Mourinho To Become The Highest Paid Manager In Premier League History!

With players, we care about the fees and the salaries, often tying that to ticket prices, television contracts, and the club’s overall spending. We rarely do the same for coaches or executives, though given how much Mourinho will make over the next four years, we probably should.

Mourinho was pulling in over $15 million per season to manage the Merengues, a figure that will get a noticeable bump after he returns to West London.. If The Times of London’s reporting is correct, the soon-to-be re-Chelsea’d boss will earn closer to $19 million per year in his return to Stamford Bridge.

As relayed from Business Week, The Times is reporting Mourinho’s new deal will be worth £50 million over four years, or around $75-76 million dollars. England’s tax rate takes a big chunk out of that, but even after giving around $6 million to the crown, Mourinho will pocket well over $12 million per year. That keeps him well ahead of Carlo Ancelotti, Marcelo Lippi and Guus Hiddink as the highest paid coaches in world soccer.

To put that in perspective, let’s go back in time, all the way back to our previous post about an hour ago. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the elite talents in the world’s game, is making around $18 million per year. It’s a bit of a loaded comparison, given “Ibra” is having all his taxes covered by PSG, but it does provide some perspective. Expect for the ultra right-end, point-one percenters in the player market, José Mourinho is making more than anybody in the game.

So it goes without saying Mourinho, after he’s allowed to leave Real Madrid this week, will become the highest-paid coach in the history of the Premier League, a status that would normally lead to high expectations and huge accountability. Despite a trophy-less season that ended in a Copa del Rey flameout, the Portuguese boss will be tasked with recreating the magic that won Chelsea two Premier League titles after his 2004 arrival.

With The Special One, those expectations were always going to be in place, regardless the cost. Yet whereas sums like “Torres, £50 million” are tossed around frequently when evaluating players, don’t expect Mourinho’s price to be thrown back in his face. For the most part, we don’t care how much clubs are paying their coaches.

Street-Kid Turned Vulcanizer Makes N5,000 Daily

About 13 years ago, Samuel Tanimola ran away from home in Ifo, Ogun State, at the age of 10 years. He came to Lagos and settled down in Dopemu area of the state.

Tanimola, who is now a vulcaniser, told our correspondent that he was fed up with the living condition at home.

However, things were not as easy as he had hoped. He had no friend and knew nobody in the new place he found himself, yet he had to feed.

Tanimola joined hordes of street children roaming the streets and feeding through the use of their wits until he was eventually arrested by the Environmental Task force on Special Offences in 2004.

He said, "I ran away because I was not happy at home; it was a polygamous setting and my mum was not living with us.

"Although things were tough on the street, it was better than home. I even tried to escape when the police raided Dopemu that day. They grabbed as many of us as they could lay hands on and took us to the remand home at Oregun. I was so scared that I imagined the worst."

For two years, Tanimola remained at the Oregun Juvenile Centre under close supervision without any contact with the outside world.

Then in March 2006, Tanimola was transferred to the Correctional Centre for Senior Boys, Isheri, where he stayed another three years.

He said, "The centre at Isheri was much better than the one in Oregun. We were allowed to go out and then return to the centre. But at Oregun, we could not go out. It was while I was staying at Isheri that I decided to learn a trade and become a vulcanizer. I have no interest in school."

PUNCH Metro learnt that Tanimola was reunited with his family in 2009. His father did not, however, return to the centre after his first visit until November 2010, when his son was formally empowered to become self reliant.

Now 23 years, Tanimola plies his trade at the Vehicle Inspection Office at Ojodu, a place which he secured through the efforts of a permanent secretary at the Lagos State Ministry of Youths, Sports and Social Development.

He said, "I have moved out of the centre; I now live at Akute. Business is good; there are just two of us here. On a good day, I make as much as N5,000; sometimes N3,000, and on some days, nothing at all.

"On the whole, I can take care of myself. I used to think that it was over for me but now I am happy."

The Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Youths, Sports and Social Development, Dr. Enitan Badru, said, "About 10 to 20 children come into our correctional centres monthly- most of them minors, caught roaming the streets or even committing crimes. Those caught committing crimes, usually face the justice system.

"These children often run away from home or were brought to Lagos by relatives. Others, fed up with life in the village, heard of a place called Lagos and got into a bus to come here, sleeping under the bridges and motor parks.

"When these children are brought in, we try to trace their families and reunite them. When we are not able to do that, we go to the courts and secure the right to keep the child and find the best means to help the child live a fulfilled life."

He said Tanimola was an example of the fact that street children could be made to become useful citizens with love and patience.