Every year the Russian sports site Sports.ru publishes a list of the best-paid players from the Russian Premier League, and this year was no exception. The numbers on the list includes bonuses and sign-on-fees, which are split into the amount of years the contract runs. For example, Artyom Dzyuba earns €3 million euros annually for Zenit on a five-year contract, but when he signed, he received a sign-on-fee of €3 million, which split into his five-year contract gives him an annual wage on €3.6 million.
Since the ruble crisis last winter, most clubs have changed their wage policies and the majority of the players are now being paid in rubles instead of euros or American dollars.
Looking at the 70 best paid players in Russia, several things spring to mind. First of all, it is very clear that Zenit is by far the richest club in the country with five of the ten best paid players plying their trade in St. Petersburg. Furthermore, Zenit and Spartak are the two clubs with most players on the list with 14 each. The big difference is however, that Spartak’s best-paid players earn €2.7 million per year, which is less than seven different Zenit players.
It is also interesting just how far CSKA’s best players, Igor Akinfeev and Seydou Doumbia, are from the top earners. The list confirms that CSKA have been incredible skillful in signing cheap players and developing them into stars, which is proved by the fact that Bibras Natcho, Alan Dzagoev and Zoran Tosic are all to be found at the bottom of the list.
The same can be said about FC Krasnodar who aren’t paying anyone more than €2 million despite having eight players on the list. Krasnodar and CSKA’s recent success combined with Spartak’s failures clearly proves that spending a lot of money on salaries isn’t enough.
Another thing that comes to mind, is the amount of players with high salaries who aren’t playing for their clubs. Igor Denisov, the 6th best earner in the league, Mbark Boussoufa, 8th, Christopher Samba, 12th, Aleksandr Kerzhakov, number 13 and Alexander Büttner, 55th, and, are all playing on the second team of their clubs after falling out with their coaches or clubs. Furthermore, Manuel Fernandes, the 9th best paid player, hasn’t played much for Lokomotiv since he joined them last summer, and he can easily be considered a costly failure for the Railroaders.
What is also interesting is the fact that Anton Shunin, the backup goalkeeper for Dinamo Moscow, earns more than Vladimir Gabulov the first choice between the posts. Shunin extended his contract with Dinamo earlier this year, and the otherwise financially struggling club clearly paid him well for that. The 27 year old Shunin was Dinamo’s first choice between 2011 and 2013, but has only played nine league games in the past three seasons.
It is also worth noticing that both the two Kombarovs and the two Berezutskiys are earning the same, despite there being significant difference in the amount of playing time between the brothers. Dmitri Kombarov has for a long time been a key player for both Spartak and the Russian national team, while his twin brother Kirill has struggled more and last season played on loan at Torpedo. The same can be said about the Berezutskiy twins, where Vasiliy has been the first choice in the central defence for more than ten years, while Aleksey has been moved around and currently spends most of his time on the bench.
While it has often been repeated that the limit on foreign players elevates the salaries of the Russian players to an unrealistic level, it is interesting that only two Russian players are among the ten best players in the league. The numbers show that the best paid Russian players are to be found in the level below the biggest stars. Here, relatively mediocre players like Aleksandr Anyukov, Evgeniy Makeev and Dmitri Torbinski are however paid very well.
The biggest difference from this year’s list compared to last season is that Dinamo’s Kevin Kuranyi, who earned €5.7 million is now gone. Looking further back, to the list from 2011, it becomes very clear that the salary level of the league has raised a lot. In 2011, Kuranyi was the best paid player in the country, while Danny from Zenit with his annual salary of €3.4 million was the second best, while Andriy Voronin from Dinamo with €3 million was third. Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Gökdeniz Karadeniz and Salvatore Bocchetti’s €2.1 million was enough for them to finish in 10th place, while it this year would have placed them as number 30.
