Kaka the highest-paid player in Serie A
Milan - Brazilian Kaka tops the list of millionaire footballers in the Italian Serie A with a contract worth more than 100 times those of the least paid colleagues, a report in La Gazzetta dello Sport showed on Tuesday.
At €6-million (about R60-million) per season after tax, which AC Milan will pay him until 2011, Kaka narrowly leads Roma captain Francesco Totti, who makes €5,46-million (about R54-million), and a group of four players, Inter Milan's Patrick Vieira, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Adriano, plus Juventus' 'keeper Gianluigi Buffon, who settled for €5-million (about R50-million).
The remaining players of Milan earn between €2-million (about R20-million) and €4-million (about R40-million), for a total of €120-million (about R1-1-billion), which includes tax payments amounting to about 50 percent and the pay of the club's staff.
The European champions are thus Italy's top-spending club for the current season.
Inter Milan follow with €110-million (about R1-billion), ahead of Juventus, at €96,9-million (about R968-billion), while Roma trail on €59-million (about R590-million), Fiorentina on €30-million (about R300-million) and Palermo on €24,6-million (about R245-million).
Reggina, Empoli, Siena, Atalanta and Cagliari, the top-flight's least spending club, dish out between €12,6-million (about R125-million) and €11-million (about R110-million) to run their teams, about half the expenses of Sampdoria, Torino and newcomers Genoa.
Expenses of promoted Napoli, Catania, Lazio, Livorno, Udinese and Parma range from €19,8-million (about R197-million) to €14-million (about R140-million).
A curious case is Inter's Argentinian midfielder Santiago Solari, a high-frequency bench sitter, who receives the same €3,5-million (about R35-million) cheque as new arrival Christian Chivu, Dejan Stankovic, Luis Figo and compatriot Hernan Crespo.
There is no player on a salary of €1-million (about R10-million) or more in the squad of the Champions League participants Lazio, where the highest- paid player is Roberto Baronio with €750 000 (about R7,4-million).
There is a case of double dipping at Sampdoria, where the top-earning striker Antonio Cassano makes €1,2-million (about R12-million), but still receives €3-million (about R30-million) from Real Madrid, who loaned him to the Genoa side.
At the bottom of the list with €40 000 (about R400 000) per season are Marco Mancosu and Slovenian 'keeper Jan Koprivac, both playing with Cagliari and Simone Iacoponi of Empoli. - Sapa-dpa
Independent