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Wednesday Kickoff: Man City tops salary charts; Chelsea ready to spend; and more

SergioAgueroGoalCelebrationManCity1-Arsenal2013 (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

Manchester City may not win the English Premier League title this season but they’ve remained No. 1 on the salary charts.

Per a study conducted by ESPN the Magazine and SportingIntelligence called the Global Salary Survey, Man City pay their players the most compared to any sporting franchise across the globe. Man City players are paid on average $8,109,912 per season, according to the study which looked at 2012/2013 salary figures. Man City’s total wage bill topped $200 million, one of only three teams to spend that much on players.

In all, six European soccer teams were included in the top ten highest wage bills including Real Madrid and Barcelona at No. 4 and No. 5 respectively, Bayern Munich at No. 7, Manchester United at No. 8, and Chelsea at No. 10.

The study measured the total wage bills across world soccer, the NHL, the NBA, the NFL, MLB, Australian Rules Football, the Canadian Football League and even the Indian Premier Cricket League.

Here are some more stories to start your Wednesday:

CHELSEA PREPARE TO SPLURGE FOR COSTA

Diego Costa remains atop Chelsea’s summer transfer window wish list, and the club are prepared to pay an exorbitant amount to bring him to Stamford Bridge.

According to a report in The Telegraph, Chelsea are willing to meet Costa’s £32 million release clause from Atletico Madrid, and give him a contract worth slightly more than £48 million, meaning that Chelsea would spend £80 million on their investment in Costa.

Considering all of Chelsea’s striker issues this season, manager Jose Mourinho is hoping that Costa can replicate his impressive performances from this season. In 2013/2014, Costa has scored 34 goals in all competitions and is second in scoring in La Liga.

Atletico manager Diego Simeone seemed resigned to the fact earlier this week that he would lose his top scorer for the second year in a row, after the club sold Radamel Falcao last summer to AS Monaco.

GUNDOGAN EXTENDS WITH DORTMUND

Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan has postponed any talk of him leaving Germany this summer

The 23-year-old midfielder signed a contract extension with the club on Tuesday through June 2016. Gundogan hasn’t played a minute all season as he deals with a serious back injury suffered last August while with the German National Team.

“We are very pleased with this deal against the backdrop of the injury-related situation and we hope that Ilkay will contribute its full potential from the coming season for BVB,” Sporting Director Michael Zorc.

Gundogan played a key role for Dortmund last season as they made their improbable run to the UEFA Champions League final.

QUICK KICKS

Manchester United are trying to tempt Bayern Munich midfielder Toni Kroos to Old Trafford with a £260,000 per week contract. (REPORT)

Man United are also fighting with Chelsea to sign £30 million rated Southampton left back Luke Shaw. (REPORT)

Atletico Madrid midfielder Arda Turan is expected to be fit to play Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League semifinals. (REPORT)

AS Roma head coach Rudi Garcia has kept hope alive that his side can win the Scudetto, despite sitting eight points behind Juventus with five matches remaining. (REPORT)

France National Team head coach Didier Deschamps said that his World Cup squad of 23 players will be selected with Euro 2016 in mind. (REPORT)

Bayern defender Holger Badstuber has returned to light training at Bayern’s practice facility after two successive torn ACLs. (REPORT)

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What do you think of these reports? Surprised at the amount of money Man City pays their players? Do you believe Chelsea would spend that much money to sign Costa? Think that Gundogan can return to his past form next season?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Seems like Ligue 1 is missing, as well as the Russian and Ukrainian leagues. Teams like PSG, Monaco, Shakhtar, and Anji must be up there in salary; I’m sure that Zlatan alone makes more than teams 200-294 combined.

    Reply
    • it is missing, per the article, these are the European leagues included:

      “EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and SPL: 2012-13”

      Reply
  2. only in England do they buy players base on 1 world class season? Just remember kids if you score say 30 goals in 1 season an English team will drop 30 million pounds on you despite you having average numbers the previous few seasons.

    Reply
    • There is a cricket team at #24. That’s mental how big cricket is in India.

      I bet they spend the most in in relation to Median income of the country they are from and account for PPP.

      Reply
  3. Has anybody tried playing Moneyball in soccer? It just seems that given the huge sums spent on players that somebody would have tried.

    Reply
    • Moneyball is overrated for lesser sides. The A’s have won some wild cards, division titles, and playoff spots playing moneyball. They did have “the streak.” But they have no pennants or World Series wins since moneyball.

      Overdogs like the Red Sox have deployed statistical analysis of players to success, but usually alongside a high payroll (the Sox are currently #4).

      FWIW, IMO the flowing passing team game of soccer is less suited to stats analysis than the head to head batter pitcher confrontation of baseball.

      Reply
    • Udinese in Italy in a certain aspect is pretty unique, though not really exactly like moneyball. They buy a lot of unheralded, obscure talent from South America and west Africa and develop them. A lot of their guys usually get snatched up by other Italian teams soon after.

      Reply
  4. How the HELL is Chelsea going to pay that much $ with FFP rounding into play? They must be clearing out some players and banking on some serious cash to come in…

    Reply
    • Wonder if maybe they try to move someone like Luiz out, he doesn’t seem to fit Mourinho’s style but is still worth a decent chunk of change.

      Reply
      • And they sold Mata at a big profit recently too. also De Bruyen for $18 to Wolfsburg.

        So the transfer clause isn’t a problem and that salary will be over 5 years or something. Chelsea can find the money and it helps they are the Champ league Semis. Man City shouldn’t be able to spend much this summer but Chelsea has a fairly large fan-base to go with success.

      • +1

        i couldn’t say whether chelsea is in good financial shape FFP-wise, but it certainly helps a lot that they’ve advanced so far in the champions league, and especially that they’re the only EPL team left (since tv revenue is split evenly among the remaining participating leagues, not individual teams).

  5. Would love an explanation from UEFA as to how EPL clubs aren’t even mentioned in regards to Financial Fair Play as they consistently throw around unreal amounts of money stealing every talent they can find.

    Reply
  6. Why do they post salaries in weekly amounts? Is this just to depress the average joe seeing a guy make 10x their yearly salary just for eating right, working out a couple times, going to 8 practices and playing one game?

    Reply
  7. Poor Atlético, another great club a victim of run away spending clubs owned by dirty money. Just look at the talent they have had at forward these past several years. Hoping they win Europe and La Liga this year.

    Reply
  8. That is a lot of money to spend on a striker who falls down every time someone breathes on him. I don’t think he will do well in the EPL with the physical play. But, let Chelsea spend most of their transfer budget on him. Maybe there will be some players left for other teams to buy.

    Reply
    • Costa is big 6’2. Relatively young 25 and 2nd in scoring in La Liga. There’s too many clubs with too much money that want to win. Thats what causes the price to go up. Supply and demand.

      Reply
  9. Seems like a lot of money for Costa. He’s been awesome this year I’d like to see him do it for more than one season before spending that much.

    Reply
    • We’ll see what happens with Liverpool on the 27th (what I see as the de facto title game), because I’m not entirely sold that the defense doesn’t need a little tweaking too. It’s gone the right direction by shifting Luiz and Cole to the sideline, but I’m not sure it’s quite a Mourinho team yet, because at least part of CFC’s niche vis a vis the Reds needs to be that they are the better defensive side.

      That being said, the frontline could use a marquee scorer, although I think at least part of the answer would be simply bringing Lukaku back. CFC overpaying for a prestige Spanish striker never goes wrong…..

      Reply

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