Graeme Souness Net Worth 2022
Nowadays he is a straight talking pundit on Sky Sports and before that he was a manager and take no prisoners style midfield player. What does it all mean for his wallet though? Find out here as we look at Graeme Souness’ Net Worth.
What is Graeme Souness’ Net Worth?
As of 2022, Graeme Souness’ net worth stands at around £5.5m. Souness has enjoyed a decorated career first as a player and then in the dugout before transitioning into his place amongst the mainstream media but what is he really all about and where does his money actually come from?
Early Years
In May 1953 Graeme Souness was born to parents James and Elizabeth in Saughton, Edinburgh. His folks were a working class family with his dad a glazier and his mum also holding down a job. Souness, whose middle name is James after his father, wasn’t raised in a well to do part of Edinburgh with Saughton best known for the prison that is located there. What Souness was afforded though was two parents who ‘doted’ on him and two older brother who were football mad. From a young age, Souness would go with his family to watch Rangers. In terms of playing, his early years were spent with Tynecastle Boys club; even when playing kids football for them his mum would lay into him telling him to do better next time.
The firm hand from his mum and rough and tumble activity with his big brothers set Souness up nicely for a life in football. When just 17-years-old Souness would cross the divide to come to England on his journey towards the top; Tottenham we’re the club that took his signature. His time with Spurs was limited with his game time even less so. It would prove a fantastic experience for Souness in his transition from Scottish lad to grown man though. A year after joining the North London club he penned a loan deal with NASL club Montreal Olympique; it saw him move a 10 hour flight away as a teenager.
Making it pro
After enduring a rather painful couple of years with Tottenham, Souness joined second division side Middlesbrough. The Teesiders shelled out what nowadays is a meagre £30k to get their man with Souness’ wages expected to be in the region of £40 per week; a far cry from modern day footballers. All told, Souness made close to 200 appearances for the club; his ability to rough it up in the middle of the park as well as his composed style on the ball saw him become a fan favourite. Despite featuring heavily for Boro, towards the end of his six year stay he tasted another culture with a loan spell in Australia; he played a handful of games for West Adelaide.
Liverpool and Love
In 1978 Souness joined Liverpool as the Reds saw him as the perfect replacement for Ian Callaghan, who was part of England’s World Cup winning team. His exit from Middlesbrough was far from smooth but with a club record fee of £350k involved it was always a move that would happen. It proved to be a match made in heaven as well. Souness’ career got off to a splendid start; his first Liverpool goal – the first of 56 he scored for the Reds – it only came against Man United but was also voted as the goal of the season by the fans.
Within a few months, Souness was playing a key role in Liverpool’s defence of the European Cup. Despite being recognised as one of football’s hard men, it was actually his ability on the ball that is remembered from this game; he provided the assist for fellow Scot Kenny Dalglish to score the winner. More success followed with back to back league titles and another European Cup; this time coming after Souness showed his goal scoring ability as he bagged three goals in the quarter-final.
What followed was the skipper’s armband. Souness would wear it for three seasons lifting a total of five trophies in that time. Those honours were one European Cup, with one of the best right backs of all time, Phil Neal scoring, two First Division crowns and a duo of League Cups. One of those cup wins was the first ever Merseyside derby final. ‘Souey’ scored the winner; it proved to be one of his final contributions before leaving the club. As a player at least.
A short lived spell with Sampdoria
After his glittering spell with Liverpool, Souness moved on to another challenge in another country; the fourth country of his career. The Italian side shelled out £650k to bring a then 31-year-old Souness in; it was big money. He earned a good wage from the deal too; not only is it believed that Sampdoria paid him four times as much as Liverpool but his wife also benefited financially from the; she was eligible for an inheritance pay out but the terms are said to have specified that she must not live in the UK. How a move to Genoa suited for many reasons!?
The footballing life wasn’t bad for Souness either. He played alongside fellow Brit Trevor Francis whilst the club had a few tidy youngsters coming through too; the best known perhaps Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Mancini. Souness has since been quoted as describing playing in Italian football as ‘easy’ owing to the tempo of the game; given his Sampdoria side won the Copa Italia courtesy of another Souness goal perhaps it’s easy to see where he was coming from. He left a year later.
A return to early roots
We’ve already touched on the fact that Souness used to watch Rangers as a fan in his youth and after leaving Sampdoria he joined the club in a professional capacity – as player manager. On the pitch, things didn’t exactly go to plan. His first appearance for the Scottish giants lasted barely 30 minutes as he picked up two yellow cards; it was setting the trend for a frustrating end to his playing days. Injuries and ill discipline blighted his final years as he made just 73 appearances across four seasons.
What those limited appearances meant though was time to focus on actually doing the managerial side of things; that is why he’s so fondly remembered in Glasgow – or at least in the blue half of it anyway! Souness’ presence in the Rangers dugout saw the club able to make notable additions with the likes of Ipswich Town legend Terry Butcher and Ray Wilkins perhaps the biggest names to arrive over the years. During his tenure at Ibrox, Rangers won seven major honours made up of four League Cups and three league titles; Souness had well and truly ended Celtic’s period of dominance.
