Passing up $3.4 million may be the best decision Jordan De Goey ever made
Passing up $3.4 million of guaranteed cash might have been the smartest financial decision Jordan De Goey ever made. JON RALPH looks at what the superstar Magpie’s next contract could look like.
Collingwood
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Passing up $3.4 million of guaranteed cash might have been the smartest financial decision Jordan De Goey ever made.
Last week De Goey’s four-letter exclamation when he found out the scope of North Melbourne’s five-season, $5 million deal showed how mind-blowing a deal it seemed at first glance.
De Goey was just months on from his latest controversy and on a warning from the club that another serious episode would see him turfed out of the Holden Centre.
But if De Goey and his family members thought the offer at one stage too good to pass up, it is now apparent that deal would have cost him money.
To De Goey’s credit he always wanted to remain at Collingwood, determined to repay the same people who believed in him and helped navigate him through 2018’s troubled waters.
Yet having passed up that five-year offer, De Goey could soon find out just how lucrative it is to be the most exciting and marketable forward in the biggest club in the competition.
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His manager Ben Niall eventually brokered a two-year deal believed to be worth $750,000-$800,000 a season, a mix of salary and the marketing component through the Pies’ additional services agreement (ASAs).
He was determined to play the long game, selling to De Goey a ten-year plan that saw him staying at the club he loved but also maximising his worth rather than taking the easy, early cash.
His belief was that De Goey had to be happy to play his best football, and that his happy place was Collingwood.
De Goey has an arrangement with Puma and agreements with Sony PlayStation, but is turning down more offers than the few he accepts.
It won’t surprise that every footy show in town has offered big cash — $10,000 and upwards — for tell-all interviews that he has so far stayed away from.
But turning into “Brand De Goey” as a loyal, game-breaking Pie will eventually reap its rewards.
The next contract — potentially as early as this summer but at some stage before the end of 2020 — will likely be more than a million dollars a year if he can keep up his amazing rise.
That will be supplemented by perhaps half a dozen endorsement deals worth $30,000 each — the normal market for an elite AFL player.
If he gets into the Lance Franklin or Dustin Martin stratosphere he could be a very rich boy, but at the very least will have set himself up for life financially with perhaps two more long-term deals.
Passing up $5 million guaranteed comes with its share of risks.
But like Josh Kelly before, signing a two-year deal instead of taking the Kangas’ cash is short-term pain for a very lucrative long-term reward.
Originally published as Passing up $3.4 million may be the best decision Jordan De Goey ever made
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