Below is a rough range of what YAs in Europe make, according to ESPN, sportingintelligence.com, and IM Scouting estimates. ESPN's full list of YAs in Europe, w/ exact salaries (including players making less than $250k), can be found here (insider article). (Nominal Wages, US Dollars) Code: Highest Paid Player: Brad Friedel, Aston Villa, $3.44 million (Gooch is second at $3.36 million) Lowest Paid Player: Bobby Wood, 1860 Munich, $73k (Chandler is second at $219k) $3 million or more: Friedel, Gooch, Dempsey $2.5 to 3 million: Howard, Rossi $2 to 2.5 million: Altidore, Holden $1.5 to 2 million: Jones, Subotic, Spector, Guzan, Cherundolo $1 to 1.5 million: Edu, Hahnemann, Bradley, Bocanegra $750k to $1 mil: Adu, Johnson, Whitbread $500k to $750k: Kljestan, Goodson, Clark, Findley, Cervi Select Players in relation to GDP per capita (first figure is PPP, second is nominal; 2010 IMF figures) Altidore: 220 (169) Friedel: 96 (98) Adu: 88 (67) Howard: 72 (74) Holden: 60 (61) --------------------- GDP per capita figures for all YA countries listed above (in case anyone wants to do "off the top of their head" calculations for other players): Country: GDP per capita @ PPP (Nominal) (000s) USA: 47 (47) Holland: 41 (47) Spain: 40 (31) Sweden: 38 (49) Germany: 36 (41) Belgium: 36 (43) Denmark: 36 (56) UK: 35 (36) Italy: 29 (34) Turkey: 13 (10)
Clint Dempsey's salary further supports my belief that he should only leave Fulham if a top 4 club in England, Spain or Germany comes calling. But I didn't expect Fulham to be paying him that much already.
He is not anymore. Signed a new deal a few months ago. Friedel is on £50K/w with Villa, which was $5.2M/Y when he signed it. Gooch's wages seem double (the Italians will quote a net figure, which was around €700K) There's no way Altidore is at $2.5M (the most often quoted figure was €800K). Eddie Johnson signed a £25K/w deal with Fulham originally, which is why Aris couldn't afford him. Adu is making €800K/Y (as quoted from old Benfica numbers and supported by the Aris suit) The rest are in the ballpark. PS. In the closed salary thread, they had Mark Gonzalez making $9.5M with CSKA, while IIRC, he was making about $3.5M with Liverpool and about $1.5M in Moscow (though the Russian deal was probably tax free/post tax). As I said then, some of the ESPN numbers aren't accurate. In the closed salary thread, they had Zoltan Gera making about $3M/Y. He was a free agent but Dempsey's deal was an extension, so it was in the same range.
Thanks for the reminder. Upon reading your post I wondered why I didn't remember some of those tidbits while originally typing mine. You kind of get spoiled in the U.S. sometimes, w/ regard to having access to better data relative to what's available elsewhere...
Yes, Some of these figures are off.... e.g ... From what was reported in Spain, Jozy deal was approx €900k/Season Gross, his tax rate is still 24% from his earning while in Spain (Beckham law changes don't effect him). Tax Rates in each country effective Net incomes ..these figures are in Gross... .
The income tax rate in Denmark has changed from this year to 26% the first 5 years foreign players (earning at least $165k a year) are staying in Denmark. .
what are the salaries in Scan countries with our Yanks minimum average I understand this is the salary ranking by country Does anybody have a guess on salary range Sweden Norway Denmark
Fwiw, these are the only three listed in that article: Clarence Goodson (Denmark) $729.5k Benny Feilhaber (Denmark) $374k Alejandro Bedoya (Sweden) $432k
It depends on where in Sweden. Someone like Bedoya may have signed on for $80K-$100K, plus bonuses, depending on his play and team's overall standing. Charlie Davies was a big dog in terms of wages in Allsvenskan and his was around $230K, IIRC. Pat Noonan went to Norway for $430K. Goodson and Freeman probably went for about $150K or so but received bonuses for play and promotion. Freeman didn't distinguish himself and returned to MLS for the salary to be divulged later. Denmark can pay $300K+ to free agent MLS stars. Yes, about that but then doubled his wages to $500K when he left as a free agent for the FC Midtjylland, then sat there in his second year before returning back to MLS. Goodson, I guessed upon signing, would make around $700K with Brondby, which turned out to be a darn good guess (presuming ESPN folks are correct). PS. Let's not forget players do get an apartment and a car subsidy, as a rule. E-Bud is driving a premier Audi and ain't exactly paying a lease on it.
According to the 'Danish Players Association', the average wage for all players on contract in Denmark (including all players in the Danish Superliga, 1st and 2nd Divisions) is estimated to be $87.5k a year... If we are only talking about the Danish Superliga, then the average wage is just around $195k.... The last figure I saw for the Norwegian Tippeliga was around $156k a year, in Sweden I doubt it is much more than half as much... Regarding income taxes, then you pay the full (probably around 50% on average) income taxes in Sweden, Norway I belive still has a 6-month tax reduction rule, while Denmark is the only Scandinavian country that has the special 26% income tax rule the first 5 years. .
Yeah, that $432k for Bedoya is way too high. Only the top earners make that kind of money in the swedish league and Bedoya was signed straight out of college and to a club known for a restrictive wage policy. The average player salary in Sweden in 2010 was $110k but like sidefootsitter wrote there's a big difference between the clubs. To illustrate this point the average was $120k the year before but then Hammarby got relegated and replaced with a smaller team. Getting exact numbers for players is a little fishy though since clubs like to do things like pay into players retirement funds to get around high taxes, not sure if those tricks apply to foreign players though.
