da brdice： [ad_pod ]
da marjack bet： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
AS Roma sporting director Gianluca Petrachi has said during Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s first press conference (via Calcio Mercato) that the Armenia international has “given up on lots of money” to join the Serie A outfit.
What did he say?
Mkhitaryan joined the Giallorossi on loan on the final day of the European transfer window from Arsenal with an option to buy at the end of the current campaign.
The player was presented to the press in his first press conference as a Roma player on Tuesday, with sporting director Petrachi also present.
Talking about the switch, the latter said: “The idea was to invest in important young people. In situations where we found ourselves at the end of the market, or we made investments in young people or operations like those for Micky.
“He is a top player with very high costs, the boy has given up on lots of money to come to Rome. Time will tell if we have the chance to keep players like that.”
How do football vloggers afford to watch their team week in, week out? Find out in the video below…
Refreshing in today’s footballing environment
The money involved in football at times is often obscene, particularly in the Premier League. Last year, the average player in England’s top tier earned £3.2m. Even in the Championship, players brought in an average of £25,000 a week, which is more than 46 times the salary of a worker in the United Kingdom over the same time period.
Players are often criticised for the money they chase. Former Chelsea midfielder Oscar, for example, was slammed for his move to the Chinese Super League, where he is said to be earning wages in the region of £400,000 every seven days.
Mkhitaryan does not earn that kind of money, but he is unlikely to have felt too hard done by as he picked up his £180,000 weekly salary with the Gunners. While it is not understood what kind of sums are involved at Roma, it is refreshing to hear that he has been willing to take a pay cut of some sort in his quest to find first-team football.
Contrary to popular opinion, perhaps not all footballers are just driven by the amount of cash in their bank accounts.
One can only hope that more players follow the 30-year-old’s lead by putting their careers first.
[ad_pod ]