For all the criticism that Teenage Hadebe received while playing for Kaizer Chiefs, he has kept his career progressing moving to US dollar millionaire earnings at Houston Dynamo in the Major League Soccer (MLS).
The MLS Players Association has released their first salary guide for 2023 which lists base salary and guaranteed compensation information for all players under contract with MLS as of April 30.
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Xherdan Shaqiri – formerly with Liverpool – remains the top earner in the MLS on a base salary of USD 7.35 million (approx. R141 million) and guaranteed income of USD 8.153 million (approx. R157 million).
Other top earners are Lorenzo Insigne, Chicharito, Federico Bernardeschi, Sebastien Driussi, Hector Herrera, Douglas Costa, Luiz Araujo, Christian Benteke, and Josef Martinez who all get over R80 million per annum.
Of players with previous DStv Premiership history, Hadebe is leading the pack with a yearly guaranteed income of USD1.288 million (approx. R24.84 million).
This is the average annual guaranteed compensation which includes any marketing bonus and any agent's fee – both annualized over the term of the contract but don't include performance bonuses as there is no guarantee that the player will reach those bonuses.
These figures only include compensation from the players' contract with the MLS and don't include any earnings from any contracts with teams or their affiliates.
The Zimbabwe international is the third-highest earner at his club behind Hector Herrea and Sebastein Ferreira.
'Manero' as Hadebe is known also sits in the top 80 ranks of top earners in all the MLS.
Last year his earnings were at USD1.179 million (approx. R21.4 million) per year.
He was signed as a designated player from Turkish club Yeni Malatyaspor featured in July 2021 but is currently injured after undergoing surgery at the beginning of the month.
Njabulo Blom has made his entrance at USD338 250 (R6.5 million) which is guaranteed compensation.
His base salary is USD246 000 (approx. R4.74 million).
It is a huge improvement from what he was earning that at Chiefs where his contract issue became a subject of intense debate age which created friction between the club and his representatives.
Blom's club are the second lowest spenders in the league and in their debut season in the MLS playing as an expansion team.
There are other two South Africans playing in the MLS – Bongokuhle Hlongwane at Minnesota United and Tsiki Ntsabeleng of FC Dallas.
Hlongwane is on USD 610 000 (approx. R11.7 million) guaranteed income up from USD580 000 (approx. R11.1 million) per annum that he was on last year.
Ntsabeleng earns USD 85 440 (approx. R1.65 million) per annum up from USD65 500 (approx. R1,26 million) that he got last year.
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