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Africa’s Richest Football Players

Walter Wilson Nana

A list made public by a Belgian football magazine reveals three top African soccer stars in the top ten of highest paid footballers. They are Ivorian born offensive midfielder; Yaya Toure, who trades his football skills at English Premier League side; Manchester City, the captain of the Indomitable Lions and Inter marks man Samuel Fils Eto’o and another EPL ace Emmanuel Sheyi Adebayor.

 

Sport Foot Magazine writes that in the hit parade of highest paid footballers, Yaya Toure is at the 4th position with a yearly take home package of 10.8 million Euros, Eto’o is at the 5th position with 10.5 million Euros per year while Adebayor closes the top ten list with 8.4 million Euros per year.

From the Sport Foot Magazine list, Cristiano Ronaldo has a salary of 12 million Euros per year, excluding advertising contracts. He is the current highest paid footballer. The Portuguese man is followed by Manchester United’s England striker, Wayne Rooney, who earns 11.5 million Euros a year, while Argentinean, Lionel Messi got 11 million Euros from Barcelona.

In the list of the top 10 you also have the following players with their respective take home packages; Bastian Schweinsteiger of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich with a yearly salary of 9.7 million euros, at the 6th position. There is Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the 7th position with nine million euros per year, at the 8th position is Real Madrid’s Kaka, who takes home nine million euros per year and is tied with Chelsea’s John Terry, 9th position with nine million per year.

Walter is a33-year old Cameroonian living Buea. He studied Journalism and Performing Arts in the University of Buea, Cameroon
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Football Fanatics

I am not a fanatic of anything, let alone the round-leather games, whose players only entertain and then smile to the banks. Why should people bully and kill themselves over a “game”? The result of a game can go either way. So, it is important for the supporters of players to withstand the outcome of football matches, even when they are not happy about it.

Suleiman Alphonso Omondi, a 29-year-old Kenyan football fan was once reported to have committed suicide just because the club he supported (Arsenal) lost a match. This is not proper. Maybe psychoanalytic experts may help us explain why some people take football as a religion, and often allow their emotions to overcome their reason when watching the game. The losing players may weep, and react negatively on the pitch, and may even call the bluff of the referee, as Drogba (some Nigerian supporters call him Aderogba!) once did when Chelsea played with Barcelona. But players don’t kill themselves. Look at Kanu or Essien, win or lose, they always take it easy; gentle, cool, calm and collected. It is because they know it is a game.

The problem with fanaticism is that it leaves a bitter taste after a sweet experience. While the players play with one another and even exchange jerseys, knowing that losing a match is not the end of their career, their fanatic supporters fight against one another. Informed investigations show that some football fanatics don’t talk to their spouses for days, some go on sex strike, and some don’t even eat at home in protest of ‘their’ loss. This is still bearable. But ending one’s or other people’s life as a result of a football match is the most unthinkable.

In fact, If Drogba’s Chelsea did not win and Eto’o’s Barca won, what do you stand to lose? If there was no game called football or soccer would you not live your life? If your club does not win today, can it not win tomorrow? We must watch matches responsibly. In short, we should be enthusiasts and fans of football, and not fanatics of it.

§        Earlier version published in The Guardian (Lagos)

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Drogba, Eto’o and Gyan finalists for Africa’s player of the year

Fiifi Johnson

Strikers Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o and Asamoah Gyan have been named as finalists for Africa’s 2010 player of the year award.

Ivory Coast’s Drogba is a two-time winner and last claimed the honour in 2009. He won the English Premier League title with Chelsea last season, finishing as the league’s top scorer with 29 goals in 32 games.

Eto’o of Cameroon, Africa’s player of the year in 2003, 2004 and 2005, won an Italian league, cup and Champions League treble with Inter Milan in 2010. Gyan starred as Ghana advanced to the quarter-finals at the World Cup.

The winner will be decided by a vote of the coaches or technical directors of the 53 countries that make up the Confederation of African Football on Dec. 20.

(CBC)

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