Players from the New Zealand club share their training and match routines with other professions; find out how much they earn in football
Bayern Munich’s 10-0 victory over Auckland City in the opening match of the FIFA Club World Cup once again highlighted the difference between a top-level professional club and a team that is part of an amateur league. The New Zealand team will also face other football giants in their Group C journey: Benfica, from Portugal, on Friday (20/6), and Boca Juniors, from Argentina, on the 24th (Tuesday).
As No Ataque showed on Sunday (15/6), Auckland players do not live exclusively from football and share their training and match routines with other professions. Goalkeeper Conor Tracey works as a stock boy for a pharmaceutical company, while defender Adam Mitchell is a real estate agent and even joked that he would be ready to sell a house in New Zealand to Harry Kane, the English star of Bayern who, ironically, did not score any goals in yesterday’s game. BBC Sport brought some interesting facts about Auckland City’s financial capacity.
In 2024, the club earned 1.1 million New Zealand dollars (R$ 3.7 million) – a similar figure to that of a Brazilian team that alternates between Series C and D. The players have an estimated salary cap of NZ$ 150 (R$ 500) per week, the equivalent of R$ 2 thousand per month. For comparison, many footballers from the lowlands of Minas Gerais earn fees of R$ 8 thousand to R$ 10 thousand for a routine of eight to 10 games per month.
Auckland City’s participation in the Club World Cup will yield a fee of NZ$6.6 million – more than R$22 million – paid by FIFA. However, this amount will be shared with the New Zealand Football Association, which will use the funds to develop football in the country of 5.2 million inhabitants.
Auckland City qualified for the World Cup thanks to its leadership in the Oceania Football Confederation club rankings. The New Zealand team has won 13 of the 24 editions of the OFC Champions League, which also features representatives from Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa and American Samoa. In 2025, the OFC League will be contested by 18 teams and will host all of the matches in the Cook Islands and Solomon Islands.
Auckland City won their 13th title with a record of four wins and one draw. In the group stage, the New Zealand team scored seven points, ahead of Tiga Sport (New Caledonia), Pirae (Tahiti) and Rewa (Fiji). In the semi-final and final, they beat Ifira Black Bird (Vanuatu) and Hekari United (Papua New Guinea), both by 2-0.
Although they may be beaten by Benfica and Boca Juniors, Auckland City is a regular at the FIFA World Cup. In 2014, the team made history by finishing in third place, beating Cruz Azul from Mexico – a 1-1 draw in normal time and a 4-2 win on penalties. In the previous stages, they eliminated Moghreb Tétouan (Morocco) and ES Sétif (Algeria). In the semi-final, they played hard against San Lorenzo, the Libertadores champions, and lost 2-1.
