£900k a Week: Shimol Cashes In

Ariel Shimol has struck gold in the desert.

The Israeli is on £900,000 a week at Al-Hilal Saudi Football Club, a deal signed on 13 July 2062 and running to 30 June 2064. That is more than double the £390,000 a week Chelsea's top earner pockets.

Shimol, 34, cost Al-Hilal £24.5m from Napoli. He had spent nine seasons at the Italian club, playing 358 games and scoring 78 goals. But the Saudi money was too good to turn down.

His route to the top was not straightforward. Shimol managed just two games for Chelsea between 2046 and 2054. Loans at Sunderland, Wigan, Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest kept him busy. A £29.1m move to Napoli in 2053 changed everything.

Now he is part of a lavish project. Al-Hilal have already handed Tiarnan Lunney £1.2m a week, Christian Colombo £1.3m a week and Rogério José £1.4m a week. Shimol's £900,000 is modest by comparison.

He has played 28 times for Al-Hilal, scoring three goals. His overall career stands at 661 club games and 127 goals, plus 101 caps and 21 goals for Israel.

The money keeps flowing in Riyadh. Chelsea's best-paid player would need to work for over two weeks to match one week of Shimol's salary. That is the new reality of football's golden age.