Money dulls PSL players’ ambition – Bax

STUART Baxter suggested last week that South African players in the Premier Soccer League might be too comfortable and therefore lack the ambition to go overseas‚ but publication of Keegan Dolly’s monthly salary could serve as a spur.

French media have put out a list of all the wage earners at their Ligue 1 clubs and Dolly takes home à40 000 a month‚ some à15 000 more than his national team colleague Bongani Zungu‚ who is also competing in the to- flight of French football.

In rand terms‚ Dolly’s nett salary is some R590 000 monthly – more than the highest earner in the Premier Soccer League and close to the salaries that coaches Gavin Hunt and Pitso Mosimane command.

Zungu earns R368 000 monthly at his club‚ Amiens‚ who have a lot more modest budget than Dolly’s Montpellier.

Last week‚ at a pre-Cosafa Cup press conference in Polokwane‚ Bafana Bafana coach Baxter suggested that South African players lacked the ambition to make it overseas because they were too well paid at home.

“When I got here first [in 2005]‚ players making it in the PSL were bouncing onto clubs in Europe‚” he said.

“They were chomping at the bit to go overseas.

“Now you land in the PSL‚ it’s televised‚ you get more money‚ it’s more adulation‚ it’s nicer girlfriends … it’s the whole package. And then that hunger to go to Europe disappears.

“We have all got to co-operate … media‚ clubs‚ association … to keep pushing players to have the hunger to go on … if they can.

“The other problem is that because the PSL clubs are richer‚ the salaries are higher‚ the transfer fees they are demanding for their players are much higher. That also restricts them from going abroad‚” Baxter added.

The top earners in South Africa are said to gross between R6-million to R7-million per annum.