Many Egyptian players earn over $1 million a year, and before the recent Egyptian pound deductions, salaries were equivalent to $2 million or more for top-class stars.
Huge salaries
The Egyptian Football Association and clubs do not advertise players’ salaries, but copies of star contracts and salary information are leaked, so this information becomes common to the masses and the media. “Pyramids” player Ramadan Sobhi is the highest paid player, earning just over 30 million pounds (one million US dollars) per season, with annual raises, to surpass teammate Abdullah Al-Saeed, who earns 25 million pounds. Zamalek star Ahmed Sayed ‘Zizou’ reportedly earns £30m a year, and fellow goalkeeper Mohamed Awad’s leaked contract is worth around 80m Egyptian pounds in 5 seasons. At Al-Ahly, goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shennawy is paid £11m, while sources confirm Tunisian Ali Maaloul has been paid US$1.25m (£38m).
Pay gap
Several other clubs in Egypt have financial strength which gives them the opportunity to compete with Al-Ahly, Zamalek and “Pyramids” for players and give them large salaries, like the clubs of big companies and institutions. At a time when corporate and institutional clubs are emerging with their financial strength and attracting talents who have not joined Al-Ahly or Zamalek, clubs that love history are suffering but have no money, like Ismaili , Ghazl Al-Mahalla, Arab Contractors, and Alexandrian and Egyptian Al-Ittihad. The popular and popular clubs in Egypt have gone out of competition by giving players the salaries they expected, and thus left their place in the competition for the golden square and the African places in the ranking table, and have allowed institutional clubs and modern clubs to take their place. While ‘Pyramids’ and ‘Future’ have risen to the top of the league and sit second and third in the table at present, Ismaily found himself struggling to avoid relegation and stay in the Premier League.
Do players deserve huge salaries?
The football players are facing a lot of criticism from fans and critics, due to modest performances unrelated to the huge salary, as the players are always looking for more in contract renewal negotiations, indifferent to these reviews.
In this regard, sports critic Ahmed Emara says in an interview with Sky News Arabia:
“The big salaries in Europe for players are commensurate with the income the club receives annually, and so whatever salary the club pays, they know very well that they will make gains to cover it, but in Egypt the situation is different.” “Egyptian league clubs don’t derive any financial gain from the game, so the big salaries you pay remain a question mark, besides being undeserved.” “The entry of new clubs affiliated with wealthy owners, as well as institutional and corporate clubs, and their competition with Al-Ahly and Zamalek, has been a direct reason for the increase in wages, as well as prices of players in general, so the logic is missing from the question, especially when compared to the level and performance of players and their return to the field after receiving these giant salaries.
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