Most football fans are in agreement that the world’s top players, who will be on show at the World Cup 2010, are massively overpaid. The top clubs will often make large amounts of cash off their stars so some would argue they deserve their money. But what about on the International stage? Surely playing for your country is as good as it gets and enough to make players try their best? You’d hope so anyway.

It doesn’t seem that is the case anymore. Following the announcement that Spain’s players are going to earn over half a million Euros if they win the World Cup in South Africa, it has been revealed that Nike will pay England striker Wayne Rooney £500k if he can be the World Cup Golden Boot. The Spain squad earned half of their new bonus for when they won Euro 2008, a great investment some would argue but there is surely no doubt that Spain would have triumphed anyway and didn’t need the cash incentive.

As for Wayne Rooney, the bonus on offer from Nike could even hinder England’s World Cup chances. Many fans will presume that if Rooney ends up Golden Boot then England will either have won the World Cup 2010 or at least done very well, and they could be right, but the half million bonus may end up making Rooney too greedy, looking to shoot rather than pass to a player in a better position.

Winning the World Cup has to be the highlight of all players’ careers, to be seen as the best country in the World is a great achievement and the fact that football associations and sports conglomerates are wasting more money on these players is absurd. As for Spain, the millions of Euros they offer to players who don’t need it would surely be better invested in grass roots football. As per usual it just seems a case of the rich getting richer.

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