Former BidVest Wits and Platinum Stars left-back Almiro Lobo has revealed how he came to earn triple what he had been getting while playing in Europe upon moving to BidVest Wits in 2007.
Lobo arrived in South Africa midway through the 2006/07 season from Hungary where he had spent two years playing for Budapest Honved and Dunaujvaros FC.
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"When my contract expired in Hungary, I went straight to Wits which was a good move since I wanted to be close to my family.
"But then when I look at it now, I think it would have been best if I had stayed in Hungary because there would have been opportunities to move to better leagues and better money in Europe but that meant I had stay on in Hungary for a year or two more," Lobo tells KickOff.com from Angola where he works as a coach at top league club Bravos do Maquis.
However, the truth of the matter is that in moving to Wits, the Mozambican couldn't turn down the offer on the table.
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"The issue was that in Hungary there was no money at that time.
"Do you know that when I came to Wits, I was paid three times more than what I had been getting in Hungary, which is a European country.
"I mean what I got at Wits was triple what I got from clubs in Hungary.
"The plus was that in Johannesburg I was an hour flight or six hours by road.
"Do you know that South Africa is better developed than some of the countries in Europe including Hungary?
"The only issue is that South Africa is in Africa, but the beauty is the good weather unlike some of these countries which are extremely cold and miserable.
"I understand why players prefer South Africa than some of these countries, it is because they are paid good, and the weather is good.
"However, it was Platinum Stars who paid me the best money in South Africa who I joined from Wits.
"Then when I came to Angola in 2014, the benefit was that my earnings came tax free which made it more than what I was getting in South Africa.
"Those years they didn't tax us here in Angola as players but that has now changed.
"The problem in South Africa back then was the tax because from whatever is your gross, you end up sharing with the government.
"In South Africa, what they show you on the contract looked nice but what you took home was different," details Lobo who recently attained a degree in Psychology.
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