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Top earning Nigerian footballers in Europe
Nigerian footballers are back in top clubs and earning competitive wages in European football.
Nigeria has produced some of the biggest and most talented footballers to ever played the game in Europe. Expectedly, this has come with immense wealth for these football stars, amounting from mouth-watering sign-on fees to handsome weekly wages.
Beginning in the 90s, football has been a path to riches for poor Nigerian boys like never before. Nigerian footballers like Nwankwo Kanu, Jay Jay Okocha, Finidi George, and a number of others left the Nigerian league for top European teams, where they went on to achieve greatness and immense wealth.
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After a decline in football development in Nigeria, Nigerian footballers are back in top clubs and earning competitive wages in European football. This new crop of Nigerian-born football stars is generally perceived as a win for Nigeria, because not only are these footballers indirectly representing the country, they are also earning fat salaries that are almost similar to what top South American and European football talents earn. Needless to mention that a significant portion of these salaries earned by Nigerian football stars ends up being remitted back home ever so often. And this contributes towards stimulating the Nigerian economy.
That said, let us now focus on some of Nigeria’s highest-earning footballers.
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The highest-earning Nigerian footballers are:
1. Odion Ighalo (Manchester United): £125K a week
Recently, Ighalo transferred to Manchester United on loan from the Chinese Super League side Shangai Shenshua, becoming the first-ever Nigerian to play for Manchester United. Since his transfer, he has become a fan favorite with the EPL side, netting a total of 5 goals in 17 games for Manchester United so far. His weekly wages of £125K make him the highest-earning Nigerian footballer in Europe.
READ MORE: Ighalo to earn N1.4 billion in six months at Manchester United
2. Victor Osimhen (Napoli): £96K a week
Just last month, the 21-year-old Nigerian football star, Victor Osimhen transferred to the Italian Serie-A side, Napoli. This is one of the most expensive African footballer transfers in European football.
Victor Osimhen to Napoli, confirmed and here we go! Tomorrow the deal will be completed for €50M + add ons to Lille. Osimhen is going to sign until June 2025 as new Napoli player. ✍🏻🔵 #transfers #Napoli https://t.co/4cHtH02uGr
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 27, 2020
Football Transfer news analyst, Fabrizio Romano announced that Osimhen would join Napoli from Lille, for the tune of €50 million+ add-ons to Lille, and he would sign a contract with the Naples side. This would keep him in Italy until 2025.
Osimhen is also expected to earn €5 million Euros a year (an average of £96K per week) in wages, image rights and bonuses which would make him the second highest-earning Nigerian footballer in Europe. This is a deserved fee for him after scoring 13 goals in 27 league games for Lille in the 2019/20 season.
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3. Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City): £75K a week
The 23-year-old defensive midfielder joined the EPL side for a £17 million deal from Belgian club Genk and has become one of the most solid and well known defensive midfielders in European Football.
He has represented the Super eagles 36 times and may top the list one day as he attracts interest from bigger clubs in Europe.
4. Victor Moses ( Chelsea): £75K a week
Currently on loan from Chelsea at Inter Milan, the 29-year-old shares a spot with Wilfred Ndidi. He joined Chelsea in 2012 after he was signed from Wigan Atheltic. He is one of the few Nigerian footballers to win both the Premier League and a European title.
5. Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City): £60K a week
The FIFA Under-17 World Cup winner with Nigeria comes in 4th. He also won the FIFA Under-17 World Cup Golden Ball, which attracted the attention of Manchester City.
He made his league debut for Manchester City in the 2015-16 season and was sold 2 years later for £25 million to Leicester City. This made him the most expensive transfer of a Nigerian Footballer then, a record that was broken two years later by Alex Iwobi’s fee during his transfer to Everton.
6. Alex Iwobi (Everton): £50K a week
24-year-old Alex Iwobi comes in 5th place. He is a cousin to one of Nigeria’s greatest players of all time, Jay Jay Okocha. Iwobi started his career with Arsenal, making his league debut in the 2015/16 season. He played a total of 100 league games for Arsenal and helped the North London club secure the 2017 FA Cup trophy.
In 2019, he was sold to Everton in a five-year deal worth up to £34 million, signing a £50K a week deal with the Northern English club.
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Sports
Super League fallout: Twitter users urge African billionaire, Dangote to take over Arsenal
Twitter users have mounted pressure on Dangote to speed up the process to acquire English Premiership football club, Arsenal FC.
The European Super League Initiative advanced by a few football executives met stiff resistance from passionate football fans around the world.
The Initiative was previously backed by Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan, and Inter Milan. Six English clubs withdrew on Tuesday. Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid followed suit and AC Milan has said they would as well.
The drama stirred up by this recent development has led football fans to review the ownership of their clubs. Arsenal, which was one of the initial supporters of the initiative has witnessed the most reactions from the fans.
Kroenke vs Arsenal fans
Stan Kroenke has remained unpopular amongst arsenal fans for a long while. Their reasons boil down to two things:
1. Poor investment in the Club’s first team
2. The recent European Super League attempt.
Arsenal fans have taken to Twitter to voice out their disapproval and discontentment with the club’s owner Stan Kroenke. The latest European Super League attempt seems to be the last straw for the angry fans.
Kroenke out, Dangote in
The pulling out of the six English teams from the now ill-fated European Super League has led to some executives resigning from their clubs. Manchester United’s Ed Woodward resigned from his position, Andrea Agnelli is understood to have also left Juventus following his role as Head of the European Club Association.
This announcement renewed resignation calls by Arsenal fans who desperately want the current owner of the club out by all means. The fans reverted to an old Bloomberg interview where Nigeria’s richest man, Alhaji Dangote confirmed his interest in buying the London club.
They begged the business magnate to make his move now as this is the perfect time to buy the club from Stan Kroenke. Alhaji Dangote is $3.3bn richer than Mr Stanley Kroenke by Forbes Statistics.
The #Dangote trended on both London and Nigeria twitter space this morning.
What you should know
- Enos Stanley Kroenke is an American billionaire businessman. He is the owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company of English football club Arsenal F.C. He is worth 8.2bn according to Forbes.
- Stanley Kroenke believed that the European Super League initiative will make Arsenal the biggest club in the world.
- Liverpool owner, John W. Henry has issued an apology to Liverpool fans worldwide on the European Super League attempt. Other clubs have also put out apology and withdrawal statements.
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