Forget going into management. If you want a fat cat salary long before most executives make it into the boardroom, then football is the career of choice.
The average basic salary of a footballer in the English Premiership is £676,000 a year – that's £13,000 a week - according to a survey by The Independent newspaper. That figure can rise by up to 100 per cent when bonuses are added and represents a 65 per cent rise since 2000.
The number of Premiership players with basic pay of more than £1m per year has risen to around 150, or 29.5 per cent of top-flight players over the age of 20. The single highest-earning age group is 28-year-olds, with a basic average of £1.16m a year, or £22,300 per week. The highest-earning age bracket is 27 to 28-year-olds, with an average of £899,500 per year.
Wages also vary depending on the position they play, with strikers earning the highest wages at an average of £806,000 in the Premiership. Midfielders can expect to earn an average of £754,000, defenders £653,000 and goalkeepers a mere £533,000.
The Independent | £676,000: The average salary of a Premiership footballer in 2006