It was announced yesterday by Liverpool that Schalke defender Joel Matip has signed a pre-contract agreement with the Reds and will move to Merseyside in the summer on a free transfer.
However, as we all know, nothing is ever really free in football, there’s always a price to pay.
When a sought-after player is able to leave his club after running down his contract, he often gets the added bonus of a huge signing-on fee as the buying club obviously don’t have to pay a transfer fee.
Instead, the money goes to the player and in the case of Matip, ESPN suggest via Bild that he will be paid a signing-on fee of €5million (approximately £3.8million).
Furthermore, he will receive €7million (approximately £5.4million) in wages per year, which works out at roughly £103,000-a-week.
Therefore, suggestions that he is being brought in as a backup option are probably wide of the mark as it would be nonsensical to pay a reserve option such a huge salary.
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