The Signing Season

At least this season ended on a positive note. And yes, I'm intentionally posting this before the outcome of the FA cup. Barcelona not only beat ManUtd to such an extent that I laughed uproariously every time I read the headlines* but also curb-stomped Chelsea fans in the round before. I laughed hysterically as Ballack did the, "not touching. not touching. not touching." routine we all did as children. Just 10 more Chelsea and you'll join Arsenal in the devastatingly bad calls club. Current members, 1.

So with the off-season approaching, TLOCA asks, is a player's salary associated with that player's value as a soccer player. Or another way of thinking about that is, can my manager buy the best squad if it were possible.

We took the top 50 highest paid players last year and ranked them based on their performance that year. We only considered those top 50 paid players so the rankings are relative. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo clearly had the best year last year but was the 10th highest paid player. Shevchenko was ahead of him at 9th...

Anyway, here are the results in order of highest salary

	Nome	Clube	Annual in $	Jim's rating	Juan's rating
1	Ricardo Kaka	AC Milan	$11,514,600	12	4
2	Ronaldinho Gaucho	FC Barcelona	$10,900,488	24	17
3	Frank Lampard	Chelsea FC	$10,439,904	8	18
4	John Terry	Chelsea FC	$10,439,904	16	12
5	Thierry Henry	FC Barcelona	$10,317,082	34	32
6	Fernando Torres	Liverpool FC	$10,132,848	2	2
7	Michael Ballack	Chelsea FC	$9,979,320	17	19
8	Andriy Shevchenko	Chelsea FC	$9,979,320	49	50
9	Steven Gerrard	Liverpool FC	$9,825,792	7	9
10	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester Utd	$9,825,792	1	1
11	Didier Drogba	Chelsea FC	$9,441,972	30	13
12	Wayne Rooney	Manchester Utd	$9,365,208	18	29
13	Iker Casillas	CF Real Madrid	$9,211,680	4	14
14	Michael Owen	Newcastle Utd	$8,597,568	35	47
15	Sol Campbell	Portsmouth	$8,444,040	42	33
16	Ruud Van Nistelrooy	CF Real Madrid	$8,213,748	21	28
17	Raul Gonzalez	CF Real Madrid	$8,213,748	31	31
18	Rio Ferdinand	Manchester Utd	$7,753,164	11	11
19	Darren Bent	Tottenham Hotspur	$7,599,636	46	34
20	Fabio Cannavaro	CF Real Madrid	$7,522,872	36	42
21	Carlos Tevez	Manchester Utd	$7,522,872	27	22
22	Luca Toni	Bayern Munique	$7,062,288	10	6
23	Francesco Totti	AS Roma	$6,985,524	13	15
24	Arjen Robben	CF Real Madrid	$6,831,996	14	20
25	Ryan Giggs	Manchester Utd	$6,678,468	28	23
26	Jamie Carragher	Liverpool FC	$6,524,940	25	24
27	John Arne Riise	Liverpool FC	$6,524,940	47	48
28	Michael Essien	Chelsea FC	$6,448,176	19	44
29	Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus FC	$6,397,000	20	10
30	Andres Iniesta	FC Barcelona	$6,397,000	15	25
31	Patrick Vieira	Internazionale	$6,397,000	45	37
32	Sergio Aguero	Atletico Madrid	$6,397,000	9	16
33	Samuel Eto´o	FC Barcelona	$6,397,000	33	30
34	Charles Puyol	FC Barcelona	$6,397,000	38	35
35	Adriano Lima	Internazionale	$6,397,000	48	46
36	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Internazionale	$6,397,000	6	7
37	Willy Sagnol	Bayern Munique	$6,397,000	44	43
38	Oliver Kahn	Bayern Munique	$6,325,354	43	45
39	Edwin Vandersar	Manchester Utd	$6,217,884	32	26
40	Fernando Morientes	Valência	$6,217,884	41	38
41	Lúcio	Bayern Munique	$6,141,120	39	35
42	Alessandro Del Piero	Juventus FC	$6,141,120	5	3
43	Franck Ribery	Bayern Munique	$6,141,120	3	5
44	Djibril Cisse	O.Marselha	$6,141,120	40	39
45	Harry Kewell	Liverpool FC	$6,141,120	50	49
46	Joe Cole	Chelsea FC	$5,987,592	23	21
47	Pedro Pauleta	Paris SG	$5,895,475	27	41
48	Juninho Pernanbucano	O.Lyon	$5,834,064	26	40
49	David Trezeguet	Juventus FC	$5,757,300	22	8
50	David Beckham	LA Galaxy	$5,757,300	29	27

(Remember, these rankings are based on last year, that's why Del Piero is 3rd and 5th in my and Jim's rankings respectively. Also, I thought Essien was hurt last year but apparently he wasn't.)

Summary

Jim and I agreed perfectly on:
Cristiano - 1 overall
Torres - 2nd
Rio Ferdinand - 11th
Raul - 31st

These players "pay" rankings are 10th, 6th, 18th, and 17th respectively making, no shockers here, Cristi and Rio Ferdinand the most undervalued players (that we agreed upon) and Raul the most overvalued player.

Jim and I agreed near perfectly (less than 2 rankings difference) on quite a few players:
Titi Henry, Ballack, Shevsucko, Gerrard, Totti, Carragher, Riise, Adriano, Zlatan, Willy Sagnol, Olver Kahn, Del Piero, Ribery, Cisse, Harry Kewell, Joe Cole and David Beckham

Here are the top 5 most "appropriately" paid players in our opinion:
Ryan Giggs, Fernando Morientes, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Samuel Eto'o

Top 5 most overpaid:
Shevchenko, Henry, Michael Owen, Sol Campbell, John Arne Risse

Top 5 most underpaid:
Franck Ribery, Del Piero, Ibrahimovic, Joe Cole, David Beckham

With regards to David Beckham I'll leave you with a line from Jay-Z. "Who the f%ck is overrated? If anything they underpaid him."



*Barcelona dismantles Manchester United
United beaten soundly
10,000 Red Devil fans injured in failed mass suicide