AS Torino of Italy defender, Ola Aina has been cited as Nigeria’s highest earning player in the Land of The Azurri, with the former Chelsea of England full back now rated at a total value of €1m per annum and a weekly pay of €19,230, according to figures gathered by megasportsarena.com.
However, despite being Nigeria’s costliest player in Serie A, Aina earns far less than his club’s top earners, Torino’s top earners, who are paid at last €700,000 more than him, the Super Eagles’ dark-skinned versatile full-back takes home more than Nigerian-born former Italy international, Stefano Chuka Okaka.
Although Okaka is reputed with great credentials and achievements, which have seen him play for AS Roma, Fulham and Watford, the Italian ex-international, who now lines out for Udinese, earns €700,000 – which is a whole €300,000 less than Aina’s take home.
It means Okaka, who has also starred for Castiglionese, Sanfatucchio, Centro Italia Parma, Cittadella, Modena, Brescia, Bari, Parma, Spezia, Sampdoria and Anderlecht, most of which were in loan deals, is now the second highest paid Nigerian-born player in Italy.
He is followed on the log by his club mate at Udinese, William Troost-Ekong, who receives a salary of €400,000 in what makes him one of the Udine-based outfit’s less earning stars, ahead of only six other players in the team.
Tops overall is Juventus megastar, Cristiano Ronaldo, with an annual salary of €31m, which is a mammoth 31 times more than what Aina gets as Nigeria’s best earner in the Italian Serie A and the whole of the Azzurris’ peninsula.
The report comes at a point Troost-Ekong and Okaka were both ruled out of Udinese’s Serie A clash against Inter Milan at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on Saturday, as they were both said to be suffering various shades of injuries.
Troost-Ekong copped a knock on international duty with Nigeria against Ukraine, which led to his 87th minute substitution during the international friendly match that ended 2-2 at Dnipro-Arena on Tuesday.