NZ's highest paid sportsman? Winston Reid stays with West Ham for £65,000 a week
How his paypacket stacks up.
Winston Reid has signed a new six-and-a-half year contract with West Ham, the BBC says.
The deal followed a bidding war that saw Spurs and Arsenal attempt to land the 26-year-old All Whites defender.
Neither Reid nor his club have put a figure on the contract, but The Telegraph reports it's worth £65,000 a week (around $133,000 or just under $7 million a year).
The deal is a good one. But not a headline-maker in the UK, where Premier League clubs are awash in cash due to the fight between Sky TV and British Telecom for broadcast rights (competition between the pair recently saw a record £5.14 billion deal covering three seasons of Premier League games, smashing the previous record Sky and BT each get rights to different games under the new contract. BT users sport as a loss-leader, offering games free online for those who sign on to its broadband deals or upgrade. Yes, Spark, which now includes Lightbox Sport, is watching. But we digress).
West Ham toured NZ during the off-season, but without its big-money new forward Enner Valencia (who reportedly signed for £12 million) or star strker Andy Carroll (£15 million), who was a suffering an I-don't-want-to-fly-to-NZ ankle injury. They currently sit in the middle of the table.
Does his new contract make Reid (who also pushes team sponsor Nike), NZ's highest paid sports person?
He's got to be right up there. The NZ Herald put him at number two for annual earnings on its sports rich list in October, the others in its top five being:
- Richie McCaw (rugby, $2.5 million)
- Steve Adams (US basketball, $2.8 million)
- Scott Dixon (US motorsport, $11 million)
- Sir Russell Coutts (America's Cup; $13 million)
And now we have Lydia Ko, who's earned around $3.4 million (not including endorsements) in her first year on the LPGA circuit.
I'd put the $12 million Winston Reid at number one. Team Oracle CEO Sir Russell is wiley, but Jimmy Spittell leads Team Oracle on the water. Coutts is more businessman than sportsman.
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NZ's highest paid sportsman? Winston Reid stays with West Ham for £65,000 a week
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