Thibault Camus / EPA
Tadej Pogačar
If there are companies that are willing to pay, it’s because the athletes are worth it. And the cyclist’s status has already reached another level.
Tadej Pogačar He is considered by many to be the best cyclist today and one of the best of all time.
The 26-year-old put Slovenia in the cycling news (just like Primož Roglič) by winning three editions of the Tour de France, a Tour of Italy and several other top races.
Still this year he was world road champion, after having won the Tour and the Giro; all in 2024. He has also won in Portugal – a Tour of the Algarve, in 2019.
With this curriculum, the number 1 in the UCI table also reached the top of the wage: When he renewed with UAE Team Emirates a few weeks ago, he signed a contract until 2030.
And you will receive a “modest” amount of 8 million euros per year – more prizes. It will be about 50 million euros until the end of the contract. With a termination clause of 200 million euros.
The cycling world is not used to these “football” numbers. They began to emerge criticism, complaints.
But the director of the UAE, Joxean Fernández, does not see any scandal. And he makes a comparison with a name we know very well: “Someone tell me that Cristiano Ronaldo earns a lot. Well, look: if he creates this, what a cover.”
“If there are teams, companies or societies capable of paying them these amounts, the reality is that they are worth it”, quote or
It is worth noting that, inAl-Nassr, the Portuguese football player, receives a gross annual salary of 200 million of euros.
Returning to cycling, the director doesn’t hide it: “I’ve never seen anything like this. I had never seen what happened to Pogačar.”
E, explain Joxean, o cyclist status has entered another level, even far from the races: “I don’t even just go into the sporting context anymore: I’ve never seen a cyclist gathering 200 people at the door of a hotel. People want to take photos with him. That didn’t happen.”
