To think it’s ridiculous that footballer Mohammed Salah is now earning £1m a week?

[KimberleyClark]

He earns an amount in a week that most ordinary people could live on for the rest of their lives!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/sep/29/liverpool-mohamed-salah-earning-at-least-1m-a-week-adviser-ramy-abbas

Because it's in the news today ffs

Also I can't speak for Mo Salah but many top flight African footballers use their European league salaries to invest back heavily in their own communities. Didier Drogba, Kante etc

Oh not this again. Funny how nobody ever starts these posts outraged at the wealth and car collections of the Duke of Westminster or the Candy brothers. We see you OP. It's just the self-made African man who grinds your gears.

Your racism accusation is way out of order. I don’t actually care what country he or any other footballer earning this kind of wealth comes from. And yes the Duke of Westminster’s wealth is equally obscene.

I ❤️ him. He’s a massive asset to the club. Deserves every penny for being at the top of his game x

Players like Salah, Sadio Mane and a lot of the current Liverpool team, and many others in the European leagues grew up dirt poor and their families made enormous sacrifices for them
I think a lot of people think footballers turn up on a Saturday and run round for 90 minutes and that's it. They are elite athletes - have you seem Salah with his shirt off?
Most of them also give enormous amounts to charities. They just do it quietly. Did you know Sadio Mane has built important infrastructure like schools and clinics in Senegal or that he gives a monthly allowance to every single family in his home village.
Do you feel similarly outraged by the prize money at Wimbledon

The Egyptian King can earn whatever the market dictates.
Football is a lot like showbiz. Mo is a great ambassador and much loved.

I've not heard of him but I bet he could afford TWO iPhones

I agree with other pp on paying taxes, good causes and talent but this reminds me of an excellent film I saw where Michael Jordan (mother mostly as he was a teen) changed the market so athletes would get a share of profits

I thought it great. The players with the talent should see the financial reward not just owners. Also a clear ethnicity divide and Jordan helped black players after him

Reward the athletes imo

Was just about to post about Sadio.

Good for him and the rest of them. If my gaffer decided I was worth paying 1 million pounds a week, I wouldn't be concerned about the faux outrage of a few women on MN. Also, if he wasn't earning that money he wouldn't be donating so much of it to charitable causes like he does, would he?

Amazing to just pick on Salah. Have you read what he does with his wealth, how he helps communities?

I'm not a football fan, but we do have to accept that the market decides

This - while people are prepared to spend on sports TV subscriptions, merchandise, tickets and whatever else funnels money through to the football clubs, the market price for skilled players will remain high.

It's interesting when you have threads about "normal" people on MN earning 6 figure salaries and almost all will say they worked harder or smarter, looked for opportunities, had lots of drive etc etc....almost no one says that there is a certain degree of luck or privilege....but in most (not all) cases there is - whether that's having a stable home environment, going to a good school/uni (not available to all children) or just having natural talent or intellect. A lot of people will talk about how they're worth their salary because of hard work and responsibility but there are loads of discrepancies. Film stars, footballers etc are necessarily harder working than anyone else.
Often footballers come from disadvantaged backgrounds and their natural talent (and training) is their way out that.
They are paid obscene amounts of money (although their playing career is usually relatively short) but I'm not sure the money would go to any more worthy causes if they paid them less. Probably the clubs owners or shareholders would just get richer!

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/mohamed-salah-sadio-mane-charity-27297328

Just one snapshot of what Salah and Mane have done for their home villages.

The Nike-Jordan deal is legendary and a marketing dream. Teenagers who have probably never seen Jordan play are still wearing Jordans and I see the Jump Man logo everywhere.

He's earned every penny.

The Duke of Westminster's wealth is not "equally" obscene. It is far worse because it is billions rather than millions, inherited, untaxed and propped up by freehold property laws that favour wealthy landowners.

Couldn't care less, it's hardly coming from tax payers money,is it?

Yes you are right. And it is good to see that Salah is doing great things with his money.

I find King Charles wealth far far more distasteful than Mo Sallah’s

I’d rather Mo Sallah make that money than some faceless money man or from inherited wealth or drugs money or any number of other odious ways to make lots of money.

Agree. I highly recommend the film, called Air not least because it has my two favourite actors / writers Affleck and Damon but because what he did was incredible

Why should corporates get so much profit and not the actual athletes whose hard work and talent get them there

totally disgusting for anyone to earn that, considering the state of the world. and yes i understand the ins and outs of it all before anyone starts still doesn't make it right.

The football industry makes massive profits. The top clubs (like Liverpool) make insane amounts of money.

who should get the money earned by the club- the owners/shareholders of the club (the majority of whom have inherited wealth/ownership), or the players (workers) who’s skill, hard work and talent has lead to that money being raised?

if Mo Salah accepted a lower salary, what do you think would happen to the rest of that money?

Absolutely this.

I also think it’s abhorrent that anyone can earn that kind of money from playing a game. And worse are the executives in charge of the clubs/associations. The Saudi league for example?

Personally I’m not affected as someone mentioned earlier, and I’m thankful that my children aren’t demanding 100 quid strips every year or wanting to go and watch matches at god knows what price. But lots of children do and lots of families can’t afford it. Perhaps if everyone earned a little bit less, then the costs could be subsidised.

But I detest football so I’m probably a bit biased in my thinking. And maybe other sports are as bad, baseball maybe, that’s big money too.