Do England football players get paid when they play for their country? Former England goalkeeper Ben Foster has given us an insight into paid international football.
Representing your country at the top level of international football is a priceless experience that only a handful of players ever get to experience.
The honour of representing your nation would be more than enough for most players, but do international professionals get paid when they play?
Former England goalkeeper, Ben Foster, recently gave an insight into how much England football players get paid when they wear the three lions on the shirt when asked the question on an episode of Fozcast…
Do England football players get paid at all?
It wouldn’t be far fetched to believe that England football players don’t get paid anything at all, with any earnings representing their nation coming in the form of sponsorship, or tournament prize winnings.
After all, such formats are common in many other sports when played at international level.
Foster explains, however, that this is not the case with England’s ballers. He explains that players each get paid a fixed match fee when representing the three lions.
“You get a match fee for playing the game. You might be talking two grand a game or something” said Foster.
He does go on to explain, however, that no England player actually takes home their match fee…
“every single player’s match fee has always been signed off to charity, we always give it away to charity” said the former England goalkeeper.
England football players don’t walk away from matches without being paid altogether, though.
Foster goes on to explain that, as is common case for many professional athletes, England players will receive a percentage of sponsorships from the national squad.
“Everybody that is a sponsor of England, whether it’s McDonald’s, or like Carlsberg, Heineken, all of that gets put into a big pot. The players will then receive a certain percent.”
Though Foster didn’t know the exact percentage England football players were paid out of this pot, he estimated to be “maybe 20% or something”.
He finishes by explaining that this percentage is paid pro-rata to the players, and this is the grand total of their earnings for that match representing the Three Lions!
Do other nations pay their players in the same way as England?
Now you know how England football players get paid for their time on the pitch, you may well be wondering whether it works the same for the rest of the world’s teams…
Foster explains that each and every international side is different in the way that they pay their football players.
“Some international countries will pay you literally for every game you play, like a set amount of money, and it could be good money as well.”
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