Starts: ✅✅✅#QPR name the same XI for the third game running.#FORQPR pic.twitter.com/O5kQLEhrzl— QPR FC (@QPR) February 22, 2020
With Lichaj, Holmes, Miazga & Robinson out injured, CCV not good, and Ream losing steam, ol' Geoff is our best player in the Ch'ship of late.
Starts: 👏 The teams are out!Here's a reminder of #QPR's 👇#QPRDER pic.twitter.com/RoIwO9WzIb— QPR FC (@QPR) February 25, 2020
Starts: 👏 The teams are out!Here's a reminder of #QPR's, now without Grant Hall. #QPRBIR pic.twitter.com/Hq4X2fh7DU— QPR FC (@QPR) February 29, 2020
I think he's probs made more than that, but realistically, it's very, very difficult to retire on that kind of money with pro-footie tastes in your early 30's unless you've made a lot of smart investments. Cameron seems pretty smart, but I expect he's going to end up in a booth someplace or coaching. Or as a hair stylist with a fade shop on Sloane Street.
$500-600k a season before tax or after? 600k Sterling is the average for the Championship. Last year, the average EPL salary broke 3 million a year for the first time. Geoff wouldn't have been in that league, obviously, but he would have trousered at least a million a season while Stoke were in the EPL and close to that while on loan from Stoke last season. Let's say he got upper-Championship pay of 700k for the first two seasons and then a pay rise to 1.2 million when his contract was extended, a relegation-clause pay cut to 900k last season and 600k this season. That's 5.5 million gross over eight years. Minus 35% tax and 10% for his agent, he still has about 3 million sterling in his pocket. That doesn't take bonuses, etc into account, nor does it factor in his versatility: even at his peak he could play CB, RB and DM equally well in the EPL and could fill in at deep CM as well. That kind of flexibility is worth a lot to any GM and, while it doesn't always lead to higher pay, it does make your agent's hand a lot stronger when negotiating.
For a large part of that time he was also getting a stipend/paycheck/money from the USMNT that was not insignificant.
IIRC, 5$ per callup and $3k per win. He won more than 45 of his 55 caps since moving to England. Eight games a season, with 4 wins (a lot the of CONCAF minnows in there) and you're talking in the region of the average annual paycheck. And, at least while he was on loan last season, QPR would have paid the rent on his apartment or hotel and a meal allowance for dinner. If he was in a hotel, breakfast would be in the price and he would get lunch at the club training ground. Plus, if he bought a house in the UK, he'll have accumulated capital gains on it (though the virus may well affect that in the near term). Ditto for any property he'd acquired in the US before or since joining Stoke, and he'd have been able to rent those properties out to cover the mortgage payments. I remember some agents in a BBC radio discussion about 10 years back. They agreed that, unless a player has a gambling problem, has outright dishonest financial advisors or gets divorced, even five seasons in the EPL or at the top end of the Championship is enough for him to retire with an annual income of more than triple the UK's median income. His biggest problem would be what to do with his time. That was 10 years ago.
I think GC has made enough that he could pull in much more than 3x the median Brit income, but the median Brit income is like ~30k lbs a year. I bet there's many top-end Championship players out there who won't find it a challenge to scale down to 90k a year @ 35 years old. The lifestyle you enjoy as an upper-level Championship, B2, Serie B player is very hard to replicate for ~100k a year with family. Not impossible, of course, and hard to feel sorry for them, but... On the other hand, I'm sure GC has made way more than a typical Champs player and don't doubt he can do a bit better than that, but I still think he'll find it necessary to do a bit of clip n' snip as a side hustle. Or tats. I bet he could ink an arm or two by now.
I was typing in a bit of a hurry, so I forgot to put in the "gross" and "after tax" parts, as in "triple the UK's gross median income, after tax", which, obviously, makes a big difference. IIRC the UK median is in the region of 27k sterling, with tax eating about a quarter of that. A player with Geoff's profile who has been reasonably careful with his money could have about 70k sterling a year to live on, cash. That's about the same as e.g. a hospital registrar would take home.
I would bet with added income from appearances, USMNT, endorsements etc. he should have much more than that... and my guess is he's a pretty reasonably appropriate guy. The issue is always we have a strong ability to adapt to anything, especially on the "cushy living" side... It's amazing what folks can get used to and think they can't live without after they've had it a while... My guess is GC (and most guys used to living an EPL lifestyle) would have trouble living on 70k lbs a year, after tax, but also that he'll be able to kick off more than that from what he's earned. And I'll bet that he ends up doing something else that pays him a bit on top anyway. I imagine it's hard for most guys who have worked as hard as a pro athlete has since they were in their teens to suddenly go sit on the pier 8 hrs a day, but maybe some can.
I'm gonna (not) go out on a limb here and say that he's more likely to go to MLS than retire, and way more likely to retire than go to China. The guy is 35 in July and, with Coronavirus ravaging lower-division finances, any extension offered would be for only a season and is likely to come with a pay cut, while MLS could offer 18-24 months*. Meantime, the Chinese will have shedloads of lot of (much better) out-of-contract players to pick from. Unless he wants to stay in England & move into coaching there, this is as good a time as any to come home
The CSL cut their foreign player salary cap massively in January, so I don't see why Cameron would end up there. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevep...ges-equation-of-january-2020-transfer-window/ Is he? I've never heard that.