Some American soccerballers paid less then what Cristiano Ronaldo spends on hair gel in a year
A document discoevred on the MLS Players’ Union website declares the salaries of every person playing football in the big country in 2008, and some of the figures make for surprising reading. David Beckham’s $6,500,000.04 (don’t forget the 4 cents) has been well publicised, but as you can see from the listing above above, some of his LA Galaxy colleagues earn a modest $12,900, or just under £8,500 in real money. In other words, Mr B is approximately 504 times more valuable than some of his no-name colleagues.
Former Arsenal midfielder Alex Hleb has compared Fabio Capello’s leadership of the England national team to a communist regime. The Barcelona player will face England next week when he represents Belarus in Minsk. He said:
“Nothing can be achieved with restrictions and bans. The most important thing is the atmosphere in the team.”
“It seems that there is some kind of communism going on. For example, Capello says the players’ breakfast is not from 8 till 9am but strictly at 8.15! It’s all nonsense.”
I don’t recall Hleb ever getting a call up to Fabio Capello’s England squad, which means there is a spy in our ranks. An informant is squealing to the Belarus national team about our every move. Comrade Capello’s communist secret police will soon find the mole.
With Manchester City’s weary troops already complaining that they need reinforcements, the club’s Arab owners are set to oblige with another cheeky offer for Liverpool striker Fernando Torres. The Mirror reports that City would happily make the Spaniard the Premier League’s best paid player on a nice little weekly pay packet of £200,000.
As unlikely as that seems - Torres himself has reportedly made it clear to City that he is happy at Anfield - it could prove to be a very good piece of business if City did pull it off. All the talk this week has been about a Premier League salary cap. So convince the best striker in the league to sign a £200,000 a week deal and turn around a few months later and tell him he is on £50,000 a week. “Sorry, Nando, the salary cap has come into effect. Nothing we can do.”
Talk of an incoming salary cap could actually drive wages up in the short-term. That’s irony, folks.
Manchester City defender Micah Richards has claimed the club’s good early season form has started to wear off because the players are so tired. The England international says he and his team-mates are ready to put their feet up after 13 games this season. He said:
“I think what’s killing us at the moment is the fact that there are a lot of games and people are starting to get tired already. That’s the whole point of having a big squad though. We’re starting to build that and hopefully we’ll be all right.”
We have heard Arsene Wenger’s emotional pleas for a mid-winter skiing holiday break, but an early-autumn break is a new one as far as The Spoiler is concerned!
Benin national team worried about friendly nickname
The sports minister of Benin has suggested a change of nickname for the country’s national football team amid concerns that their current name, the Squirrels, is not fearsome enough.
Les Ecureuils was apparently coined in the 1960s to signify Benin as a small creature capable of climbing very high. But sports minister Ganiou Sogl says the current nickname makes the team sound timid and afraid. He has proposed a change the team change their name (wait for it) to the “Emerging Panthers“. Sounds like a tabloid nickname for a stalker. He told the BBC:
“We were asked about it last year in parliament by lawmakers and they reproached us for making national teams bear the name of an animal which runs off when it is afraid. We are going to suggest to the government the name ‘Emerging Panthers’.”
Which got us thinking… what would you like to swap for the Three Lions? What would your new nickname for the England team be?
It seems winning major championships is not very good for team morale. Euro 2008 winners Spain took things back to basics ahead of their World Cup qualifier in Estonia with a few trust exercises and other playground activities! Rafa Benitez will no doubt be ecstatic to see Xabi Alonso’s head hurtling towards a wooden floor!
Arsenal skipper mad old nickname has been made public
William Gallas is fuming after a former team-mate revealed he was nicknamed Pierre Richard - the French equivalent of Mr Bean - while a trainee at Caen. PSG midfielder Jerome Rothen has gone public with the nickname and a host of other digs at the Arsenal captain in his new book. He claims that Gallas was a nice guy who constantly found himself getting caught out. He wrote:
“I don’t think William Gallas will mind me talking about how he used to be a no-hoper. At school he was a right wally - he would sit at the back of the class as far away from the blackboard as possible.
“One day the maths teacher gave us a test - she knew that William understood nothing about maths, so she allowed him to use the textbook. But even with the book under his nose he still only got four out of 20!”
Apparently, the Blues doesn’t just refer to the shirts
Birmingham defender Frank Queudrue has given a very, erm, frank interview to a French magazine about his fondness for watching pornographic movies. But don’t worry - he only watches it for the actors. The defender got himself into a discussion about sex with So Foot magazine and is probably now wishing he hadn’t.
The ex-Middlesbrough man was asked what was the first porno he ever watch. “I have no idea, I just watched it for the actors,” he replied. The journalist, obviously surprised that a married footballer’s love of gay porn had been uncovered quite so easily, offered to correct Queudrue and asked if he meant actresses. But metrosexual Frank didn’t seem to see where the problem was. He said: “Yes, as well, I used to watch it on encrypted channels.”
Queudrue then ensured that if he was going down, his team-mates were coming with him… Asked whether he ever pleasured himself in the company of other, he said: “Nope, but we are used to watching [pornographic] movies with several team-mates almost every week to have a laugh.”
One of the few perks of having David Gold as your chairman, I guess!
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