The Australian soccer/football players get paid USD6000 a match. They are one of the weakest team at this year's Fifa world cup but also one of the better paid teams too. This is according to an AFP news article I read today. It also stated they are due to pay cuts in the future.
Here is a lovely article by Bruce on Facebook:
[h=5]
Bruce H. Liu shared
Bay Area Table Tennis Federation's
photo.[/h]13 hours ago
No Money in Ping Pong? Part III
Did not expect to write a series on the topic when I wrote the first one but here you go. The photo is Zhou Xin with his brand-new Audi A5. Zhou Xin is a former Chinese National secondary team member who currently coaches full-time at ICC.
Part I
http://goo.gl/0gFVr4
Part II
http://goo.gl/wPT9Wn
Happened to chat with Zhou Xin the other day. I asked about what the situation was when he was in the team. Here is a summary of what he told me, written on a piece of restaurant napkin.
Luxurious car list: (Just on top of Zhou Xin’s head. Some have been mentioned in I or II)
- Cai Zhenhua: Audi A8
- Zhang Jike: Had a Maserati before but traded it in for a Bentley and BMW X6.
- Zhang Chao: A Porsche
- Li Ping: Porsche
- Ma Lin: Porsche Cayenne
- Liu Guoliang: Audi Q7
- Kong Linghui: Audi S8
- Xu Xin: BMW M3
- Ma Long: BMW 650
- Guo Yue: BMW 750
- Li Xiaoxia: Land Rover
- Wang Liqin: Doesn’t own a car. Zhou said that Wang probably gets around just fine.
Note that imported cars in China are significantly more expensive than in the USA.
As for Super League salary (in US$), Zhou Xin estimated that about 25 of them receive over $116K. The lowest probably starts from $36K. This figure is the base salary for the 3-month season. There are also winning bonus starting at $850 per match. For critical matches the winning bonus can be doubled.
In addition to the salary, top played get commercial endorsement too. Some deals can get ludicrous. Players also have chances to be invited to play in commercial tournaments. For second or third tier (in China standard) players, the appearance fee can be a pretty good supplemental income.
However, making big bucks is not easy. Here is a typical week of Zhou Xin’s life before he left the team.
Monday - Friday (Except Thursday afternoon which is a break for everyone)
- 7:00 AM: Wake up for breakfast.
- 8:15 AM: Get on the bus, provided by the National Team, from the dorm to the training facility.
- 8:30 AM: One player leads a 20-minute warmup. Coach gives a speech.
- 9:30 AM: The training starts.
- 11:30 AM: 30-minute fitness training.
- 12:00 PM: Lunch and go back to the dorm for break.
- 3:15 PM: Get on the bus to go back to the training facility.
- 3:30 PM: Start the afternoon training.
- 6:20 PM: The official training is over. However, most players continue to train on their own, with coaches, or with their own partners.
- 7:10 PM: Get on the last bus going back to the dorm.
Saturday morning
- Match play (giant round robin or some other formats)
- 2:00 PM: Go to track and field court for physical training, most of time with a professional trainer. This is what Zhou Xin dislikes most. Puking is not unusual.
- 3:30/4:00 PM: Finished.
Sunday is supposed to be a break day. However, almost everyone stays to train “voluntarily” in the morning.
This is for the Chinese National Team 2. According to Zhou, Team 1 trains less on the table and spends more time on the physical training. It gets even tougher in the closed training before major tournaments.
So, you want to earn big bucks? Can you handle the training?
-End-
I've send him the training schedule for CNT B womens team, which is also similar to mens team, just that the one I have included academic studies in it too, and training goes into the evening.
In deed not easy to train full time and fight with players from 30 provinces to make the national b team, yet along national a team.
But again, this is China, we have heard some salaries of other sports, but we haven't heard of TT players in other countries.
For Zhou Xin above, he is earning money as a coach now, not as a player.