Luca D'Urso Banks £1.5m a Week at Al-Ittihad
Chelsea's former midfield anchor is now the highest-paid player in Saudi Arabia, earning nearly four times his old club's top earner.
Luca D'Urso is laughing all the way to the bank. The Italian midfielder, who left Chelsea in January, is pocketing a staggering £1,500,000 a week at Al-Ittihad Club Jeddah. That's not a typo. It's a king's ransom for a player who turns 34 this season.
The move that took him there was sealed on 14 January 2063, when Chelsea accepted a £31.0m bid from the Saudi giants. D'Urso had spent eight years at the club, racking up 309 appearances and 15 goals. He was a fixture, a leader, a fan favourite. But when the Saudis came calling with that wage packet, resistance was futile.
His contract runs until 30 June 2064, and you can bet he's counting every penny. Back at Chelsea, the best-paid player earns a comparatively modest £390,000 a week. D'Urso's new salary is nearly four times that. In Jeddah, he's royalty.
And why not? Al-Ittihad are a club with pedigree, boasting 18 major titles and a stature that stretches far beyond Saudi borders. D'Urso joins a growing list of stars lured to the Gulf, including David Ochoa, who arrived from Barcelona earlier this year. The Saudi project is real, and it's paying top dollar.
For D'Urso, it's the twilight of a career that began at Juventus and wound through Lyon and Chelsea. At 33, he's got nothing left to prove. Except, perhaps, that he's worth every penny. On this evidence, he's worth £1.5m a week. Easy.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have banked the fee and moved on. But they might just miss the Italian's steadying presence in the middle. Then again, at that wage, who's complaining? Not D'Urso, that's for sure.