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Hope Solo doesn’t seem to ever be lacking in confidence, and when her former women’s soccer league folded, she considered another option. And that option shows that she really believes in herself.
“I thought about it (playing in a men’s league) when our league folded,” Solo told Goal.com. “I thought about playing for a lower-division men’s club team in St. Louis.”
Stateside it’s easy to think of professional soccer as being on the lower end of pro sports profits. But step outside the USA and you’ll quickly see that the sport of the world generates billions upon billions of income annually. While there are countless clubs across the world that have to pinch pennies to afford even the cost of soccer braces for their players, the teams of industrialized nations – mainly those in Europe – can afford the top talent and pay top salaries. As a testament to this, here’s a countdown of the twelve professional soccer managers with the highest annual salaries, courtesy of FutebolFinance.com:
12. David Moyes – Everton – Barclays Premier League
€3,600,000 ($4,718,006)
11. Luis Felipe Scolari – Palmeiras – Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
€3,600,000 ($4,718,006)
10. Harry Redknapp – Tottenham – Barclays Premier League
€4,700,000 ($6,160,458)
9. Arsene Wenger – Arsenal – Barclay’s Premier League
€4,700,000 ($6,160,458)
8. Kenny Dalglish – Liverpool – Barclays Premier League
€4,800,000 ($6,291,711)
7. Alex Ferguson – Manchester United – Barclays Premier League
€4,800,000 ($6,291,711)
6. Jupp Heynckes – Bayern Munich – Bundesliga
€5,000,000 ($6,554,376)
5. Carlo Ancelotti – Paris Saint-German – Ligue 1
€ 5,900,000 ($7,734,024)
4. Roberto Mancini – Manchester City – Barclays Premier League
€6,000,000 ($7,865,625)
3. Guus Hiddink – Anzhi Makhachkala – Russian Premier League
€7,500,000 ($9,830,484)
2. Pep Guardiola – Barcelona – La Liga
€7,500,000 ($9,830,484)
1. Jose Mourinho – Real Madrid – La Liga
€10,000,000 ($13,109,188)
For comparison, Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots is the highest paid coach in the NFL at an annual salary of $7,500,000.
After the jump, you can see a photo of USA women’s soccer player Alex Morgan with a Barça jersey. And a video interview.
She also expressed her support on the FC Barcelona website:
The star of Team USA has been visiting the club, which she says are her favourite team, because “they do magic on the field. I’m so happy to see them get as many trophies as they have”
Morgan, who played in a charity match in Washington during the US Tour, tries to catch as many Barça games on TV as she can.
Is that any way to treat a knight? Don’t you know the rules when passing a scoreboard over a Sir?
Legendary Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson got an unexpected and uncomfortable surprise on his lap during this English Premier League match.
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Alex Morgan and her U.S. Women’s National Teammates took on Japan for the first time since that epic extra time World Cup final. Unfortunately, the result was the same.
Megumi Takase scored in the 86th minute to lead Japan to a 1-0 victory against the U.S. women’s soccer team Monday in Portugal.
Morgan tweeted after the game: “Tough loss… We can learn a lot as a team and individuals from this game. Thanks for all the support.”
On the heels of yesterday’s deal with the Chicago White Sox, the University of Illinois and Chicago Fire Soccer Club have formed a cross-promotional partnership where Illini fans will receive special offers for Fire events, including pre-arranged behind-the-scene tours of Toyota Stadium and unique events like breakfast in the clubhouse.
Illini fans who purchase Fire season tickets by visiting here, will see 20 percent of the proceeds benefiting the University of Illinois Athletics IFUND. The purpose of the IFUND is to cultivate and prepare Illinois student-athletes to be leaders in industry, business and community.
U.S. national team goalkeeper Hope Solo signed with the Seattle Sounders women two weeks ago. Her previous team, the St. Petersburg Magic Jack or Magic the Gathering or something folded. And Solo will soon have her most famous and photogenic World Cup teammate joining her in Seattle.
The Sounders women announced Monday they have signed star forward Alex Morgan for the 2012 season.
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When it was announced that Alex Morgan would appear in the SI Swimsuit issue in a bikini of just body paint the internet went ablaze. The picture (which you can see here) made the rounds rather fast and we quickly wondered who the other two women would be joining the immensely popular U.S. Women’s National soccer team star.
One of them, LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis just blew the other two out of the water with her shoot.
You’ve head the expression “celebrities die in threes.” But have you ever heard of a soccer player’s goals coinciding with a a celebrity death? on four separate instances no less.
British tabloid The Sun has identified a strange series of coincidences linked to Premier League team Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey. When Ramsey scores a goal, someone famous dies.
Ramsey has scored four goals in the last year. When he scored his first goal against Manchester United on May 1, the next day Osama Bin Laden was shot by US Navy SEALS.
Alex Morgan tweeted this out yesterday. A pic of her and soccer team mate Whitney Engen taking an ice bath.
Enjoy after the jump
The internet is all ablaze with the SI swimsuit issue picture of Alex Morgan in a body paint bikini. Reminiscent of when her U.S. soccer teammate Hope Solo did the ESPN magazine Body Issue. Women’s USA soccer is once again back in the media spotlight.
Three female athletes will appear in Sports Illustrated‘s Swimsuit issue, which comes out next Tuesday, Feb. 14. The trio will be part of the popular “bodypaint” feature. One of the athletes featured is U.S. women’s soccer star Alex Morgan. Yes, Alex Morgan literally wearing nothing, but a “painted on” bikini- HOTTTTT! And I’m making you read the whole post to see this one.
And the internet is buzzing all over about it. The picture after the jump is a sneak peek of what’s to come in the issue. SI.com’s Hot Clicks touched base with Morgan to get her thoughts on the big event. (For more info, follow Swimsuit on Twitter and Facebook.)
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