According to reports from The Daily Mail, former Arsenal and Chelsea defender Ashley Cole is set to earn just £4k per week at LA Galaxy.
During his 566-game career in English football, the left-back won three Premier League titles, a record seven FA Cups, a Capital One Cup, a Europa League title and a Champions League title – whilst amassing 107 caps for the England national team.
Perhaps more importantly in the context of this article, he was left ‘trembling with anger’ after being offered a £55k per week contract by Arsenal in 2006 and pocketed around £200k per week during his eight seasons with Chelsea.
The 35-year-old agreed a move to LA Galaxy in January after managing just 16 appearances in 18 months with Roma, who he joined on a free transfer from Chelsea in summer 2014.
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And rather incredibly, The Daily Mail – who cite reports from LA Times – have revealed his MLS contract is worth just $300k in total, meaning the former Three Lions star will take home just £4k per week.
To put that into some perspective, Leicester City are hoping Ben Chilwell, a 19-year-old yet to make his Premier League debut, will sign a £8k per week contract at the King Power Stadium rather than force a summer move to Arsenal.
But the move to LA Galaxy, who have not registered Cole as one of their ‘designated players’, has essentially been facilitated by Roma, who agreed to buy out the remaining six months of his Stadio Olympico contract.
The MLS outfit have managed to sign Nigel de Jong and Jelle van Damme on similarly modest salaries – both $500k per year – by striking up similar deals with AC Milan and Standard Liege respectively.