Education How long would it take you to earn a top footballer’s salary?

I wonder how many MSF medics turned down sporting/acting/singing opportunities to go and suck on some ebola needles instead.

Actually, yes. I used the word 'qualify' and 'qualifying' in my post. Nowhere did I say nurses were dim or lazy. You been smoking tonight? I didn't say it was an 'easy' career either. But it is easier to get into, for the average person, than football.

I didn't need your concession, but I'll take it, thanks.

You can't let me say it? Good job I didn't ****ing say it then. I've already acknowledged there are probably some who have actually chosen careers such as nursing over a sporting career. But were any of them actually presented with a professional contract and said no...?

It's very easy to talk hypothetically saying many would refuse, but unless any of them have actually felt the sense of self-confidence being good at a sport gives you, and then the excitement that comes from someone in an elite position recognising how good you are and offering you a chance to get paid to do it, I call bull****.

I always liked the Danes

Don't forget, also, that to a significant degree, it is not footballers that drive the increase in wages, but management companies and agents, who sometimes exploit their clients for a very tidy sum, pushing them to raise their profile beyond what some would choose. Footballers are young men, some even kids, mostly naive in the world of big bucks negotiations, and many get led by agents to do whatever they suggest, 'in their best interests'.

 

That's kind of impossible to know, isn't it? I can't show the absence of an alternative career. But the fact remains that these people could have chosen substantially safer, nicer, better paid careers, and didn't.

You did suggest that it was a "well, there's nothing better open to me and it's a respectable job, if you can make the grade" kind of job. That would suggest that people make an assessment of their abilities and opportunities and set their sights accordingly. The early auditions of X-Factor show graphically that it doesn't quite work like that. People who have a passion pursue it, no matter what (that's the whole thing about passion). I'm arguing that most nurses actually are bright enough to have a lot of better paid options, but wanted to become nurses as badly as footballers wanted to become footballers.

 

Perhaps, for given values of "easy," "average person," and "skill set." The world undoubtedly needs more nurses than it does professional footballers, so the athletic skill required to play at the (lucrative) professional level is high because there is a scarcity of jobs available. If the number of football clubs suddenly quadrupled and the number of available positions increased, I predict the barrier of entry would lower accordingly. I noted that we're talking about the lucrative professional tier in which the likes of Ronaldo play. For every big name (big salary) player, there are several dozen minor league players who earn roughly minimum wage. Funny enough, while we're debating whether or not playing football is a vocation or a career, here in the US Major League Baseball argues that playing baseball is recreation, and therefore exempt from the Federal minimum wage.

So perhaps people do value entertainment over necessity - we just don't need that many people to entertain us.

 

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I'm happy for you to infer that from my post, but that doesn't justify you ignoring the fact that I referred to the need for qualification, nor does it justify the implication that I'm saying people who pursue nursing are dim and/or lazy.

Your point about some nurses being bright enough to pursue better paid careers is an interesting one. These are people who generally benefit from a fair to good education and then make a choice at 18-21, or older, out of a range of options.

Football, on the other hand, is renowned for propelling people of low socio-economic opportunity, into a well-paid career. Sure, it makes a good rags-to-riches story so probably gets exaggerated, but it has the reputation for a reason. Many players, when they were kids, were faced with few options, growing up in tough situations (not that there aren't nurses who also faced hardship as kids, of course) and football offered them a way out. You can't compare the choice of an adult with strong career prospects with the choice of a kid with few though.

- Cristiano Ronaldo, supposedly, had an alcoholic father, and was expelled from school at 14.

- Lionel Messi needed $800/month growth hormone treatment at age 11, which only came about because FC Barcelona paid it for him.

- Paul Gascoigne's family initially lived in a single upstairs room in a council house. He was in therapy as a 10 year old.

- Pele - as a kid played with a sock stuffed with paper as a ball

- Maradona - grew up in shanty town sharing one room with seven siblings

- Ronaldo (the better one, Brasilian, striker crocked with knee injury) - couldn't afford a bus to his first football trial with a pro club

- Rivaldo - suffered malnourishment as a kid

- Ronaldinho - grew up in favela, father died when he was 8

- Wayne Rooney - grew up in council house

- George Weah, Carlos Tevez, Luis Suarez, Frank Ribery, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexis Sanchez - all associated with poverty and/or challenging backgrounds in their youth.

Try putting yourself in the mindset of any of the above when they were 12 and then tell them they should have quit football and pursued nursing instead. Half of them probably couldn't read at that age. People are so judgemental of footballers but could do with seeing it from their perspective for a few seconds at least.

 

Similar heartbreaking stories exist amongst all professions.

I think we're labouring under a misunderstanding here. I'm not saying that footballers shouldn't pursue a career that earns them millions; I'm saying that possibly the industry shouldn't be paying them millions (which doesn't mean, by the way, that they should not be paid a salary reflecting their hard work and unique skill). Like City bankers probably shouldn't be paid the huge bonuses they get, especially as it's counterproductive. The argument that they work hard for it is all well and good, but a lot of people work hard for their money, and arguably do equally important jobs.

But that's not how things work. In a credit crunch where footballers and celebrities are making as insane money as bankers are, everybody is down on public sector workers who are perceived as having an easy ride somehow. There appears to be an interesting move in the TV industry to change that perception, with lots of fly-on-the-wall documentaries showing what actually goes on in hospitals and such (it helps that they are cheap to produce). But people are still more inclined to challenge the income of their doctor, than their favourite footballer.

 

Not sure why anyone cares what they earn. Floyd mayweather earns double or tripple Ronaldos salary per fight for 36mins of work ( ignoring training )

Complain about CEOs of companys that have gone bust but still get paid there millions or have had bailouts from goverments. Thats something to moan over. UK bailed out most of the banks with loans and most of them still paid bonuses thats the crazy thing.

Sports stars get paid alot never really cared about it myself.