Kano Pillars Players and Their Salary 2024-2025

Football is the most popular sport in Nigeria, and there’s no denying that. However, if you’re a hardcore fan, you’ll know that players’ paychecks aren’t exactly following that popularity, at least in 2024. As one of the country’s greatest clubs, Kano Pillars offers some of the best salaries in the Nigerian League. Even so, it’s nothing too fancy considering that they’ve had a few trips to the AFC here and there.

One thing that keeps the fans guessing is how much Kano Pillars players earn, and we’re here to help you figure it out. We’ll take a deep dive into Nigerian football as a whole and give you a rough estimate based on our findings. Stick along for a complete review.

About Kano Pillars

Kano Pillars is one of the most popular football clubs in all of Nigeria, and they started their professional tier journey back in 1990. So far, they’ve been crowned state champions four times, with the first time being back in the 2007/2008 season.

Throughout that time, there have been several Kano Pillars players who made it to the big leagues, such as Ahmed Musa who played for Leicester City in the EPL. However, the earnings in Nigerian football are at quite a bit lower scale when compared to Europe’s, or even Asian top leagues.

So, there’s that big question about the salary of Kano Pillars players, since, after all, they are among the most popular clubs in the country. In fact, they’re the fifth club with the most titles in Nigeria, and the last one was back in the 2014/2015 season. So, you would guess that their earnings are also in the top flight of Nigerian football, and we’ll put that to the test here.

Kano Pillars 2024/2025 Squad

To understand the earnings in this club, we first need to consider the Kano Pillars players 2024 squad. According to Transfermarkt as one of the main sources for football team values, the 2024/2025 Kano Pillars squad is worth a bit north of $500,000.

However, that’s mainly because there are many experienced players here, starting with the one you’ll probably be interested in the most. The team’s 44-year-old captain, Rabiu Ali, was reported to be earning somewhere around $1,900 per month.

Since then, the team’s media officer went a long way to say it’s a stretch, and that the team doesn’t have players on payroll with a weekly salary higher than NGN 800,000.

Other experienced players include the 40-year-old goalkeeper, Bassey Akpan, as well as Ibrahim Iddrisu and Abdullahi Shehu. So, we could say that the younger guys are those reaching close to that NGN 800,000 mark.

Estimated NPL Earnings

To understand the situation behind the Kano Pillars players salary and Nigerian football as a whole, the Nigerian Premier League as a whole is the best starting point. We’ve done some digging, and have found out that most NPL clubs offer maximum salaries from NGN 380,000 to NGN 480,000 to their best players.

Of course, the top clubs are a bit more rewarding, offering salaries in the range from NGN 680,000 to NGN 800,000 to their best players. Besides Kano Pillars, these also include clubs like Remo Stars, Rivers United, and Enyimba. Based on that, we’re positive that no player on Kano Pillars earns more than that figure of NGN 800,000 as a salary.

It’s a well-known story in Africa since sports salaries are not as high as in Asia, Europe, or America. You can more or less compare the earnings of the rising stars in Zimbabwe athletics with Nigerian football players and get an accurate depiction. Of course, modernization and online betting are surely going to positively impact the salary structure soon.

Kano Pillars Player Salaries

Now we’re getting closer to the particular range of salaries in this club, and to do that, we’ve considered the entire list of Kano Pillars players and their earnings. Last year, research showed that Gambo Mohammed, a former club striker, used to have a monthly salary of NGN 850,000.

That’s reported to be the highest salary the club has ever paid to a certain payer, despite the rumors of Rabiu Ali getting far more, up to the amount of NGN 1.2 million per month. Another lead in figuring out the estimated earnings of Kano Pillars players is the verdict in favor of Bassey Akpan after unpaid salaries.

It happened in 2023, and the Players’ Status and Arbitration Committee in Nigeria ordered the club to pay a total amount of NGN 11.8 million to the goalkeeper. In other words, that was his 13-month salary, so he received roughly NGN 900,000 per month.

Salary Structure in the NPL

So, now you know that the average salary in Nigerian club football is somewhat low at just between NGN 150,000 to NGN 200,000. Of course, there are those higher-paid players that raise the average to around NGN 380,000 or a bit higher, but it’s nothing too spectacular considering today’s football earnings.

Of course, that’s just the raw amount, so the best players can earn up to NGN 1.2 million through bonuses and performance rewards. At least that was reported to be Rabiu Ali’s monthly paycheck back in the day, and it’s still among the highest amounts paid to an NPL player.

We know it’s still far away from the world’s top 10 leagues, or even the top 30 leagues at the moment. However, you have to know that the NPL was until recently regarded as one of the amateur-ranking leagues in Africa. Kano Pillars in particular were among the ones to break that status when they qualified for their first-ever African Champions League main draw, having eliminated much more famous Al Ahly Cairo to qualify.

These days, sponsorship agreements are gaining traction, so we’ll hopefully see much higher salaries for NPL players shortly. Betting sponsors like Eunisell and Bet9ja are among the main ones, while you can also find NPL on major bookies. For instance, you can just press the Hollywoodbets register button to get all the NPL options in one place. With those sponsorships, the league should finally get the acknowledgment and growth it deserves.

Final Thoughts

So, you now know a bit more about the main Kano Pillars players and their salaries for the 2024/2025 season. While the salary levels will likely stay like this for the next season as well, things are not looking so dark for the upcoming years.

With more and more sponsorship agreements coming outside of Nigeria, young and perspective players in the NPL can count on some paycheck boosts pretty soon. And, at the very least, things are not looking so bad for older players either, as you could have seen by Rabiu Ali’s example.