Coaches: Getting What You Pay For?

If you wonder what World Cup coaches are worth ... here is a not-quite complete list of what they are being paid.

This originated in the Spanish daily newspaper Marca (presumably rendered in euros), then went to the Guardian in England (rendered in pounds sterling), and that is where I saw it.

And now we convert it from pounds into dollars.

Note: Five of the six nations deemed most likely to win at South Africa 2010 ... are in the top six in the coach pay scale.

The contender not in the top six in the salary standings? Brazil. Coach Dunga is 11th. Maybe the theory there is that anyone can coach Brazil.

The list:

Fabio Capello, England, $9.93 million

Marcelo Lippi, Italy, $3 million

Bert van Marwijk, Netherlands, $2.71 million

Otmar Hitzfeld, Switzerland, $2.61 million

Joachim Loew, Germany, $2.31 million

Vicente del Bosque, Spain, $2.21 million

Carlos Quieroz, Portugal, $2.01 million

Pim Verbeek, Australia, $1.99 million

Javier Aguirre, Mexico, $1.81 million

Carlos Alberto Parreira, South Africa, $1.81 million

Dunga, Brazil, $1.23 million

Diego Maradona, Argentina, $1.21 million

Takeshi Okada, Japan, $1.21 million

Ricki Herbert, New Zealand, $1.121 million

Otto Rehhegel, Greece, $1.15 million

Paul Le Guen, Cameroon, $960,000

Marcelo Bielsa, Chile, $853,000

Vahid Halilhodzic, Ivory Coast, $743,000

Raymond Domenech, France, $723,000

Huh Jung-moo, South Korea, $603,000

Note: The only non-threat to win the Jules Rimet Trophy among the top six earners is Hitzfeld (Switzerland). And the only serious contender outside the top 10 is Dunga.

Look at how much more England pays Capello than any other nation pays its coach. Will England get full value? (Anything less that a championship, it would seem.) Or might it been able to find someone competent (perhaps even Fabio himself) for maybe half what it is lavishing on him?

Note, also, how little France pays Domenech. Perhaps that explains his longevity despite what appears to be near-universal national loathing.

Also interesting: How much non-elite Australia and New Zealand pay their coaches.

Verbeek is a guy with some chops, but who knew Australia the Soccer Nation had that kind of cash to lavish on the Dutchman? And New Zealand? It doesn't have a serious pro league ... but it can spend more money on Ricki Herbert than Otto Rehhegel gets from Greece? Herbert's job involved mashing the minnows in Oceania, then beating Bahrain. Meanwhile, Rehhegel already has a Euro Cup championship (2004) on his resume and survived a tough European qualifying campaign and led his team to a home-and-home playoffs victory over the Ukraine.

Go figure. Rehhegel probably was trying to figure it out, when he saw the list.

If anyone has salary information on coaches not listed, above (such as Bob Bradley of the United States), feel free to let us know.