This past weekend the Times newspaper (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/) published its list of the Top 500 Earners in Britain. Included in that list were 53 people connected with football, including seven from Arsenal. The Arsenal Seven Campbell – (136=) £5.5 million Bergkamp – (181) £4.11 million Henry – (222) £3.4 million Vieira – (281) £2.65 million Ljungberg – (322) £2.4 million Wenger – (337) £2.25 million Seaman – (452) £1.735 million The top 10 earners in football 1 (31) Martin Edwards, Manchester Utd £20.058m 2 (45) David Beckham, Manchester Utd £15.5m 3 (90) Michael Owen, Liverpool £7.44m 4 (99) Roy Keane, Manchester Utd £6.93m 5 (136=) Sol Campbell, Arsenal £5.5m 6 (170) Rio Ferdinand, Manchester Utd £4.295m 7 (175) Juan Veron, Manchester Utd £4.14m 8 (181) Dennis Bergkamp, Arsenal £4.11m 9= (184=) Sven-Goran Eriksson, England £4m 9= (184=) Alan Shearer, Newcastle Utd £4m From the story: Comment British soccer players, for the most part, suffer when compared to American athletes. I keep thinking about the Nuggets signing Avery Johnson to a $4 million deal, for example, and I'm amazed at some of these salaries, which seem bargain basement in comparison. And how are Pires and Wiltord not even on this list? Bad agents, perhaps? (By the way, I didn't write this to stir up any debate about whether or not pro athletes are overpaid. Yes, I know some of you would be glad - glad you say! - to play a kid's game and get paid for it. You'd even do it for free! The problem there is that no one would pay to see you do it, as opposed to the guys on this list, so let's nip that argument in the bud. And in a world where some talentless bimbo gets $1 million/episode to put out the quality of work that is 'Friends,' I have a very hard time jumping on the "Pro athletes are overpaid" bandwagon.)
How dare you disaparage the masterpiece of creative and artistic creativity that is "Friends". This past Sunday's NY Times Magazine was about the entertainment industry and they talked to the people behind the hit show. They are so nervous about how they will end the season, the last for the show. They are genuinely concerned that they don't want to disappoint the fans by having a bad ending. It's a TV show. Monica, Chandler, et al. aren't real people. They could end the show with a six way mass suicide for all I care. But I digress. Yes, why do European athletes seem to get so little compared to US athletes. Compare Seaman to a starting pitcher or QB and it looks ridiculous. Then compare him to the backup left fielder who gets 7 million and it's downright unexplainable.
That, and these numbers are even more shocking when you throw taxes into it. (I don't know if the amounts above are net after taxes or not). Imagine being Seaman knowing that half of that 1.75 goes to taxes, when in the US (if you live in the right state), you keep nearly two-thirds and your living expenses (house, food, gas, etc) are dramatically less. Then, while you are sitting there, take a guy like Patrick Vieira who made (in US dollars) $ 4,143,275 or there about. This is less than Sterling Hitchcock who-for a cool $ 4.9 million- pitched in 20 games this year and had a fancy 1-2 record with an era of 5.49 while giving up 57 hits in 39.1 innings pitched with a .326 average against. Obviously he didn't get that contract on those numbers and he was limited due to injury, but a relatively mediocre baseball player can make $ 3-5 million on a good team, and one of the best players in the world at his position struggles to make that in soccer. The NBA average salary for 2000-01 was 4.2 million dollars, or 2.7 million pounds. And those are just the average guys...it's shocking.