The globalization of markets has enabled soccer to grow regardless of current economic conditions. One only need look at expanding player salaries and astronomical investments clubs are making. The $94 million Real Madrid recently furnished to acquire Cristiano Ronaldo is a clear example of the money that circulates the modern game.
But clubs aren’t the only ones forking out the greenback – soccer federations are dishing it out to the coaches as well. We’ve compiled data on the 32 World Cup coaches.
| Coach (country) | Salary |
| Fabio Capello (England) | $9,900,000 |
| Marcelo Lippi (Italy) | $4,100,000 |
| Javier Aguirre (Mexico) | $4,000,000 |
| Berter van Marwijk (Netherlands) | $2,700,000 |
| Ottmar Hitzfeld (Switzerland) | $2,600,000 |
| Joachim Low (Germany) | $2,300,000 |
| Vicente del Bosque (Spain) | $2,200,000 |
| Carlos Queiroz (Portugal) | $2,000,000 |
| Pim Verbeek (Australia) | $1,820,000 |
| Carlos Parreira (South Africa) | $1,800,000 |
| Dunga (Brazil) | $1,250,000 |
| Diego Maradona (Argentina) | $1,200,000 |
| Takeshi Okada (Japan) | $1,200,000 |
| Ricki Herbert (New Zealand) | $1,200,000 |
| Otto Rehhagel (Greece) | $1,150,000 |
| Paul Le Guen (Cameroon) | $960,000 |
| Marcelo Bielsa (Chile) | $850,000 |
| Vahdi Halilhodzic (Ivory Coast) | $740,000 |
| R. Domenech (France) | $720,000 |
| Hun Jung Moo (South Korea) | $600,000 |
| Morten Olsen (Denmark) | $570,000 |
| Milovan Rajevac (Ghana) | $540,000 |
| Bob Bradley (US) | $400,000 |
| Radomir Antic (Serbia) | $447,000 |
| Matjaz Kek (Slovenia) | $360,000 |
| Gerardo Martino (Paraguay) | $360,000 |
| Rabah Saadane (Algeria) | $360,000 |
| Reinaldo Rueda (Honduras) | $350,000 |
| Vladimir Weiss (Slovakia) | $312,000 |
| Oscar Washington Tabarez (Uruguay) | $300,000 |
| Kim Jon Hun (North Korea) | $250,000 |
| Shaibu Amodu (Nigeria) | $180,000 |
We all want a world class coach for the US National Team, but looking at these figures it makes one wonder if we can afford it.
I like graphs! So I couldn’t resist …
What do you guys think of these numbers? What coaches don’t deserve it? Any coach underpaid?
Seems El Tri is getting ripped off there … Those other top paying FA’s are getting much better results.
Hi Phil,
I don’t know whether to agree or disagree with you.
In my opinion, Aguirre is the best Mexican coach there is. He has been successful in Europe and took this team over during qualification when Sven-Goran Eriksson was having a terrible campaign (Mexico’s WC qualification was in doubt). Aguirre came and turned it around.
In addition, let’s not forget that the Mexican Federation runs a very lucrative professional league. Their stadiums are always full. So they have the money to dish out on a coach.
Is he worth $4 million? Probably not by any objective measure – no other country would pay that sum. But he did accomplish what the FMF wanted – qualify. We’ll see how he does in the World Cup.
Hi,
I thought I’d comment on this because I read an interesting article on Ricki Herbert, New Zealand manager who supposedly earns US$1.2m. This did seem a little over the top to me and Herbert himself confirmed he earns more like US$35,000 per annum.
Interesting though, i wonder how these statistics are generated????
Jimbo,
Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
The publication I found:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/local-sport/3191657/Herbert-laughs-off-Maradona-comparisions/
states the New Zealand manager makes around $50,000.
That’s a ridiculously small amount that I don’t believe!
In any case, it does raise questions on the validity of these numbers … although diario Ole is a reputable source.
The New Zealand coach does indeed earn around $50000 a year. Football is an amateur sport in this country and so that’s what he gets. And that’s $50000 NEW ZEALAND dollars- around $30000 US.
How morons came up with these garbage fake numbers is beyond me, if they’d simply asked Herbert he’d at least have put them in the right ball park. This made the papers here- these absurd numbers have been printed as fact around the world. Don’t believe everything you read folks.
Hi Gary,
I found these other numbers. They are very similar to the ones you published but in the case of Aguirre’s salary it seems more normal, though I think it is still overpaid.
Check it out:
http://www.futebolfinance.com/os-salarios-dos-treinadores-no-mundial-2010
I am mexican and also think he’s a good coach, but an overpaid coach won’t necesarily get us better results, instead it could be counterproductive like it was with Sven Goran Ericksonn. In the other hand, Bob Bradley (US), Oscar Washington Tabarez (URU) and Gerardo Martino (PAR) are also good coaches that have made very good and strong teams and they get paid about 5 or 6 times less than Aguirre! The FMF should lower the national team’s coach salary to a reasonable amount and bet on continuity and the generation of young talent.
Thanks Miguel.
Betting on the youth is important. Get the 18 – 20 years olds at the very beginning of the world cup cycle. Then by 2014, they are 22 – 24, and surround them by a healthy dose of experience.
Don’t worry, I really think Mexico will be the best they’ve ever been by 2014. They have a great young generation that will mature by then. And I think this will be the generation that takes back the top of CONCACAF from the US (especially if we don’t get a good coach).
Your comment shows the importance of Coaching in developing players even at older ages. When the US hired JK no one would have thought that depth would be a strength of US and Mexico would be fighting to advance. What happened to the younger Mexican players that won Olympic Gold and other International competitions? Why didn’t they mature into the team that you thought they would? My obvious conclusion is Coaching, but there has to be more than that to it.