Daily Mail

It’s £367,640 a week for Ibra ...and that’s without his goal bonus!

Swedish striker is the best paid player in Premier League history Pogba earns ‘just’ £165k a week — but he’ll net £3.5m loyalty bonus And super-agent Raiola will be paid £41m for France star’s move

- By CHRIS WHEELER Football Leaks: The Dirty Business of Football by Der Spiegel’s Rafael Buschmann and Michael Wulzinger is published in Germany on Thursday.

Zlatan Ibrahimovi­c became the highestpai­d player in the Premier league on £367,640 a week when he moved to Manchester United last summer.

astonishin­g details of the contracts agreed between United and agent Mino Raiola for Ibrahimovi­c are revealed in a book to be published in Germany this week — to which Sportsmail has been given exclusive access.

It has also emerged that Raiola will be paid over £41million after bringing Pogba to United from Juventus for a world record £89m transfer fee.

Fans will be fascinated by the huge figures which are divulged in Football Leaks: The Dirty Business

of Football, based on the research of Der Spiegel journalist­s Rafael Buschmann and Michael Wulzinger and published in Germany this week.

In addition to his £19m-a-year salary, Ibrahimovi­c also secured a bonus of £2.86m for scoring 28 goals in his first year in England.

However, the knee injury he sustained in the Europa league against anderlecht last month may cost him the guarantee of a second year at Old trafford.

It is claimed that the contract extension would only have been triggered if Ibrahimovi­c had made 31 Premier league starts — he fell short on 27 — and United finished in the top three.

the 35-year-old Swede had knee surgery last week and could be out of action until 2018. United are open to the idea of the striker doing his rehabilita­tion with them but it remains to be seen if he plays for United again.

Signing Ibrahimovi­c on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain enabled United to offer him such generous personal terms.

Pogba, on the other hand, cost a record fee when he returned to Old trafford and his deal is structured rather differentl­y.

the Frenchman’s £165,000-aweek basic salary may seem modest in comparison to those of some of the world’s top players but there are substantia­l incentives built into an exhaustive 41-page contract, particular­ly if United qualify for the Champions league.

as Jose Mourinho’s side prepare to face Celta Vigo at home on thursday for a place in the Europa league final, Pogba has good reason to want to win the trophy.

His basic wage would rise by £1.875 ma year and his commercial rights would go up from £2.87m to £3.125m. From next season, he is also due a loyalty bonus which starts at just under £3.5m, and there are a raft of other incentives that would elevate him among world football’s highest earners.

Unlike Ibrahimovi­c, Pogba has struggled to live up to expectatio­ns at times this season.

arguably the biggest beneficiar­y from last summer’s transfer dealings at Old trafford is Raiola.

the Italian agent’s earnings from the Pogba deal alone are said to be over £41 m—a near £23 ms lice of the transfer fee and five instalment­s totalling £ 16.39m from United over the course of his contract. It is also claimed that the club paid £ 2.2m owed by Pogba to Raiola’s Monaco-based agency Uuniqq SaRl.

When the figures were put to United last night, the club said that they do not comment on their contractua­l arrangemen­ts. they are all the more startling given that the defeat at arsenal on Sunday has all but killed off their hopes of a top-four finish.

Failure to reach the Champions league could cost the club as much as £65m in lost tV revenue and prize money. United would also forfeit more than £20m of their £750m kit deal with adidas.

that figure has been partly offset by an automatic cut in the players’ salaries for not playing in the Champions league this season and a larger than expected share of the Europa league tV revenue.

More importantl­y, United’s latest financial figures due out next week are predicted to show record revenue of £540m and profits of £180m.

Just what Sir alex Ferguson, the man who tried to persuade Pogba not to leave United for Juventus in 2012 for £850,000, would think of it all is anyone’s guess. Yesterday marked the fourth anniversar­y of Ferguson’s announceme­nt that he was stepping down as manager after 26 years at Old trafford.

During his later years at the club, the Scot would often say there was no value in the transfer market. He also had a frosty relationsh­ip with Raiola. as the jaw-dropping earnings of United’s stars are revealed and his old club face finishing outside the top four for the third time in four years, Ferguson might conclude he had a point.

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