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£770,000 per week (approx £40million per year) is the wage David Beckham has reportedly demanded after realising that he is the reason why Real Madrid is making so much money.
Beckham, 30 years old, would like his weekly wage increased from £145,000 to £190,000 plus all the profits from his shirt sales and other items that have made Real Madrid the richest club in the world.
His £43 Adidas tops and other merchandise earn Real Madrid £30 million per year. At the moment Beckham gets half of the profits, but now he wants the whole cake.
And the funny thing is that Real Madrid are not against him on this issue as they know that he is worth every penny. Before the Beckham era at Real Madrid the team was earning £127 million per year, now with Beckham on board they are earning £190 million per year. He is so valuable that the team chairman Florentina Perez said “I’ll sell the Bernabeu stadium before I sell Beckham.”
If Beckham gets this wage or settles for 60 per cent of the image rights he would still land a cool £540,000 per week, making him the third highest paid sports person in the world, after Tiger Woods (£51 million) and Michael Schumacher (£47 million).
Beckham will surely pass his ‘galatico’ team-mates with Brazilian star Ronaldo earning £13.4 million and Zinedine Zidane (£8.9 million). All this being said, this will probably cause some kind of friction in the team. £27 million between him and Ronaldo is a big difference.
Beckham is a good football player, and he has proven that almost in every game he plays, but the sad thing is that he is not just wanted because he is a good player but for the reason that he is a money making machine.
This will surely crush any rumours that he will leave Real Madrid, as Beckham could not have found a better team to take care of him. This would have surely been impossible with Sir Alex Ferguson hanging around.
This is a bad sign for football as it still shows that teams will go too far out of their way to please just one player. One player does not win a game, but a whole team does.
Beckham has the right to ask for a piece of the income that Real Madrid is making because of him. Beckham must also remember he won countless Premiership Titles and the Champions League with a much, much lower wage and he was also happy doing the job he is paid for, playing football.
With Real Madrid and all these so-called ‘galaticos’, Beckham still has to see all these honours.
Beckham must ask this question to himself. Is he happy as a footballer with Real Madrid as he was with Manchester Utd? He probably is not, but all this money has surely blinded him.
kgrech@mediatoday.com.mt
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