Back to Liverpool
After his success at Rangers – albeit not without controversy at times – Souness moved back south of the border to take the helm at Liverpool. His appointment saw him step into the shoes vacated by former teammate Kenny Dalglish who had opted to step down despite having guided the team to plenty of success in the few years prior. Souness, who benefited from a five year contract, could not continue that good work. Sure, he won the 1992 FA Cup but Liverpool never challenged for the league during his time whilst a number of his decisions – both footballing and non-footballing – saw him come under pressure from the Reds’ fan base. He left the club after three years.
A testing few years
Galatasaray
After leaving Liverpool, Souness found his stock somewhat dipped from the highs he’d experienced with the Gers. It took over a year for him to get an opportunity to go back into the dugout and, even then, he had to move to Turkey. Souness was appointed manager at Galatasaray on what was likely a handsome deal. In footballing terms, he did okay there winning the Turkish Cup but his decision to stake the flag to antagonise the club rivals – and losing finalists – Fenerbahce was simply bonkers; it’s the main memory most have from his short spell in charge there.
Southampton
Off the back of his time in Turkey, Souness came back to England; this time on the South Coast as boss at Southampton; his contract was worth £200k per season. His time as manager of the Saints is again remembered for a bizarre one off rather than any achievement. What is that we hear you ask. He was fooled big time, that’s what. Souness signed Ali Dia after being sold on his pedigree by one of the player’s friends with the most famous bluff being that Dia was cousin to Ballon d’Or winner George Weah. He was not. Dia made one appearance; he was both subbed on and off again in the same game with Souness left red faced.
Torino & Benfica
As had become a pattern over Souness’ career, his next move took him overseas. Again though, things were short lived. He joined Torino as manager before being sacked just a few months later with everything suggesting it was over disagreements with the owner. His deal at the Italian club was worth £1.5m. Next up was Benfica. Souness spent slightly longer in Portugal – 18 months. Again though, he reign at the club is remembered for the wrong reasons; the lasting memory is his refusal to sign a young Deco. That’s the same Deco that instead joined rivals Porto and went on to become one of the best Portuguese footballers of all time.
Restoring some credit
After a short time away from the game, Blackburn Rovers gave Souness a chance to prove he wasn’t a managerial bust; he had to drop into the second tier for the job but he still banked a tidy £1m per year with the club. Despite doubts over the appointment, it worked out very well. Souness led the club to the Premier League at the first time of asking; that was achieved by tapping into youngsters. Then, back in the big time, ‘Souey’ made some signifcant signings with Tugay and American goalkeeper Brad Friedel the two who went on to have the greatest Blackburn careers.
You couldn’t really knock what Souness was doing. Blackburn lifted the League Cup in his time at the helm as well as peaking in the league with a sixth place finish; that earned them European football via the UEFA Cup.
A bad end at Newcastle
Despite Blackburn finishing in the bottom half in the 2003/04 season, Souness had restored plenty of credit to his name after a few questionable years. It saw him appointed manager at Newcastle United who had just sacked Ipswich Town’s UEFA Cup winning manager Sir Bobby Robson.
Hindsight says he perhaps should have stayed at Blackburn because his time on Tyneside was nothing but disastrous. Souness had high profile falling outs with players – most notably Craig Bellamy. He also saw players – Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer – fight on the pitch under his watch and, to cap it all off, he splashed big money on a series of ‘busts’. Amongst those signings were Michael Owen and Albert Luque. Again, Souness lasted 18 months before being sacked.
Souness could not put his Newcastle spell behind him that easily though. Amongst his big money signings at the club was Jean-Alain Boumsong. It later saw Newcastle and Souness under investigation via the Stevens Inquiry. When the details of that were released – in 2007 – it was a further stain on Souness’ reputation albeit the man himself denied any wrongdoing. Regardless, he never managed again.
Remaining in football
Although Souness never managed again, he has remained close to elite level sport through his work in the media.
His earlier forays into punditry saw him work in Ireland for RTE. His biggest gig with them being their coverage of the 2010 World Cup where he worked alongside one of the best left backs ever in Denis Irwin. Since then, Souness’ punditry game has grown with the former player now a regular on numerous platforms. They include beIN Sports in Qatar, TV3 (Ireland) and, most notably, with Sky Sports where he works alongside the likes of Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards. It’s understood Souness earns between £500k and £1m per year courtesy of Sky alone.
On top of all that, Souness – along with fellow ex-pro Dion Dublin – have fronted a campaign to support retired footballers. The scheme the duo support is aimed at players who suffer from long term issues relating to the game and, specifically, those who played in an era where they didn’t earn enough to fund their required treatment.
And, of course, there was an international career…
International football didn’t exactly contribute much to Graeme Souness’ net worth but given we’ve already touched on the majority of Souness’ career it feels like we should mention that side of things too. His debut came in a friendly game at the age of 21; from there his involvement was limited until he joined Liverpool. With the Reds, Souness was more in the spotlight and his Scotland career took off. All told, he made 54 appearances for the Scots and played at three World Cup finals.
There you have it, Graeme Souness’ net worth.