Soccer: Africa Players Earning Lesser Than Their European Peers

Several African countries on the continent are producing great players that are making headway in the top five ranked leagues in Europe.

The continent’s most renowned soccer star, George Weah who is currently the President of Liberia, a country that is yet to make an appearance at any FIFA World Cup dominated the European continent by becoming the only African player to have won the FIFA Ballon D’ OR in 1995.

Another legend who made his mark in Europe is Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, who spent the golden years of his career in the European leagues winning individual and collective awards.

Others followed suit, with the likes of Egypt’s Mohammed Salah being among the top goal scorers in the English Premier League including Senegalese International star Sadio Manie.

There are now around 500 African players in Europe, earning between $15,000 and $100,000 a month on average.

Their average monthly salaries back home would range from $800 in Kenya to $8,500 in South Africa.

The obvious economic gulf aside, African soccer clubs, often operated like state-run enterprises, rarely focused on the efficiency that helped the world’s biggest, richest clubs succeed.

Now, some change is finally happening with the rise of more professional privately-owned clubs.

But even these will need big platforms for their investments to make business sense.

South Africa, Tanzania, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco are countries trying to get on path with other European leagues.

Liberia, Guinea, Mali, and Benin among others are struggling to get their national league games on path with top-rated African leagues.

Having said that, K-News brings you five major reasons why African players are struggling in Africa when it comes to salary structure, especially in Liberia, the only country to produce the world’s best in Africa.

1). Poor sponsorship deal.

2). Less publicity towards the league.

3). Low government support towards the national league.

4). Individuals with low income are owners of many clubs.

5). Poor markings from clubs.

If we work on this in Africa we can make our various leagues better.

By: Edwin Battarforyen