Ligue 1 – Fabregas, Kurzawa, Icardi: The top 10 players with the most out of step with sporting reality

It’s a number that scares sporting directors and presidents every year. But who is expected by the supporters of each club, by the agents and players of Ligue 1. This Tuesday, L’Equipe publishes its traditional survey on championship salaries. We discover in particular the Top 10 of the highest salaries by club. But also frankly unexpected sums for some. Here is a selection.

10) Alvaro Gonzalez (OM): 240,000 euros

From locker room manager to clinging undesirable: in one summer, Alvaro Gonzalez’s status has changed a lot. The Spanish central defender, who arrived at La Canebière in 2019, will have long been an irremovable soldier of the eleven, even following the arrival of Jorge Sampaoli at OM. Well at the club, he even signed a contract extension until 2024 last May, making him one of the best salaries in the Marseille locker room (he is now 9th in the hierarchy).

League 1

Goal de filou, the Rennes show, the helplessness of Pochettino … The Tops and Flops of the 29th day

YESTERDAY AT 11:47 PM

But the summer passed by. And the Spaniard’s playing time has melted like snow in the sun. In the cold with Jorge Sampaoli, who notably prefers William Saliba, Luan Peres and Duje Caleta-Car, the former Espanyol had been encouraged to leave for the winter transfer window. He had resisted. Still, with a comfortable salary, far from his status as a rotation player (11 matches this season), he will be one of the main players in Pablo Longoria’s sights to leave the club and free up the payroll.

Alvaro Gonzalez, OM defender

Credit: Getty Images

9) Anthony Limbombe (Nantes): 100,000 euros

The symbol of the chaotic management, behind the scenes, of FC Nantes. To date, Anthony Limbombe, landed in 2018 from Belgium, remains the biggest transfer in the history of FC Nantes (8 million euros). But it has now been two years since the Belgian, who arrived on the advice of Mogi Bayat, the influential agent who whispers in Waldemar Kita’s ear, has not played a professional minute with the Canaries.

Discarded by Antoine Kombouaré for sporting criteria, he remains on the sidelines of the group despite the formal notice sent by the LFP’s legal commission to the Nantes club. His salary of 100,000 euros gross monthly makes him one of the best paid players in the locker room, just like Jean-Kévin Augustin. In particular in front of a Ludovic Blas (80,000) yet essential to the smooth running of the Canaries. The concern for Nantes? Limbombe still has a contract until June 2023…

8) Cédric Bakambu (OM): 400,000 euros

It is probably still a little early to judge the arrival of Cédric Bakambu at OM during the last winter transfer window (11 matches, 3 goals). Free of any contract, the former Sochalien will have cost nothing to the Marseille club in terms of transfer compensation. But his XXL salary makes him the 24th highest paid player in the elite but above all the best paid in the Marseille locker room alongside Arkadiusz Milik, who nevertheless has other international references.

This is probably forgetting too quickly where Bakambu comes from. Recruited at a golden price by BJ Guoan in January 2018 (40 million euros), the Marseille striker saw his salary soar during his stay in China. Result: to bring him in, Longoria had to negotiate dry, including postponing part of his salary at the end of the season. Nevertheless, seeing Bakambu better paid than Dimitri Payet or William Saliba is still surprising.

Cédric Bakambu celebrates his goal during the match between Lens and Marseille, January 22, 2022 in Ligue 1

Credit: Getty Images

7) Georginio Wijnaldum : 916 000 euros

He is undoubtedly one of the most discreet recruits of the Parisian off-season. Where Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos concentrate criticism and polarize opinions, Georginio Wijnaldum almost slips through the cracks despite a frankly complicated season, in line with his last exercise with the Reds. The Dutchman, landed free in the summer and therefore with a nice signing bonus, in particular to get ahead of FC Barcelona in the file, has a salary equivalent to that of Gianluigi Donnarumma.

His passage through the rich Premier League explains this XXL salary but does not hide his insufficient contribution this season (31 matches, 3 goals). He never seemed able to embody a full-fledged holder in Mauricio Pochettino’s eleven. Praised for his volume of play under Jürgen Klopp, Wijnaldum has clearly regressed. Quite the opposite of his salary…

Zidane, Conte and the others: But who still wants to coach PSG?

6) Adil Aouchiche : 180 000 euros

He was one of Claude Puel’s war prizes in the summer of 2020. In the midst of a pandemic, the ASSE coach put pressure on his leaders to obtain the signing of a professional contract for Adil Aouchiche, who had decided to leave PSG. Result: it is with a substantial progressive salary (between 80 and 100,000 euros in his third year) and a crazy signing bonus for an 18-year-old kid (4 million) that the Forez club snatches the nugget. But where ASSE thought it might amortize this sum over five years by quickly extending the player under the same conditions, this never happened.

