The average annual salary of a Manchester United starter is $2.7 million, but players can earn about $450,000 more in bonus money if the team wins the European Champions League and $300,000 in other victory bonus payments, according to a scoop that made the front pages of London papers.
Manchester United's top star, David Beckham, 26, captain of the national team, actually has one of the lower salaries, at "only" $1.83 million a year, but that is because he is in the next-to-last season of a multiyear deal signed before others got bigger contracts.
Beckham, Britain's highest-profile sports personality, is negotiating another deal amid speculation that he is looking for four times more in salary, plus at least $7 million a year for his image rights. To date, players have controlled their own image rights for product licensing and other exploitation, but nowadays big clubs want to buy them and own all the players' rights. Beckham earned an estimated $14 million last year from playing and endorsements.
London tabloid The Daily Mirror obtained and published the amounts, and with no comment from club, players or agents denying the numbers, everybody is assuming they're on the money. At least one other daily paper published the numbers too, taking the rare step of printing a table credited to The Mirror.
Jay Stuart is editorial director of SporTVision magazine and Sports TV Report and Sports Investor newsletters.
