Are top professional footballers payed to much?
490825
Last year £786 million in wages alone was paid to 2,347 professional footballers, that's roughly equivalent to the GDP of Mongolia in 2005. Of that sum, £583 million went to Premiership players. And the likes of Steven Gerrard and David Beckham are reported to earn over £100,000 A WEEK – that's more than £5 million a year - not bad for playing a bit footy.
1123796
babes they get paid to much money really even you must think that but if you got it you got it lol hun\n\n1 Ronaldinho (Barcelona) £32.6m\n2 David Beckham (Real Madrid) £31.2m\n3 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) £30.4m\n4 Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona) £21.3m\n5 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) £21.1m\n6 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Juventus) £20.9m\n7 Ronaldo (Real Madrid) £20.4m\n8 Frank Lampard (Chelsea) £20m\n9 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) £19.95m\n10 Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich) £19.9m\n hope this helps, \nbut here a site for more info on the world cup hun
1040360
No... Because they just give a bonus if they win from their country....... They play football in World Cup..is totally for their country...it like hero...no salary but nasionality
508266
Someone between £8000 and £18000 a week I would imagine. He's not a high-earner compared to the 'superstars' of the the Premiership - but I wouldn't mind his wages!!
759996
Yeah I think your right, footballers a paid way to much and then complain all the time seriously footballers are the most whinging of all sports people.\nTake rugby players, not earning as much as footballers, could play twice in one week, taking huge hits all through the game and its apparent most of them play just for the love of the game, now footballers used to be like that they would take a hit get up and continue playing for the love of it, now its ten minutes rolling around and trying to get people booked, I don't know what happened but football has definitely lost its soul to the corporate devil
918183
I certainly do. When teams like Chelsea and Arsenal field an all foreign team it is dreadful. People say that there are not enough good English players around. I disagree. Look what Fergie did at Man Utd in bringing players like the Neville brothers, Scholes, Beckham and Giggs through the system. Many managers will not persevere with young English players. They go and buy foreigners because they are quite often cheaper and will accept lower wages. Also signing foreign players is sometimes a quick fix. It takes time to nurture young players and some clubs will not give managers enough time to do this as they want instant results. Restricting the number of foreign players would make clubs have a rethink and it would be better for the national team. Of all the foreign players playing in England how many are really top class players? Not that many.
1032690
You could argue the same of any and all professional sports.  It's not that hard to kick a ball around, but it is hard to kick it at the level that (most) professional players do.\nYou could also say that "it's not hard to do tell someone how to do math," yet not many people are truly good at teaching math.  You could make the same argument for any profession too (as people already pointed out)!\nSports do have a purpose and place in society - to entertain people, to unite people of different background behind a single team, to give them an outlet for energy passion and so on.\nThe problem, as I see it, is that most people take this passion way over the top and make their fandom an obsession and spend far too much money on merchandise, tickets, etc.  Players get paid the money they get paid because people buy their shirts, pictures, shoes, and all that other stuff.  If people didn't buy their merchandise, teams and companies (Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc.) would not have the money to pay players with.\n\nI can't tell you why all footballers chose becoming footballers, but I can tell you that fame, money (getting out of poverty), glory, representing their country in front of the world, and the joy of doing something they love as a job are good enough reasons to become one.\n\nFind what you love and do it... unless it's illegal and/or harms others :)
544446
I think all professional athletes should get paid a lot LESS money! Don't get me wrong, I understand their career's are much shorter, so they need to earn enough to live off for the rest of their lives sometimes (barring a career in management or commentary) but come on, Ballack is now earning £120,000 PER WEEK! That's 6 times my annual salary every week....\nThe girls should be more on a par with men, but that ammount is obscene, nobody, athlete, politician, business man or otherwise should be making so much money.
498319
Well, the NFL is the best organized league in the world, and as the most organized league it is the most profitable. If teams and owners were not earninjg big amount of money, they wouldn´t be paying big salaries. Football players are incredible athletes that compete during 6 hard football season months! But a team woulnd´t be paying 100 million in salaries if they weren´t recieving much more. Tickets, merchandise (in and out of stadiums), TV contracts, sponsorship deals amount for such a profit that they can afford those big salaries. True, players go through a lot of pain during and after the season, but i guess rugby players do also, and they aren´t recieving the same salaries. Also, i believe salaries are way too high, but as long as the owners are making money, they will be going for better contracts to attract the best in the business.\n\nGolf ain´t that bad sport. Last Sunday someone won 1.3 million for 4 days of work at the course... not bad! Tiger has a 20 plus million contract with Nike. I believe he has made Nike win more than that or else he wouldn´t get a new contract!
625923
I am a firm believer, that should a footballer agree to a contract worth, let's say £40.000 a week, he should be entitled to half of what they earn, which would be £20.000, then the other £20.000 would be payed to the player, based on his performance, goals scored, then dedute payments on bookings and sendings offs.\n\nBy doing this, both club and supporters are getting there money's worth, with players putting in 100%every game and they can justify paying that amount to a single player.\n\nFor the footballer, this would be a good payment system, as they would have to play to there maxium level, if they wanted their full amount at the end of each wee. It would also improve disclinpary problems, which sadly today so many players lack.
435757
Yes. Of course the millions that are paid to these athletes is mind boggling. And what have the been the results of all that? Recklessness, drug abuse, poor and underachievement and many other unacceptable behaviors.
385564
beckam is the player that makes more money   but that's for sponsors if you are asking the one with  the best contract that is Ronaldhinio,  he sign a super contract   and is gonna expire on 2014  stupid ha.. and it was for 114 Millon of euros. like 120 millon dollars..
1162949
Yes. Well it wouldn't really be practical. Maybe if the amount of money put into football could go to the NHS and the like, carers, etc. could have a decent wage which reflects their work and other money could be spent on machines and training, etc. I definitely don't see how it can possibly be seen as fair that footballers get paid so much. All they do is play a game. And they only do that half the year for a couple of hours at a time. Nurses, etc. have to work stupid hours all the time for a crappy wage which is hardly livable.\nMr. Evil is a careworker and although his wage is higher than some, he still doesn't get paid enough.
761018
Yes, it's obscene the amount that they earn.   Ultimately it's the fan in the street who pays their wages, and some of those are the least able to afford it.
369471
Zidane had the largest transfer fee.  I'm pretty sure he has the highest salary as well.  If you hold this question open for a few more weeks, the answer will be Thierry Henry.  Next month when Henry signs his new contract, he will have the highest salary.  I think at current it is ZZ first, Ronaldinho second, and Beckham third.
795873
It's those who subscribe to Sky and the like who ruined everything.\n\nFootball on TV used to be free.  Players were well, but not extortionately, paid.  They often used to come from the area where the club was situated, and they rarely asked for a transfer.\n\nFans could identify with them.
764992
Man Utd was never the richest club in the world.\nOn paper they might have appeared so, but the reality was/is, that they could never raid the transfer market and buy players at will.\n\nThey could perhaps buy 1 (at best 2) big name players each season, but could never compete with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus or even, Chelsea, in terms of buying and paying top wages.\n\nThe simple fact is that these clubs have very, very rich owners, who don't mind writing cheques for millions and do not mind their clubs declaring losses. \nBecause of this buying, selling (for lower) and paying high wages, they finish below United in the rich list.\n\nBut in terms of spending power, United still have much catching up to do.