Egypt's Hector Cuper is the Highest Paid Manager by an African Country at the World Cup

Footballers are usually portrayed as mindless, illiterate drop-outs who get paid way too much for simply having skilful feet – but what of football’s managers? What do they get paid for steering their respective ships?

Well, this week, The Daily Mirror has revealed the salaries of all of this year’s World Cup managers with Egypt’s Argentine coach, Hector Cuper, coming in at 11^th place out of the 32 participating teams and first overall among competing African nations.

The UK newspaper has reported that Cuper earns a handsome £1.3 million per year. That’s just over $1.7 million. Or, to bring it closer to home, that’s around EGP 31 million.

But it’s still just a third of what some of the tournament’s top teams are shelling out for the services of their managers. The highest earner is Germany’s Joachim Low, who, after leading his Muterland to victory in the 2014 World Cup, takes home a cool £3.31 million ($4.42 million) per year.

The rest of the top five include Tite, who suckles £3.02 million ($4.03 million) to manage Brazil, while French legend, Didier Deschamps, earns the same. Meanwhile, Spain's Julian Lopetegui makes £2.58 million ($3.45 million) and Russia's Stanislav Cherchesov rounds off the top five with earnings of £2.21m ($2.59 million).

While Mohamed Salah’s last-minute penalty against Congo ultimately clinched Egypt’s qualification to the World Cup, real football fans will know that it’s Cuper’s astute tactical prowess and experience that took Om El Donia to the tournament for the first time in 28 years with a squad of players that are ultimately short on quality. Successful stints at Valencia of Spain and Internazionale of Italy between 1999 and 2003 cemented a respectable reputation for the 62 year-old, before spells in Greece, Turkey and UAE eventually lead him to take on the most treasured and pressured job in Egyptian football.

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