Numbers of players on the list:
Zenit and Spartak: 14
CSKA: 11
Dinamo: 10
Krasnodar: 8
Lokomotiv: 7
Rubin: 5
Anzhi: 1
The top salaries in the Russian Premier League:
1: Hulk, Zenit €7 million
2=: Aleksandr Kokorin, Dinamo €5 million
2=: Ezequiel Garay, Zenit €5 million
4: Javi Garcia, Zenit €4.5 million
5: Vedran Corluka, Lokomotiv €4.4 million
6=: Igor Denisov, Dinamo €4 million
6=: Axel Witsel, Zenit €4 million
8: Mbark Boussoufa, Lokomotiv €3.9 million
9: Manuel Fernandes, Lokomotiv €3.8 million
10: Artyom Dzyuba, Zenit €3.6 million
11: Danny, Zenit €3.4 million
12: Christopher Samba, Dinamo €3.3 million
13: Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Zenit €3 million
14=: Salvatore Bocchetti, Spartak €2.7 million
14=: Roman Shirokov, Spartak €2.7 million
16=: Igor Akinfeev, CSKA €2.5 million
16=: Gökdeniz Karadeniz, Rubin €2.5 million
16=: Aleksandr Samedov, Lokomotiv €2.5 million
16=: Yura Movsisyan, Spartak €2.5 million
16=: Oleg Shatov, Zenit €2.5 million
16=: Seydou Doumbia, CSKA €2.5 million
22=: Roman Eremenko, CSKA €2.4 million
22=: Dmitriy Tarasov, Lokomotiv €2.4 million
24: Yuri Zhirkov, Dinamo €2.3 million
25=: Serdar Tasci, Spartak €2.2 million
25=: Carlos Eduardo, Rubin €2.2 million
25=: Domenico Criscito, Zenit €2.2 million
25=: Igor Smolnikov, Zenit €2.2 million
25=: Viktor Faizulin, Zenit €2.2 million
30=: Sergei Ignashevich, CSKA €2 million
30=: Ahmed Musa, CSKA €2 million
30=: Sergei Ryzhikov, Rubin €2 million
30=: Artur Yusupov, Zenit €2 million
30=: Aleksandr Anyukov, Zenit €2 million
30=: Luis Neto, Zenit €2 million
30=: Aras Özbiliz, Spartak €2 million
30=: Vladimir Granat, Spartak €2 million
30=: Dmitri Kombarov, Spartak €2 million
30=: Kirill Kombarov, Spartak €2 million
30=: Andreas Granqvist, Krasnodar €2 million
30=: Charles Kabore, Krasnodar €2 million
30=: Guilherme, Lokomotiv €2 million
44=: Vasiliy Berezutskiy, CSKA €1.9 million
44=: Aleksey Berezutskiy, CSKA €1.9 million
46=: Denis Glushakov, Spartak €1.8 million
46=: Fedor Smolov, Krasnodar €1.8 million
46=: Marko Devic, Rubin €1.8 million
46=: Ivelin Popov, Spartak €1.8 million
46=: Vladimir Bystrov, Krasnodar €1.8 million
46=: Tomas Hubocan, Dinamo €1.8 million
46=: Mario Fernandes, CSKA €1.8 million
46=: Oleg Kuzmin, Rubin €1.8 million
46=: Ilya Maksimov, Anzhi €1.8 million
55=: Alexander Büttner, Dinamo €1.7 million
55=: Odil Akhmedov, Krasnodar €1.7 million
55=: Evgeniy Makeev, Spartak €1.7 million
58=: Pavel Mamaev, Krasnodar €1.6 million
58=: Zoran Tosic, CSKA €1.6 million
58=: Anton Shunin, Dinamo €1.6 million
61=: Ari, Krasnodar, €1.5 million
61=: Dmitri Torbinski, Krasnodar €1.5 million
61=: Sergei Parshivlyuk, Spartak €1.5 million
61=: Quincy Promes, Spartak €1.5 million
61=: Romulo, Spartak €1.5 million
61=: Alan Dzagoev, CSKA €1.5 million
61=: Bibras Natcho, CSKA €1.5 million
61=: Aleksey Kozlov, Dinamo €1.5 million
61=: Vladimir Gabulov, Dinamo €1.5 million
61=: Pavel Pogrebnyak, Dinamo €1.5 million
61=: Nemanja Pejcinovic, Lokomotiv €1.5 million
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