there of course. All the aging players that went to MLS in the 1970s earned three, four times more than what they could have earned at home and wages in Europe started slowly growing after that. I don't think it's out of the question that it happens again. I know there are many big clubs are in Europe, but if one major American television network decides to give soccer a go and demands the best players be brought in, then the MLS teams will have all the millions they need to buy players.

Take a look at the salaries of footballers in Europe in the late-1970s, early-1980s. They started rising because Euro clubs realized the American teams could pay the big bucks for talent. It's just my opinion, but I think that could happen again. A Ronaldo or Beckham in MLS would boost the tour, give it an instant media deal.

Things have changed a lot since the 70s, when people in Europe couldn't even imagined putting the words buisness and football in the same sentence.

There's no other place in the world were football has been turned into such a buisness like Europe.

And there no clubs in the rest of the world that can compete with the big clubs in Europe.
As for the USA, football isn't even on the radar.

As for this 3 to 4 times more the european salaries, well who the hell would pay Becks over 120 million euros a year.

I'm sorry my friend, it's just naive wishfull thinking.

 

[450SEL6.9]

I didn't say that the American clubs could suddenly pay 3, 4-times more today because Euro wages are high as is. I do think they could pay something comparable. A European player would not need to take a 90% paycut to play in MLS is what I'm trying to say. Many Euro football clubs are owned by the supporters' associations, but the teams are run to be businesses and run poorly for that matter. Collective finances among Euro football clubs are shaky at best.

I think it's likewise naive to think that American football could never again pay big money for top players. Hockey is not a huge sport in America either, but there are still hockey players earning what Beckham gets from his current deal with Real Madrid. Football would need to grow to get to even hockey's revenue base. I could see several aging players blazing a trail by going to MLS if there is a big TV network deal. It's not impossible.