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Footballing Wages Going Beyond Kaka
The recent publicity concerning the future of Kaka, the Brazilian midfield superstar currently playing for AC Milan, has re-ignited the indignation of the hard-working populace for the reverential status afforded to athletes. But why should we bemoan an individual who is, as is patently clear, one of the best at his job?
The obvious reason is financial and the fact that someone is prepared to offer upwards of GBP500,000 per week to him for little more than partaking in some exercise. This feeling is only compounded by the fact that most football fans could be regarded as your 'Average Joe'; he who holds down a dead-end job for a dead-end wage. And yet it is these very same people that week in week out are cheering on these footballing superstars from the stands.
Kaka is without doubt one of the finest footballers currently playing. Alongside other such stars as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, it is the talent to entertain and make the game look simple that excites millions of fans the world over. But is this enough to warrant a wage that in one week is more than most of us can earn in a lifetime?
Were it not for the fact that Kaka is the perfect ambassador for the game it would be easy to criticise him for commanding such a wage. If, for example, it were a less reputable character - say Joey Barton - the criticism would be through the roof and rightly so. So it creates something of a conundrum. Why should we condemn one (a know thug and criminal) yet not baulk at the other (even though he's a God-fearing man who loves his mum)?
In my personal opinion, great as the modern footballer may be, there is no justification for such an elaborate sum of money. Particularly with the economy is the state it is and millions of people in the UK struggling to make ends meet. It is particularly galling since a wide majority of the footballers are little more than bit-part players, yet command an extortionate sum of money on a weekly basis.
Wes Brown, for example, on GBP40,000. Is it really acceptable that a below-average right-back earns more in a month than a doctor earns in a year? Or even-worse right-back Lucas Neill earning in excess of GBP50,000 per week while a secondary school teacher takes home under GBP500 in the same time. It is figures like these - both in terms of personnel and finance - which are turning people off the sport. Not least as they can't afford a ticket to the games anymore.
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