I may have been lost a little in the translation but in the article, the club's president says they are only spending 4000 euros per 'transfer' (Rapinoe and Ohno) a month. But I read from different sources that Ohno was making $115,000 per year. Is it possible that Rapinoe and Ohno are being paid from outside of the club (i.e sponsorship deals) or perhaps they are paid more in a bonus system?
there are match and title bonuses but not of the kind that would turn $66K into $115K. a link to the latter figure for analysis? lyon capitale is a mainstream local publication with a print edition, which used to make its bread and butter on economic news; i doubt they're going off half-cocked, especially since they're quoting the gentleman who signs the checks.
Ohno is being paid by her Federation as well. An earlier article that I cannot find at the moment mentioned it. Now if the Fed is part of the $115k or Lyon is paying more then announced and she is getting Fed money over the $115k who knows.
This article claims Rapinoe is making $10,000 a month. Again I am not sure on exact translation or validity of the source. Maybe sponsors are paying the extra funds? Maybe it is all just speculation.
the article cites no source, and even offers the disclaimer pending official confirmation... which of course, is never forthcoming (even what we "know" about the salaries of the messis and ronaldos is to some extent approximation and simplification). the amount does not shock me at all. perhaps because of the very plausibility of the figure perarnau allowed himself to make it up out of thin air (absolutely fair game in the sports journo world)... pending official confirmation of course! as far as sponsors, rapinoe certainly has plenty of her own already, but the club's deals don't provide makeweight funds for players.
i went to see the last half hour of practice this afternoon... originally scheduled for 10am i took off at 11:30 which is the earliest i can leave for lunch, got on my bike in the rain and got to the practice field just before noon... nothing. no players, no smarts in the parking lot. since it was drizzling and about 3° i figured they were across the street practicing inside at the men's complex (fort knox) which would have been a washout for me... then sonia b. drives up and i learn from her that practice had been postponed to 3pm... so pedaled back across town to work, still raining, and left again at 4pm for another wet ride to catch the last half hour... which i didn't watch too closely because i got into a conversation with sarah bouhaddi who is nicer and more open than a professional football player probably has a right to be. all i saw was a great shot by her after driving up the left. not much of an angle but she hit it pure, and it only faded away from the far post because it was a left-footed shot. i got her autograph afterwards, which she tagged 15 out of habit despite the fact that she'll wear the 7 at OL. she was with sonia and camille and they looked thick as thieves. she was friendly but seemed very shy... or maybe she was just not at ease with some stranger trying to coax her into a dark corner (under cover for the autograph, since as i said, it was raining) but soso convinced her i was alright so now my bike helmet has every signature on the team except ohno-san's... whom i couldn't get to for the japanese TV crews. next time i'll try to make a little small talk but as it was i thought it was very decent of them just to stop. did i mention it was raining?
(Emphasis added.) I believe that in person Megan is shy. When she gets on the field, on the big stage, she's very demonstrative as we've all seen, but in person "shy" may be the right word.
Or she was warned about encouraging crazy Frenchmen by Bompastor and Abily Glad to here she is fitting in tho. Who wears 15 on OL?
That sounds like me. I am one of those types of people that loves to give a speech to 30,000 people, but hates to give one to 30 people.
elise bussaglia. who is injured... and who also signed my helmet last night and w/o putting a number next to it... so at first i assumed pinoe had been given n° 15, but that was cleared up by an official OL announcement last night. if camille and sonia warned her about me it would be as the crazy american. because i are one.
It's very interesting to hear how available the women seem to be. Ud have a much harder time peddling up to a Sky Blue practice here.
Woooooooow, easyyyyyyyy. I'm not english native speaker, so I need help here... Did you just write, that you work half an hour away from Olympic Lyon training place, rode a bike there, talked with Megan phuckin Rapinoe and got her autograph on ur bike helmet? Did you just write that?
