Slovak Football Association in Financial Trouble: Calzona’s Salary Revealed

The Slovak Football Association (SFZ) is facing significant financial difficulties, burdened by debts exceeding €6.5 million. The organization has even fallen behind on payments to key personnel, including national team head coach Francesco Calzona (57). Documents obtained by our newsroom reveal the extent of the financial strain and the coach’s lucrative contract.

Calzona became Slovakia’s head coach on August 30, 2022, and has since guided the team to notable successes. But, he is currently awaiting payment for two months of work. According to the leaked documents, the SFZ owes him a total of €140,000 for November and December 2025. This equates to a monthly salary of €70,000.

Official data on Calzona’s salary previously released by the SFZ dates back to 2023, when the organization publicly disclosed monthly payments. Over ten installments that year, the SFZ paid him a total of €308,700. The association has since stopped publishing Calzona’s payment details.

Unofficial reports had previously surfaced, with Finance Football reporting in 2024 that Calzona earned €540,000 for the year, roughly €45,000 per month. These figures remained unconfirmed until now, with the leaked documents revealing an annual income of approximately €840,000.

Calzona’s coaching staff is also well-compensated, with the SFZ also owing them outstanding payments. Assistant coach Gianluca Segarelli receives €6,000 per month, the same amount as fitness coach Alessandro Bulfoni and video analyst Marco Brini. Technical manager of the A-team Giovanni Paolo De Matteis earns €12,000. Calzona’s right-hand man, Simone Bonomi, is the highest-paid member of the staff at €14,300 per month. This portion of the coaching staff, along with Calzona, costs the association approximately €114,300 per month, or roughly €1.37 million annually.

By comparison, former national team coach Ján Kozák st., who led the team from 2013 to 2018 and qualified them for EURO 2016, started with a base salary of €15,000, later increased to €26,000. His assistant earned €5,000 monthly. Successors Pavel Hapal and Štefan Tarkovič, who managed the team at EURO 2020, also began with similar compensation packages.

Looking further back, even Vladimír Weiss st., who guided Slovakia to the 2010 World Cup during his tenure from 2008 to 2012, initially earned €10,000 per month, later increasing to €35,000.

Compared to global standards, Calzona’s salary isn’t the highest, but it places him among the better-compensated national team coaches. The highest-paid coach is Brazil’s Carlo Ancelotti, reportedly earning approximately €9.5 million annually, according to Fabrizio Romano. England’s Thomas Tuchel follows with around €5.8 million per year, as reported by Florian Plettenberg, and the USA’s Mauricio Pochettino earns approximately €5.2 million according to ESPNFC. Japan’s Hajime Moriyasu, earning around €1 million annually, is closer to Calzona’s income of approximately €840,000 per year.

Highest-Paid National Team Coaches (Annual Salary):

Calzona’s future with the Slovak national team is now a key question. His contract expires after the unsuccessful playoff for the World Cup, or after the tournament itself should Slovakia qualify. “We have been discussing this with Karol Belánik, Štefan Tarkovič, and Ivan Kozák. We had a long and interesting meeting with Francesco Calzona. We discussed links to the national teams from U17 upwards, where we would like to define cooperation at a different level than before. Communication will continue throughout March. There is interest from both Calzona and us to continue,” revealed SFZ president Ján Kováčik in the “What are you playing!” podcast.

However, whether the SFZ can afford to offer the Italian coach at least the same terms as before remains to be seen. Kováčik admitted that they have only discussed Calzona’s willingness to stay, not his salary. “We haven’t gotten to that, but he indirectly said he would be happy if things stayed the same. We have seriously considered the proposals he brought, many of which are good. They can’t be applied 100% as Calzona envisions, but that’s what discussion and compromise are for, and both sides are prepared to compromise,” added the head of Slovak football, who is preparing for his fifth term in office.