Result, two years later, the bet is missed. Rotation player under Pascal Dupraz, the playmaker pays for disappointing performances (2 goals for the Greens in two seasons) and is slow to materialize the expectations around him. However, it continues to weigh heavily in the payroll of Greens still not sure of being in L1 next year.

Adil Aouchiche, AS Saint-Etienne midfielder, during the Ligue 1 match once morest Lorient, August 8, 2021

Credit: Getty Images

5) Julian Draxler : 562 000 euros

He lives on the memory of six successful months, just following his arrival in January 2017. Since then, Julian Draxler has been an insoluble enigma: where did the elegant leader of Schalke 04 go? The one who assumed, for a time, the role of technical leader of the Mannschaft? No one has ever found an answer to this question, even if Mauricio Pochettino believed in it for a while, just following his arrival.

This was enough to offer the German, who enjoys the capital, an unexpected contract extension in May 2021. At PSG, Draxler has the 17th salary in the locker room, almost in line with his place in the workforce. Still, for an offensive player, his contribution is minimal (2 goals and 2 assists this season). At this price, we are entitled to expect a little more.

Julian Draxler with PSG

Credit: Imago

4) Laywin Kurzawa: 500 000 euros

For him too, the extension of his contract at PSG was a miracle from heaven. Arrived in 2015 at PSG with the label of a future international in power, a framework in the making, Kurzawa has never ceased to disappoint at PSG. So, in the summer of 2020, at the end of his initial contract, he seemed promised to leave through the back door. Leonardo’s concern regarding a transfer window disrupted by the Covid played in his favor.

Thus, the Parisian sports director did not hesitate to shield a double, by increasing his salary, for fear of finding himself without possibility during the summer. Results ? Kurzawa is still there and, this season, has only played nine minutes of play. The result of disastrous management by Leonardo. “I myself was surprised“, explained the left-hander at the Figaro in October 2020. He is not the only one.

3) Cesc Fabregas : 600 000 euros

A resounding name, a princely salary and minimal playing time. This is how to sum up the situation of Cesc Fabregas (34 years old) at AS Monaco. The Spaniard has the second highest salary in Monaco, the 18th on the scale of Ligue 1. But he no longer has much to do with the delicious midfielder who made the heyday of Arsenal and the FC Barcelona.

The physical glitches encountered in recent years have taken him a little further away from the intensity demanded in current football. So he tries to help as he can, advising the youngest in the workforce and already preparing a career as a logical coach in view of the player he is. At the end of the contract next June, it should not be extended by the Monegasque board, barring a huge surprise. He will then be 35 years old. Time to hang up?

Cesc Fabregas during the friendly match Real Sociedad – Monaco (2-1)

Credit: Getty Images

2) Sergio Ramos: €791,000

One of the greatest awards in history for one of the best defenders of the 21st century. When PSG decided to offer Sergio Ramos the golden contract refused to him by Real Madrid, the historical argument played out. It was last July and the Parisian club launched a transfer window as ambitious as it was risky. Because when he arrived injured in the capital, the 35-year-old defender did not yet know if he might return to the expected physical level.

The answer came quickly: we had to wait until November to see him with the Parisian jersey. All in all, the former captain of Real Madrid played five small matches with PSG. Under these conditions, it is difficult to make him a leader in the Parisian locker room, able to bring the character that PSG lacked so much at Santiago-Bernabéu. At almost 36, his future at the highest level remains unclear. And the Parisian club, which offered him a two-year contract, finds itself with a hot file (one more) on its hands for the coming summer.

Leonardo and Al-Khelaïfi overwhelmed? “As long as PSG builds on the whims of Doha…”

1) Mauro Icardi: 800 000 euros

He is arguably Leonardo’s biggest failure at PSG. The one who will be blamed for him in the first place in the event of departure this summer. Mauro Icardi is undoubtedly the most beautiful symbol of what has gone wrong within the Parisian club in recent years. Definitively bought in 2020 despite his sparing use by Thomas Tuchel during the second part of the 2019-2020 season, Mauro Icardi weighs heavily in the Parisian locker room with the club’s 11th salary, ahead of those of Leandro Paredes, Presnel Kimpembe or Idrissa Gueye.

Concern ? The Argentinian has become unsaleable with such emoluments, out of step with his minimal contribution to the field (5 goals in 29 matches but for how many ghostly performances?). His solid gold contract does not expire until June 2024 and it is difficult to see how PSG might get out of a permanently bogged down file.

Icardi, autopsy of Leonardo’s biggest mistake

League 1

Galtier on the penalty controversy: “If there is the same fault on Milik…”

YESTERDAY AT 11:36 PM

League 1

Guirassy, ​​Ben Yedder, Sotoca… Vote for the best player of the 29th day

YESTERDAY AT 11:21 PM