No...pay attention...what he wrote was.... He rode his bike over in the rain but no one was at practice...so he's sitting there when Sonia Bompastor drives up. Arguably the best female left back in the world tells him practice has been delayed til 3 pm so he pedals back to work. Then at 4 pm he bikes over again, this time finding the women training. He gets an autograph from the apparently shy Pinoe and reports she's thick as thieves with Bompastor and Camille Abily. He certainly had a more interesting day than I did. Perhaps Guignol is the most interesting man in the world
the availability may have to do with the the humble beginnings. it's only recently that anyone has ever even thought of going to see them practice. there were perhaps 15-20 fans plus the japanese media there the day i'm talking about (and i perhaps mentioned that it was raining) but that was because of pinoe and shino. until recently i've never seen ANY fans at practices, if i've gone in the past it's just because i'm at gerland often, when i go by the field and they're there i stop. fan presence at practices these days is growing because most games are in the big stadium where you don't have that same easy access to the players as when they played at "no. 10" (right next to no. 9 where they practice)... in which case the players not "on duty", (injured or suspended, subbed out at half, etc.) come and sit with the fans. i'm not hotdoggin' ya! and though some are nicer than others, they are generally all just typical normal human beings (imagine that!) and if you just go up and say hi! and start chatting... i'm so absolutely sure that if it hadn't been cold and raining i could have chewed the fat with megan, cam and soso for 15-20 minutes (using being from california as a icebreaker) if we bet on it i wouldn't even take your dollar. because i've done just that many times. the first time** was with danielle slaton and lorrie fair back before the punic wars. sorry, i don't have a phone. but i can offer this : googlearth 45.721147,4.827451 that building is the locker rooms for the Plaine de Jeux, where all OL teams except the Men's A and reserves practice. the field just NE is no.9 where the fenottes (affectionate lyonnais patois for women) practice. it's reserved ONLY for them. the field with the white bleachers to the SW is no.10 where the reserves and the ladies play... except now the latter mostly play in the big stadium just across allée pierre de coubertin. no.10 is actually a great little place to play: protected from the wind, cozy, with the fans close to the pitch... which wasn't in great shape when this satellite image was taken, but is usually better than the big stadium's. the bleachers hold precisely 650 people (usually including JMA and sometimes some of the male players too) but the banking all around gets used for some matches; the biggest crowd i've seen there was probably 1700-1800. *obviously the worst attitude to have would be OHMIGODOHMIGODOHMIGOD I'M YOUR BIGGEST FAN, PLEASE OH PLEASE CAN I HAVE AN AUTOGRAPH?!! OH PLEASE, OH PLEASE, OH PLEASE...) **the second was with hope solo, but that was looooooong before DWTS.
"pinoe and shinoe" being presented on OLTV. sonia is obviously translating for rapinoe. that might be ami otaki's knee to the left of ohno-san but she had a professional translator the other evening.
thanx for that link which is an video from the subscribers-only section of olweb i was dying to see. it starts with her getting the mandatory checkup before signing. the guy with white hair and glasses is doc amprino who used to head the med staff for the men's team and now does the ladies, and he's saying the MRI's and the cardiovascular were all good so the signature can proceed. the next part in french is pat lair saying she's a player who's fast and powerful, can play lots of positions and someone he can count on to fill in in lots of roles, which is what he wanted. he says she has experience and "quite a calling card". then his assistant antonin da fonseca says he didn't want to push her too hard on the first day because of the jet lag, just some jogging while the others did their physical workout but she's kept herself in pretty good shape (not talking about age but in relation to the time she's gone w/o playing) and from the scrimmage she seems to be in good form. then sonia says it's her first day and they're trying to facilitate her integration into the group, the she knows her from having played against her in the WPS and from meeting her at 2 or 3 parties, but since there are quite a few players who speak english (camille and soso played in the WPS; lara and laura g. went to college at ohio st. and boston college respectively; lotta obviously; though i've never heard ami speak english i know she understands it and she went to waseda u. so my guess is her english is excellent) and since they're a pretty low-key and smiling group it shouldn't be hard. btw, that's no.9 they're on at the end. the exams are at the clinic of dr. jean-claude bernard (like the mayo clinic for sports medecine), the middle bit is at the OL offices on allee pierre de coubertin.
i wasn't able to talk to her since she was being interviewed for japanese TV when i saw her so i can't say. in any case OL has a japanese trainer on the staff named toru ota so that's not a big problem. note also that OL has their own language teachers to help new arrivals learn french : i was an english teacher when i arrived here and a couple of my colleagues worked at OL. in the video we see the person i thought might be ami is probably her agent, it's not the lady i was talking to who was her french translator. PL says about her that she's an attacker who can break through, quick, useful especially in the short passing game, that she scores a lot of goals and is a player he expects a lot from.