Neville: First professional contract at Manchester United, earn £210 a week and get the money down payment to buy a house as soon as possible
Manchester United legend Gary Neville recently played the podcast program Stick to Football, and recalled his first contract with Manchester United.
Gary Neville is from Manchester United's youth training camp and is one of the famous 92 graduates. He devoted his entire career to the Red Devils.
Neville recalled: "At Manchester United, Sir Ferguson gave us all the first professional contracts exactly the same. We received a signing fee of £4,000, with a weekly salary of £210 in the first year, a weekly salary of £230 in the second year, a third year, and a £250 in the third year, and a fourth year."
According to the inflation data of the Bank of England, this contract is equivalent to a weekly salary of £460 in 2025, and the signing fee is equivalent to £8,800 today. Neville added: "We also received a Honda Prelude sedan, and the terms of eight of us were exactly the same back then." Neville admitted that he wisely purchased the property with his first contract: "In 1992, I spent 160,000 pounds to buy the first house and paid a 10% down payment."
Based on ordinary inflation, the current value of the property is about 352,000 pounds, but considering that the average house price in the UK has soared from 53,000 pounds in 1992 to 300,000 pounds today, if the price increase is reference, the valuation of that house that year is about 900,000 pounds.
"Real estate is the best investment," Neville emphasized. "When I received Manchester United's first contract compensation, buying a house immediately became a major turning point in my life. At that time, I paid £16,000 down payment to buy a house of £16,000, which actually took huge risks."