Perhaps I should add, that you wont find any clubs in Denmark paying players more than around $1.25 million a year at the moment, or in other words, clubs in Denmark do not like to sign very expensive "DP" like players, but rather like to use their $$ on depth... Most smaller Superliga clubs wont go higher than $400k when they sign a key player... a club like AGF Aarhus will stretch as far as around $580k, but on the other hand have lots of players in the $300k to $380k range .... Brøndby have set their limit at around $1.1 million, while FC københavn have set their absolute limit at around $2 million, but have never paid a player more than $1.4 million this far.... However, I doubt FCK have any players in their starting 11 or on their bench earning less than $500k a year... So I guess you could say that the main difference between MLS and Superliga wages is, that ther is not that far between the top and bottom wage players in a Danish team, while MLS teams seem to feel the need to spend much on a few Star DPs, but use very little on depth. .
To the original ESPN numbers again -- Jermaine Jones, as is well known, is on €4M/Y, which would make him the highest paid YA ... or Yank at Home. Tim Howard signed a new deal that paid him ~ $4M/Y but, with the BPS slipping against most currencies, it's ~ $3.2M or so these days. And, since Subotic seems a tad reluctant to move to a "bigger" club, he may have also gotten a raise from Dortmund or gotten additional bonuses for his club's performances. PS. I also doubt Holden is making $2.5M because he extended late last season and Bolton isn't the biggest club around. I reckon him at ~ $1.5M-$1.75M, somewhere around Bradley's number.
What I see when I see these numbers is no wonder kids in the US don't want to become professional soccer players.
I doubt it. Assuming there's an athlete in America who's trying to decide between soccer and a major American sport (football, basketball, baseball), why would they choose the sport where they would have to move to Europe in order to earn anywhere from $200k to $4M per year to toil in relative obscurity to the people back home? If they choose one of the major American sports, they can make salaries in excess of $10-$20M per year if they're a superstar, and even $5M if they're just solid professionals. Add in the fact that on the low end you have minimum salaries in the $300K to $500k range if you're on the active roster, and the choice is pretty clear.
Well it's not cut and dry but the salaries in soccer are clearly lower than major US sports. I would say Clint Dempsey is a relatively average soccer player, and makes roughly $3 million per season. That's about on par to an NHL player, but an average NBA players salaries are in the 5 to 8 million range. Same thing with baseball 5 to 10 million. NFL players are in the same area. Again, I'm not saying the statistical average, but an above average player might make. Top players make roughly $15 million NFL, 20-30 million MLB, 20-25 NBA, NHL is closer at 7-10, and soccer has $16 million per for Ronaldo if I remember right, so 10 to 16. I'm not sure about endorsements deals, but I would venture a guess that an American only athlete, like say Peyton Manning, probably pulls in close to or more than Ronaldo. The American market is huge. Now the caveat is this, there are a whole lot more jobs in soccer than in the other sports. I'll say roughly 25 players per team, 20 teams per league, just to make the calculations easy. Rough count, 16 leagues x 20 teams x 25 players = 8000 jobs. NFL has 40 spots x 30 teams = 1200 jobs. MLB 20 spots x 2 leagues (japan) x 30 teams = 1200 jobs. Hockey= 20 spots x 30 teams x 3 leagues (europe) = 1800 jobs. basketball 10 spots x 60 teams (rough estimate) = 600 jobs. So clearly soccer has MORE opportunities, although conversely I think there are more players out there to compete with, but I think if you have a choice (as if you can just pick which sport to be good at), I think you'd become a star baseball or basketball player.
Sort of fair points. But Skandanavia is double aa baseball. But I get your point. The spectrum of variance suggest the US model. My point is that 500k is 500k and is still a alot for humble human beings. EDIT. Actually I take that back. How many 500k earners are there in soccer and how many 500k earners or whatever are in ONE US sport? Given the much larger sample, I think soccer would be the optimal choice, given that there is some parity among top earners in soccer and other sports(I think). double edit. also, give you net income over time relative to the differing leagues will probably mean more money over an avg. 7 year career. So for example, there are lets just say 150(plus 50 in the CFL) wide recievers in the NFL versus 1000 wingers making 500k in soccer. Get my poing?
Don't want to dispute the overall point, but the math here could be a bit more accurate in places. The NFL gameday rosters are about 45 spots, and their active rosters are about 54, I believe. There's also practice squad players. MLB active rosters have 25 spots, and minor league players can at least make a living. Basketball active rosters are 12 spots, and the European leagues pay pretty well and are pretty competitive. Overall, the worldwide labor market for soccer is much larger I'm assuming, but the American percentage of that labor market is much smaller than it is in the major American sports. In order to make it in soccer, you have to be one of the very best Americans in the world at that sport. In order to make it in football (for example), it's not quite as competitive for an American.
so career choice model is: Wage= expected wage for nposition player in sportX/n_demand for position* substitutable pob. of position (eg Spector) + tax bracket/country (eg Spain, edit, actually as an american abroad you will be double taxed...) + avg. career expectancy*Nquality_league(s,i.e 1st to 3rd div soccer across world) + injury prob./position + post career opps (e.g. coaching, lol congress) + groupie^orgie possibilties - personal health cost of said sport to body (i.e. NFL you die in 10 years). anything else???? edit: + national team income + prob. of the World fckn Cup + media endourcement expectation of x_position/country - cost of living abroad (i.e. uncertainty, language, bias etc.)? on face value, to me it looks like soccer would win, if you didnt know your performance level and had to choose the safest model...?