If you’re one of those people who complains about how much money is in football and how it’s ruining the game, you may want to look away now.
By Adrian Collins
There’s often a lot made of how much money the best players in the Premier League make, but it’s worth remembering that it’s almost small change compared to some of these lads.
The biggest name in baseball is without a doubt the New York Yankees, so it should come as little surprise that they shell out the most in wages, with an annual payroll of nearly $230 million (€180 million).
Their star player is also a household name, Alex Rodriguez, and he hoovers up a staggering $29 million (€22.5 million) for a year’s work. To break that down, he earns nearly €480,000 a week, so even if he loses half of it in tax, he still makes more than most of the highest paid Premier League players.
We can only assume this was A-Rod on the way to the bank
As a little further context, Rodriguez, better known as A-Rod, will earn more this year than the entire team of the Houston Astros put together.
Surprisingly, the well-known Derek Jeter doesn’t even come close to his Yankees team-mate, making around $16.7 million (€13 million) in a year.
Other less familiar names to us here across the water also have trouble stuffing all their cash in to their wallets, as players like Tim Lincecum from the San Francisco Giants makes over $22 million (€17 million) in a year, while Johan Santana of the New York Mets gets a healthy $24 million (€18.7).
Down the other end of the scale, the fantastically named Coco Crips of the Oakland Athletics only earns $7 million (€5.5), but puts it to good use on quality hair products, clearly.
We’re not going to say that the lads don’t work very hard, since they have a ridiculous schedule with games almost every day, but still, even the boys in charge at Man City would think some of these pay cheques are a bit over the top.
Hat-tip to the lads at DeadSpin and AP for the facts and figures
