Sam Johnson: Consider financial rewards before signing for clubs
Ex-Black Stars player, Sam Johnson, has advised Ghanaian players to be motivated to join foreign clubs purely on financial rewards than the mere stature of the particular league.
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He is of the opinion that playing in a less-fancied league that pays well is much beneficial than plying one's trade in top European leagues that only exposes a player to the whole world but with low remuneration.
He told the Graphic Sports in an interview that in our society where retiree footballers who become dependent on society are considered worthless, he would not advice any player to put stature of a league over financial gains.
''If you get a lucrative deal to the Saudi Arabian league for instance and you say you don’t like it because it's a less known league, but you want to play in a top European league, you will retire and come home with virtually nothing.
''As for me, if a Ghanaian is even going to play in the Bangladesh league, I don’t care provided they would pay him well because at the end of the day if he retires and make all the name but without money, people won't respect him.
''A lot of people have made names for themselves in this country but because they don’t have money, people don’t respect them. How are they honouring our big men in football, what kind of respect do we give them?, but if they are rich, they are respected," he said.
The former Fenerbahce star observed that these days, younger players are accorded more respect than senior ones because they have money now.
''Even now they respect junior players more than senior ones because they have the money'' and added that ''once a player is good to get his big money and come back to take care of himself, I don’t have any problem with that."
