The time has come... Carlos Alberto Parreira touched down in Johannesburg this morning to start his life as the most highly paid person in the South African public eye.

I was absolutely amazed and shocked to hear Carlos Alberto Parreira will be coaching Bafana Bafana in preparation of the 2010 World Cup. I admire him for his ambitions - he did say that he wanted to coach the first African country to win their own hosted World Cup - but I can't help but feel his comments are only fuelled by the big fat pay cheques he'll be getting.

R1.8 million (£131000, €194000, $246000, BRL 527000) per MONTH is outrageous!! It's even more than the President gets, and all this guy has to do is tell a bunch of guys which end of the field they should be scoring in. This figure doesn't include the cost of his translator (cos Carlos only speaks Portuguese) and his contract doesn't have a performance clause in it either. Great!!!

So, now SA has some foreigner who, single handedly, will drain the local economy of a whopping R21.6 million a year. Assuming he does hang about until SA "win" the World Cup in 2010, he'd have milked the country of about R65 million. Imagine all the homes that could be built, or all the policemen that could be employed, or even all of the african potatoes, olive oil, lemons and garlic that could be bought (actually, they won't need the money for this as the government has finally stopped listening to Mantu).

Whilst this isn't the highest salary for a national coach, I do think it's excessive for a country like South Africa. I really really really hope he's worth every cent and I hope South Africa can add the Football World Cup to the list of World Cups we've won, 1 so far, but it could be 2 is Graeme and the boys bring home the Cricket World Cup at the end of April.