£80k-a-week: Sunderland AFC’s highest earner from the last 8 seasons
The Black Cats were splashing the cash to try to stay in the Premier League eight years ago, and got their money’s worth out of their biggest earner
Sunderland have experienced a series of ups and downs in the past eight seasons, with stints in all three of the top tiers of English football following the end of their ten-year spell in the Premier League in 2017.
Back-to-back relegations saw the Black Cats plying their trade in League One for four seasons before returning to the Championship with playoff success in 2022, meaning constant fluctuations on the wage bill as a result.
It’s no surprise to see it’s a Premier League regular who tops the bill for the Wearsiders in the last eight years, with a quality striker on the books trying in vain to keep them in the top flight.
But despite his hefty estimated £80,000 a week salary, Jermain Defoe couldn’t keep the Mackems up in the 2016/17 season, as they returned to the Championship after a decade dining at the top table.
Jermain Defoe’s Sunderland weekly wage and contract information
Defoe was always someone who guaranteed goals for a lot of his career, having made his debut for West Ham in 2000 before going on to net 13 times in his first 12 matches on loan for AFC Bournemouth in the third tier.
29 goals in 93 league appearances for the Hammers was enough for him to earn a move to Tottenham Hotspur in 2004, where he found the net over 100 times across two spells, with a one-year sabbatical at Fratton Park with Portsmouth coming between 2008 and 2009.
The striker was making his mark for Toronto FC in the MLS by the time Sunderland enquired about his availability, and the Black Cats managed to tempt the England international back to these shores with a three-and-a-half year contract to help fire them to safety in the Premier League in the January of 2015.
Four goals in 17 appearances certainly helped their cause, with a stunning volley in a 1-0 victory over arch-rivals Newcastle United helping to win his new fanbase onside, as Sunderland escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth in 17th place.
It was a similar story in the next campaign for those at the Stadium of Light, with a second successive 17th-placed finish as Defoe’s 18 goals in all competitions helped them stay afloat, before even he was unable to stop the decline in the following campaign.
