When Lionel Messi (Inter Miami), Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), and Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich) switched teams, their clubs disclosed the “minimum” length of their contracts. Miami announced that it had “signed Messi until 2025.” PSG’s website said, “We have signed Lee Kang-in until 2028.” “We have signed Kim Min-jae until 2028,” Munich wrote on its website. The clubs took a photo with the player in a jersey with the last year of his contract.
While the clubs did not directly announce salaries or transfer fees, the general terms of the deals were revealed by club executives, media reports, and player ransom sites. “Messi’s salary is between $50 million and $60 million,” Miami president Jorge Mas said. The media estimated the transfer fee for Lee at €22 million, with reports of a 20% cut. Munich’s buyout to Napoli was reported to be €50 million and his annual salary €12 million.
A popular site that covers soccer player transfer fees, market values, and more is TransferMarkt. If you search for Messi, Lee Kang-in, or Kim Min-jae, you’ll see their market value by year, transfer type, and transfer fee. Messi made both of his transfers as a free agent. For Lee Kang-in, the transfer fee was €22 million and his contract runs until June 30, 2028. A search for Kim Min-jae shows a transfer fee of €50 million and a contract expiration date of June 30, 2028. If you go to a paid site that specializes in analyzing salaries, it breaks down the salaries, base salaries, and bonuses of world-class players. According to this site, Lee Kang-in earns €7.27 million and Kim Min-jae earns €12 million. Messi’s contract with Miami runs through December 31, 2025, and he makes $54 million a year. Most of the terms of these contracts are publicly available, even for world-class players.
But in Korean professional soccer, everything is private. Only signings and transfers are announced. Even the contract periods that were announced in the past are now hidden. Transfer fees and salaries are all private. The only time the K League releases salaries is at the end of the year. Only a few of the highest-paid players in the entire K League are announced, but the majority of players’ salaries are not disclosed. New contracts signed at the beginning of the year are not disclosed at all, so you can’t compare a player’s performance, salary, and transfer fee throughout the new season. If you ask the club, you’ll get a response like “we have a mutual agreement not to disclose” or “it’s private information”. Clubs say it’s hard to manage players when their salaries are publicly available. The reasoning is that if a rich club or a foreign club wants a player, there’s nothing they can do about it. It’s like saying they don’t understand the business of soccer.
Even the best players in the world have publicly available contracts, salaries, and transfer fees. The buyout amount is rarely disclosed. However, the terms of Korean professional soccer players’ contracts are hidden. Even if you search for K-Leaguers on TransferMarkt, most of them do not specify the contract period or transfer fee. In the case of European players, the information appears when they play in Europe, but there is no information after they arrive in Korea.온라인바카라
The KFA and professional clubs are reluctant to disclose the terms of their contracts. It is not uncommon to buy and sell players in soccer, where the entire world operates as a single market. They know that trying to hide information will not help them in transfer negotiations and salary negotiations. Although it is correct to hide contract terms for privacy reasons. Does the fact that the salaries of Korean baseball, basketball, and volleyball players, as well as world stars in various sports, are publicized mean that their privacy is not important? Are they hiding the terms of their contracts in order to get back money or to make an unusual contract, as the public suspects?