5. Zinedine Zidane – Real Madrid ($10 million annual salary)
A successful football player became a successful football manager. That is the headline of Zinedine Zidane’s story today. It seems as though it was ages ago when the headline was all about his head-butt during the 2006 World Cup Final against Materazzi’s Italy.
After a disappointing result under Rafael Benitez’s command, Real Madrid appointed Zidane to replace him in the middle of the 2015-2016 season. It seems to be a good decision as Zidane brought the club to win their eleventh UEFA Champions League trophy right before Euro.
It was a sweet victory for Zidane as he reminisced the day he lifted the trophy as a Real Madrid player back in 2002. He became the seventh person to win Champions League as both player and manager.
With such success in such a short time, it should come as no surprise that El Real is paying him $10 million per year. However, he has to deal with great expectations as we are heading into the 2016-2017 season.
