Once you reach a certain level of earnings, then you can afford to earn less in the future to make yourself happy. i.e. if you (as a normal person and not a footballer) get the chance to earn 2 million a year for like 10 years (say between when you're 35-45), but the job you are doing isn't particularly satisfactory, I personally would do that, earn 20M, and then after I would either open up a small business that I would have always wanted to open with a good chance of earning much less (if not making a loss!) , or do something I would have always wanted to do (travel the world etc).
For a footballer, they have around 7 years where they can maximize their income, normally between 24-31 (sometimes there are special cases), so thinking from it economically and for the future, in those 7 years, my goal would be to get as much as I possibly could, if I could earn 12M a year and live in Monaco it would be fantastic, but not everyone is as lucky as Falcao!
Like I said previously, if the difference is something 'small' of like 2-3 million, I would go for a more favourable location, like Barcelona ahead of Moscow (due to weather, lifestyle etc), but if it were for a large amount (5M +) I'd go where the money is (at least for a short while).
Naturally this is all hypothetical, but if i were to earn large amounts of money in my mid 20s, I would definately be 'ok' with earning a few millions less in the future and move somewhere I want to be.
like i said above, a footballer has a limited window where he can earn the big money, so 3 years in Russia (like what Anzhi did with Eto'o) and i'll be sorted for life, I would not need to work once I retire from football, and could do what the fuck I want without having to think about the money factor.
There goes another of my hopefuls...
