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Does anyone know what the average salary is in professional soccer? I'm talking about the big leagues, not the smaller clubs. I'd like to see how overpaid/underpaid they are to say.. pro football, baseball, basketball players in the U.S. Just a curious thought. Send me a line if you know.

DEVO (SPECTRE) | 07/05/08, 10:45 AM

Soccer salaries are complicated...heh. To keep this less complicated I'll use dollars for everything.

First, they are typically rated in either by-week or quarterly payments, instead of the yearly rating that American professional sports salaries are. So, instead of saying a player gets paid $5m a year, you say he gets paid $100,000 per week (give or take).

That is just base salary, which is a majority of a player's compensation, but not nearly all of it. Most players receive bonuses for appearances, some for goals scored or clean sheets, some for wins, championships, or even strange things like no bookings. Goal, clean sheet, and appearance bonuses are obviously the most common, and for an elite player they can be as high as $50-75k per goal or per appearance. So, let's assume Fernando Torres has a $50k goal bonus and a $50k appearance bonus. Last season, his bonuses would netted him around $3.5m extra in addition to salary, league performance bonuses, CL performance bonuses, etc.

Bear in mind also that soccer players tend to get new contracts (and in turn, signing bonuses) an awful lot, either by transfering regularly or by renegotiating contracts at their clubs. A superstar player's bonus might be as high as $10-15m on a big transfer.

ANYWAY, with all that in mind, I think the typical average salary at a G-14 club is usually somewhere around $30k/week. However, this is very misleading, as "average" salaries includes EVERYONE on the club, including superstars, squaddies, reserve players, and scrubs, so for a big club (especially in Spain) you can be talking about 100+ players all told.

For the players who would typically make the starting XI for such a club, the average is obviously much higher...I'd say somewhere around $100k a week, plus bonuses. This translates roughly to $7-8 million per player. Obviously, the best paid players in the world (Gerrard, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, etc) get paid much more (I think Stevie G's last contract was $230/wk + a huge set of bonuses), so in his case you could be looking at upwards of $15m per season, which is to be expected for the best paid players in Europe.

Generally, I think that soccer contracts are pretty solid. You usually really have to earn the money that you're paid (no NFL #1 overall pick type salaries), you don't have to deal with guaranteed vs. non-guaranteed money, the most gifted young players don't have to wait forever to sign a new deal, and you don't have the ridiculously inflated salaries of MLB or F1. In general, I think it is probably comparable to the NBA, give or take, except that players tend to move around a bit more.

cowace2 | 07/05/08, 11:45 AM

Also, I like this buy for Newcastle. It is the kind of blue collar, unflashy purchase that they haven't been making recently.

cowace2 | 07/05/08, 11:46 AM

Hey cowace2, how do you find all this out? i'd be interested in reading up on it myself

CUtigerssoccer | 07/05/08, 03:02 PM

he looked decent for switzerland in euros.wonder what they will do with joey barton?any suggestions folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

chimbonda | 07/05/08, 03:38 PM

he looked decent for switzerland in euros.wonder what they will do with joey barton?any suggestions folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
chimbonda | 07/05/08, 03:38 PM
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Yeah he did look good and I think he'll be a decent played for them. I think they'll get rid of the mole known as Barton.

Keeper | 07/05/08, 05:06 PM

I've just followed soccer for a very long time...heh. I'm not sure if there are any good guides out there about it. Maybe I'll write one for FN sometime.

As for Barton, isn't he still in prison? I have to think his time at St. James was finished no matter what...a new DM signing was probably decided on quite a while ago.

cowace2 | 07/05/08, 05:19 PM

A leg growing out of his kidney?

YODA | 07/05/08, 07:48 PM

Ackward that must be!

YODA | 07/05/08, 07:49 PM

Magpies?

Long Wang | 07/06/08, 12:12 AM

yeah he's on lockdown the animal.dabo's eye injury was horrific he's lucky he isnt blind.though he was already in jail for another assault.his career in england has to be over.would any club take him anywhere?if it was the nfl im sure the cowboys or raiders would give him a shot lol

chimbonda | 07/06/08, 03:51 AM

Keegan is looking for anything

jeevs BS | 07/06/08, 03:20 PM

That pciture looks like there should have been a foul

FootballGuru | 07/07/08, 02:33 PM