How much Birmingham City may need to pay Bright Osayi-Samuel in wages | OneFootball

Birmingham City are closing in on a deal to sign Bright Osayi-Samuel as a free agent this summer

Birmingham City are closing in on a deal to sign Bright Osayi-Samuel from Turkish side Fenerbahce.

According to Mike McGrath, the full-back is ready to make the switch to St. Andrew’s following their promotion to the Championship. Birmingham's pursuit of Osayi-Samuel was first called on Sunday afternoon by Football Insider's Pete O'Rourke.

The defender joined the Super Lig side back in the 2021 January transfer window, having previously played for QPR.

During his time in Turkey, he has played 130 times in the league, while also gaining experience playing in European competition under the likes of Jose Mourinho and Jorge Jesus.

Here we use estimated figures from Capology to take a look at how much Birmingham may now be paying Osayi-Samuel, providing this deal gets over the line…

Bright Osayi-Samuel’s Fenerbahce wages

Osayi-Samuel’s contract with Fenerbahce has expired this summer, meaning he is free to discuss terms with a new club.

The Blues are reportedly closing in on his signature following talks, with Chris Davies looking to bolster his side for life back in the Championship.

During his four years in Turkey, he was paid a weekly wage of €57,692 (£49,400), as he cemented himself as a key part of the first team squad, and it remains to be seen whether he'd be willing to take any kind of pay cut to come back to English football.

His salary put him slightly below the average weekly salary at the Turkish side, which amounted to €58,276 (£49,800) per week.

The highest paid player at the club last season was former Manchester United midfielder Fred, who received €134,615 (£115,000) per week from the European outfit.

Mourinho’s side finished second in the table behind Galatasaray, losing the league by 11 points.

Other former Premier League players Dušan Tadić and Edin Dzeko were also paid the same as Fred last season, with Talisca and Youssef En-Nesyri having the next highest salaries in the team.

The pair earned €128,269 (£110,000) per week each, with all of these players having greater salaries than the highest paid player in the Championship last season, which was Patrick Bamford at £70,000-a-week.

Highest paid players in the Championship

If Birmingham are going to want to contend for promotion to the Premier League at the first time of asking, then they will have to pay competitive wages.

The other highest paid players in the division last season, besides Bamford, included Junior Firpo (£60,000 per week), Aaron Ramsey, Pascal Struijk and Dan James (all £50,000 each).

Birmingham had a total weekly salary for the first team squad of £308,000 last season in League One.

Meanwhile, Leeds United and Burnley, the two automatically promoted sides in the Championship had payrolls worth £707,500 and £567,500.

Completing deals like one for Osayi-Samuel is how they close the gap in salary size to the teams they want to be competing alongside.

Sunderland were able to achieve promotion with a wage bill of £287,846 per week, which is smaller than the Blues’, but replicating their rise from 16th to fourth will not be easy if they maintain a similar budget size.

It’s likely Osayi-Samuel will be better paid than any Birmingham player was last season, which shows the level of ambition being shown by the Midlands outfit.