How much could Lorch be earning at Sundowns?

Thembinkosi Lorch is likely to have been handed a serious salary bump by Mamelodi Sundowns after joining them on transfer deadline day from Orlando Pirates.

But just where will the 30-year-old attacker sit on the Sundowns salary scale? Reports suggest that Lorch was earning anything between R50 000 and R165000 a month at Pirates, though South African clubs’ lack of transparency over salaries makes it hard to be precise.

Sundowns’ highest earner is former Bafana Bafana midfielder Bongani Zungu, according to a salary chart compiled by briefly.co.za. The website speculates that Zungu is earning a whopping R700 000 a month. Next on the list is Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams on R500 000 a month.

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Could Lorch be earning anything close to these two fellow South Africans? Zungu was signed by Sundowns on a free transfer from Amiens in France in August 2022, and it is likely that coming from Europe, Sundowns had to go very high in terms of salary to secure Zungu’s signature. The club may have also felt that the fact that they were not paying a transfer fee justified a high wage package.

Williams is one of several players to have joined Sundowns from Tshwane rivals SuperSport United, with Masandawana rumoured to have paid SuperSport R12 million for his services in July 2012. Williams was already 30 years old when he joined Sundowns, the same age as Lorch is now.

A goalkeeper’s career tends to last longer than that of an outfield player, however, meaning Lorch’s package is unlikely to have matched Williams’.

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To speculate on Lorch’s salary at Sundowns, given the highest end of what he was said to be earning at Pirates, it is safer to say he is in the region of Peter Shalulile or Thapelo Morena, said to be on R400 000 a month.

It could even be, that with a year left on his contract at Pirates, and little sign of a new deal being agreed, Lorch was prepared to move to Sundowns for a little less than that, in the region of R300 000 a month.

This would still represent an enormous boost to his salary, not to mention the signing on fee and the bonus structure that will undoubtedly be in his deal.