JUAN MATA has claimed he would take a pay cut to help cut out greed in modern football.
The Manchester United playmaker, 27, earns around £8.5million a year but is far from the highest earner at Old Trafford.
And the Spaniard has slammed the amount of money floating around football — even suggesting he’d take a pay cut if his peers followed suit.
He told Spanish TV programme Salvados: “Football is very well remunerated (paid) at this level.
“It’s like we live in a bubble. With respect to the rest of society, we earn a ridiculous amount. It’s unfathomable.
“With respect to the world of football, I earn a normal wage.
“But compared to 99.9% of Spain and the rest of the world, I earn an obscene amount.
“The barometer we use for measuring our salaries is comparing them to those of our team-mates and what other players are earning elsewhere.”
Mata believes United are getting back to their best after a shocking start to the season — and is confident that they can lift the FA Cup in May.
But he believes that footballer’s don’t live in the real world and is concerned about what happens when players retire.
He admitted: “I live in a bubble. Real life is the one my friends live.
“They’ve had to look for work, sign on to the dole and emigrate. That’s normal life now. My life as a footballer is not normal.
“It scares me sometimes to think about just how protected I am. The smallest problem and someone will come and fix it for me. That’s one of the aspects in which we don’t live a normal life”.
With the first £100m transfer surely not far away, recent years has seen a trend of bigger spending as money is pumped into the games elite.
And Mata is concerned about what this could mean for the future — and would take a pay cut if necessary.
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