French media have put out a list of all the wage earners at their Ligue 1 clubs and Dolly takes home 40,000 Euros a month (or R589,156)‚ some 15,000 more than his national team colleague Bongani Zungu‚ who is also competing in the top flight of French football.
Stuart Baxter suggested last week that South African players in the Premier Soccer League might be too comfortable and therefore lack the ambition to go overseas‚ but the publication of Keagan Dolly’s monthly salary could serve as a spur.
In Rand terms‚ Dolly’s net salary is some R589,156 monthly – more than the highest earner in the PSL and close to the salaries that coaches Gavin Hunt and Pitso Mosimane command.
Zungu earns R368,000 monthly at his club‚ Amiens‚ who have a lot more modest budget than Dolly’s Montpellier.
Last week‚ at a pre-Cosafa Cup press conference in Polokwane‚ Bafana Bafana coach Baxter suggested that South African players lacked the ambition to make it overseas because they were too well paid at home.
“When I got here first (in 2005)‚ players making it in the PSL were bouncing onto clubs in Europe‚” he said. “They were chomping at the bit to go overseas.
“Now you land in the PSL‚ it’s televised‚ you get more money‚ it’s more adulation‚ it’s nicer girlfriends … it’s the whole package. And then that hunger to go to Europe disappears.
“We have all got to co-operate … media‚ clubs‚ association … to keep pushing players to have the hunger to go on … if they can. “The other problem is that because the PSL clubs are richer‚ the salaries are higher‚ the transfer fees they are demanding for their players are much higher. That also restricts them from going abroad‚” Baxter added.
Official salaries have never been made public by PSL clubs but the top earners in South Africa are said to gross around R7-million per annum. But this is just a handful of players and includes signing-on fees and bonuses.
The average salary is said to be around R1.5-milion‚ also including signing-on fees. That is just over R100,000 monthly.
Source: Times Live
