Sanchez contract is ‘worth £25m a year’
Manchester United gave Alexis Sanchez a contract that could earn him more than £25million a year should he hit all his bonuses, including £75,000 for every game he starts, according to the latest Football Leaks revelations.
The confidential contract information of a number of leading Premier League players has been published by the German magazine Der Spiegel in the book Football Leaks: Uncovering The Dirty Deals Behind the Beautiful Game, laying out the eye-watering terms for some of the big deals of the past two transfer windows.
Sanchez, who joined United from Arsenal in a deal in which Henrikh Mkhitaryan went the other way, is alleged to earn a basic salary of £391,000 a week, with £75,000 paid as a bonus for every first-team game he starts. The book’s allegations, published by The Daily Mail, also claim that the 29-year-old, who has a five-year deal, is entitled to a £1.1million annual fee.
In addition, he could earn £2 million for reaching a combination of 40 goals and assists; £1 million if United win the Champions League; and £500,000 for winning the Premier League.
Arsenal replaced Sanchez with Pierre-emerick Aubameyang, whose contract details Der Spiegel also claim to have seen, including a £2.26 million Champions League bonus that he will allegedly receive despite Arsenal finishing sixth this season. Aubameyang will earn £198,000 a week, totalling £10.3 million annually, with a £15.15 million loyalty bonus payable over the next three years. He will earn £300,000 for getting a combined 25 goals and assists in a season and £50,000 for each match he starts that Arsenal win.
Mkhitaryan will earn £7.5 million annually at Arsenal for three years and that will rise to £12.5million if the club exercise an option to keep him. By comparison, Mohamed Salah at Liverpool is on a weekly wage of £123,030 and has hit his £2.5 million bonus target of 35 combined goals and assists. Virgil van Dijk, Salah’s £70million teammate, earned a weekly basic wage of £124,658, with a £6million payment on signing.
He was given a £5 million loyalty bonus and another £4million loyalty bonus on playing 150 games. He also earns more once the team achieve 18 clean sheets, as well as £20,000 for every goal he scores.
United striker Romelu Lukaku, who signed for £75 million from Everton, is on a £7.8million basic salary and a £4.5million bonus for 50 combined goals and assists. He also has a £2.4million loyalty payment and £1.96million in payments for marketing rights.