On October 10, media personality Pan Weili, who has been hot on the topic of Guangzhou's player salaries, shared his insights through an in-depth, lengthy article.
Here are the core points from Willy Pan:
The issue of Guangzhou team players' salary has once again aroused concern. The first team's main general is paid 15,000 yuan a month, while the replacement players are paid 8,000 yuan. Simply summarize three points:
1. Why is $15,000 generally regarded as too low on the Internet? It is because 95% of the people in our country earn less than $15,000 a month. This figure is an unattainable dream for many people. Therefore, in the eyes of these people, the salary of soccer players is far lower than their income, leading many people to express their dissatisfaction.
2. I advocate avoiding polarization. It is too extreme for Chinese Super League players to earn 10 million dollars a year; it is equally undesirable for them to earn only a few thousand dollars a month. In my opinion, an average Chinese Super League player in a first-tier city should earn no less than 50,000 yuan per month, and a Chinese League One player no less than 20,000 yuan per month; a player who has reached the level of the national team should earn no less than 1 million yuan per year.
3. The cost and elimination rate of training professional players far exceeds that of ordinary college students. Ten years of hard work and millions of dollars invested, but only a few thousand a month? What wrongdoer would do that? If you think it's reasonable, then your family and friends will do the same. If you choose to watch from the sidelines and rely on others, it means you don't think it's reasonable.
4. Some people suggest that if you want to make money, go to the top five leagues and go abroad! This may seem inspiring, but it ignores the reality of Chinese soccer. In China, the chances of becoming a Big 5 player are slim to none; it's like saying to a child from an ordinary family, you have to study hard and go to Harvard and Silicon Valley to make a lot of money in the future. What supports China's Internet development is not a handful of high-paying jobs in Silicon Valley, but the hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs offered by domestic companies such as Ali, Tencent and Byte, which attract thousands of young people. Similarly, what supports the development of Chinese soccer is not the opportunities in Europe's top five leagues, but the positions and opportunities in the Chinese Super League. If the wages of Ali and Tencent are only a few thousand dollars, China's Internet will cease to exist. The same is true for soccer, if the salary of the Chinese Super League is only a few thousand dollars, soccer will go into decline.
