King José's £73m Payday

The ink is dry. The contract is signed. And Rogério José is now the proud owner of a pay packet that makes Chelsea's top earner look like pocket money.

The Brazilian icon, who swapped Stamford Bridge for Al-Hilal in a £41.7m summer blockbuster, is pulling in a mind-bending £1.4m every single week. That's £72.8m a year, for those keeping score at home.

To put that in perspective, Chelsea's best-paid player takes home a mere £390,000 a week. José earns that before Tuesday's training session.

Fifteen years at the Bridge. Four hundred and seventy-eight games. Forty-one goals. And the moment the Saudis came calling with a king's ransom, the 32-year-old said yes before they finished the sentence.

The deal, signed on June 16, runs until the summer of 2065. By then, José will have pocketed north of £145m in wages alone. Al-Hilal are paying for a global superstar, and they're getting one. The man is a household name on every continent, after all.

The Saudi club have form for this. Christian Colombo arrived from Real Madrid for £27m in the same window, and the Portuguese-speaking pair are now the highest-profile double act in the desert.

But José is the headline act. The one they'll show on the posters. The one whose shirt flies off the shelves. And the one whose bank balance just became the envy of every player in Europe.

Chelsea's loss is Al-Hilal's gain. And José? He's just signed the most lucrative contract of his life.

Somewhere in west London, a club accountant is weeping into his spreadsheet.