According to Football Insider, Darwin Nunez cost Liverpool far less than Erling Haaland did, despite the fact that his transfer fee could be £34 million higher.
On the surface, Man City’s £51 million Haaland deal appears to be a bargain, especially given the extraordinary impact he has had on the pitch.
However, the package dwarfs what Liverpool paid Benfica for Nunez and has been supplemented with wages, bonuses, and other costs.
The fee was £64m rising to a potential £85m with performance-related add-ons, and Nunez agreed on a six-year contract worth a basic £ 140,000 a week.
That salary is topped up by bonuses, including for goals, but the package works out at around £128m.
It is less than half of what City are paying Haaland, who joined in the summer from Borussia Dortmund when they triggered his release clause.
His contract is for one year less – it runs until 2027 – and is worth a basic £ 375,000 a week.
But it is the top-up costs that make the deal an astonishingly expensive one for City and in world sporting terms.
A recent report calculated that bonuses, many of which are easily achievable, make Haaland’s deal worth £ 850,000 a week, equivalent to £44.2m-a-year.
Across five years, and adding in the transfer fee, that makes the cost of the Norwegian superstar to City alone worth £272m.
It is inarguable that the Premier League leaders are getting plenty for their money.
Haaland has already scored a remarkable 20 goals from 13 City matches and goes into Sunday’s showdown against Liverpool with seven more Premier League goals than his closest challenger, Harry Kane.
By contrast, Nunez is a diamond that still requires some polishing and his 10 matches have yielded four goals so far.
Leave a Reply