Highest Paid World Cup Coaches

By on June 13, 2014 in ArticlesEntertainment

The World Cup is underway and the host country, Brazil (duh), has notched their first win, beating Croatia on the opening day of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. We've covered the drama over the stadiums, budgets, and protests. We've taken a look at the highest paid soccer players. But what about their coaches? How well (or not) paid are the World Cup Coaches this year?

Not surprisingly, when it comes to the range of salaries of the coaches at the World Cup, there is a huge difference between those coaches near the top of the salary range and those at the bottom. The U.S. coach, Jurgen Klinsmann is bringing home $2.6 million for his efforts in coaching the American team, making him the 10th highest paid coach in the tournament. The highest paid coach, Fabio Capello, is making $11.2 million to coach the Russian team. The lowest paid coaches—those for Ghana and Mexico—are making $251K and $209K.

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Seven World Cup coaches are making more than $2 million dollars a year as they go after the biggest prize in the world's biggest sport. Interestingly, the coaches largely do not hail from the countries they are coaching. Eighteen of the 32 teams have coaches from their own country. Fourteen teams are in the hands of foreigners.

The most common nationality of the World Cup coaches is German with natives of Deutschland coaching the U.S., Switzerland, Germany, and Cameroon. There are three Italian coaches overseeing Russia, Japan, and, of course, Italy. There are three Argentineans at the helm of Chile, Colombia, and Argentina; three Portuguese coaches for Iran, Greece, and Portugal; and finally three Colombians in charge of Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Honduras.

The lowest paid coaches are all coaching the teams from their own countries. Those teams are Mexico, Ghana, Croatia, Bosnia, and Nigeria.

The ratio of the coaches' salaries to the countries they are coaching is pretty staggering. Croatia's coach's salary is the closest to the average wages in that country. It is only 19 times more than the average Croatian earns. The coach of the team from the Ivory Coach is paid 795 times as much as the annual pay of $1,391. That's just $25.37 per week.

The total amount of wages paid to the World Cup Coaches is $66.3 million.

Here are the salaries for every World Cup Coach:

  1. 1. Fabio Capello, Russia — $11,235,210
  2. 2. Roy Hodgson, England — $5,874,570
  3. 3. Cesare Prandelli, Italy — $4,322,010
  4. 4. Luiz Felipe Scolari, Brazil — $3,973,730
  5. 5. Ottmar Hitzfeld, Switzerland — $3,745,130
  6. 6. Joachim Löw, Germany — $3,602,460
  7. 7. Vicente del Bosque, Spain — $3,386,270
  8. 8. Louis van Gaal, Netherlands — $2,738,060
  9. 9. Alberto Zaccheroni, Japan — $2,727,480
  10. 10. Jurgen Klinsmann, United States — $2,621,740
  11. 11. Didier Deschamps, France — $2,161,000
  12. 12. Paulo Bento, Portugal — $2,160,170
  13. 13. Carlos Queiroz, Iran — $2,098,060
  14. 14. Jorge Sampaoli, Chile — $1,774,960
  15. 15. Jose Pekerman, Colombia — $1,678,450
  16. 16. Ange Postecoglou, Australia — $1,395,300
  17. 17. Óscar Tabárez, Uruguay — $1,258,840
  18. 18. Sabri Lamouchi, Ivory Coast — $1,037,450
  19. 19. Vahid Halilhodžić, Algeria — $1,007,070
  20. 20. Marc Wilmots, Belgium — $864,400
  21. 21. Fernando Santos, Greece — $864,400
  22. 22. Alejandro Sabella, Argentina — $818,240
  23. 23. Hong Myung-bo, South Korea — $795,250
  24. 24. Luis Fernando Suárez, Honduras — $629,420
  25. 25. Reinaldo Rueda, Ecuador — $566,480
  26. 26. Jorge Luis Pinto, Costa Rica — $440,590
  27. 27. Volke Finke, Cameroon — $394,440
  28. 28. Stephen Keshi, Nigeria — $392,420
  29. 29. Safet Susic, Bosnia and Herzegovina — $352,470
  30. 30. Niko Kovac, Croatia — $271,740
  31. 31. James Kwesi Appiah, Ghana — $251,770
  32. 32. Miguel Herrera, Mexico — $209,810

Of course, salaries mean different things in different countries. Here is a look at how much each coach makes compared to the average salary in that country via SportingIntelligence.com.

While Russia's Fabio Capello is still near the top, making 763 times as much as the average Russian, that is actually second to Sabri Lamouchi, who makes 795 times as much as the average person in the Ivory Coast.

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