THE real reason for protracted contract talks between Rio Ferdinand and Manchester United is the issue of a £2 million commission to the England centre back’s agent.
The Insider has learnt that Pini Zahavi encouraged his client to hold out for a doubling of his pay to £120,000 a week, to factor in his fees.
Since the Ruud van Nistelrooy controversy, United will not pay agents’ fees on behalf of their contracted players. The Dutchman’s agent, Rodger Linse, was paid £1.2 million simply for getting a player who wanted to stay at the club to put pen to paper.
In an effort to get more money for Ferdinand, whom Zahavi said should be paid a salary worthy of the world’s best defender, the Israeli was also trying to secure his cut of £500,000 a year for four years. This pushed Ferdinand’s estimated worth up to £120,000 a week, a sum that would have broken United’s increasingly performance-linked wage structure.
A figure of £100,000 a week is now being discussed, which would still make Ferdinand the club’s highest-paid player.
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A deal may be signed before United fly to Asia for a pre-season tour on July 21. The player is in Portugal this week for team bonding and training. No agents’ fees were paid for the extensions to the contracts of Wes Brown, Ryan Giggs and the Neville brothers. Paul Scholes, who is negotiating a renewal, uses a KPMG accountant charging less than £300 an hour.