Matthias Ginter calls for Bundesliga salary cap | OneFootball

German international defender Matthias Ginter believes footballers are paid far too much and says the Bundesliga would benefit from a US-style salary cap.

Ginter joined Borussia Mönchengladbach from Borussia Dortmund for a fee reported to be in the region of €17 million last summer and is currently preparing with the national team for Tuesday night’s friendly against Brazil in Berlin.

And speaking ahead of the game, the 24-year-old has made some interesting and refreshing comments regarding the role money plays in football, and how the game could learn a thing or two from American sports.

“Neymar is a special player, but I don’t think anyone is worth that much,” Ginter told reporters.

“I transferred at the beginning of the season for €17m and I’m not worth that.

“In the US, salaries are transparent and there is a salary cap, which I believe reduces the envy factor a bit.”

Ginter’s views are seemingly at odds with those of his international colleague Sandro Wagner, who two years ago suggested footballers don’t earn enough considering the personal sacrifices they are forced to make for their careers.

“Everybody is looking at everything you are doing, in your personal life as well. There are a lot of sacrifices,” Wagner told Bild in August 2016.

“I think even the players at Bayern do not make enough money, not even €12 million or so is enough. Professional athletes in American competitions make much more.

“And you do not become a professional footballer from out of nowhere. You give up your entire youth. You hardly have any friends, you cannot just go out at night.

“You always have to be fit, there is always a match around the corner. It’s hard work and people tend to forget about that.

“And your career lasts only 10 to 15 years. You generally don’t have any proper education and have to start all over again when your career is over.

“Footballers deserve everything they earn. It’s also a matter of supply and demand.”

But Ginter does not agree, and feels there are other members of society who are far more deserving of footballers’ wages.

“When I see how construction workers or nurses have to work and have earned a salary they can barely make ends meet, then I have to say: Of course, we footballers earn too much,” he continued.

“But we’re not doing anything essential – like doctors saving lives or making people healthy – these are things that really matter to society, and football is not necessarily in that category.”

And in light of the recent protests regarding the introduction of Monday night matches to the Bundesliga, Ginter feels it’s more important than ever that football doesn’t lose touch with the fans who make the game what it is.

“More and more money is being pumped in, the sport is increasingly divorcing itself from ‘normal’ society, we are locked away, we have to be careful in football that the gap between professionals and amateurs or fans does not get too big in the face of financial development,” warned the former Freiburg man, who set up a foundation to support disadvantaged children and adolescents in his hometown earlier this year.

“It has always been important to me not only to define myself through football, only because I’m a professional, I’m nothing better.”