Today’s world of football sees even the youngest of hot prospects earning well into five-figure monthly salaries. Some observers comment saying it’s outrageous that, at such a tender age, such players are rolling in the lucre.
It’s a commonly held belief that there’s too much money in football, that the sport is awash with it at the higher levels. That is a belief that is held to be largely true and you can see the effects of too much money everywhere that you look. Transfer fees are one of those areas and wages another. Yet, in the past, it was a simpler time and things were very much easier.
Alberto César Tarantini was a 1978 World Cup winner when he signed for Birmingham City after a successful 1978 World Cup. Before the World Cup, he’d had a contractual fallout with Boca that resulted in him being left clubless. The Boca management then pressured all Argentine clubs into not offering him a contract and a route back into Argentinian football.
Buoyed by a successful World Cup campaign, he was signed by Birmingham City for £297,000. His demands were exorbitant for the time: a free car, transport and living expenses for his family, fund any fines he incurred and honour any international commitments he had to make. Oh, and his basic weekly wage was £363.
To put a little perspective on matters, that £363 weekly wage is equivalent to around £2,000 in today’s terms. A finer perspective is that for around today’s equivalent of just £8,000-per-month Birmingham City landed themselves a World Cup winner in Tarantini.
Tarantini’s stay in Birmingham, 23 appearances, was both short and a highlight reel for all the wrong reasons. He felled Manchester United defender Brian Greenhoff like an oak tree with one tackle, before chinning him behind the referee’s back. He later brought his ill-disciplined stay in England to a close by wading into the Birmingham crowd to punch a heckler full on in the face.
He returned to Argentina to play for Talleres de Córdoba and River Plate before playing for European teams Bastia, Toulouse and St. Gallen where his ‘nightclub’ lifestyle was noted on occasions. All this for the equivalent in today’s money of a £1.4million fee and a £2,000-per-week wage.
