The 2014 World Cup's Highest-Paid Coaches: Who Makes The Most Money?

Playing soccer at the highest level is a good way to make tens of millions of dollars, assuming you can stay on top of your game, not get injured, and continue to win matches.

But if you don't have the skill to be a great player, or the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to purchase a club of your own, becoming a coach is another great way to get rich off "the beautiful game," according to a list of World Cup coaches' salaries compiled and released by Sporting Intelligence.

The list looks only at coaches of national teams that qualified to play at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and some of their annual salaries are eye-popping, averaging at about $2 million per year.

The amounts that national team's coaches make is high in comparison to the average citizen's pay, but they actually pale in comparison to the ten highest-paid club coaches, who average about $11.3 million annually, according to Forbes.

The highest paid national team coach is Fabio Capello, the Italian coach of the Russian squad, who pulls in $11,235,210 per year. Second and third are Roy Hodgson of the English team and Cesare Prandelli of Team Italy, who make $5,874,570 and $4,322,010 annually, respectively.

At the other end of spectrum, the pay is far lower. Mexico's national team coach, Miguel Herrera makes a comparatively low salary of $209,810. Second and third lowest are Ghana's James Kwesi Appiah and Niko Kovac of Croatia, who make $251,770 and $271,740 per year, respectively.

Clearly none of these coaches are starving in the streets, but some coaches fare far better compared to their fellow countrymen than do others. For instance, Sabri Lamouchi, the French coach of the Ivory Coast's national squad, makes $1,037,450 each year, equal to 795 times the average Ivory Coast resident's salary, the highest multiplier of any 2014 World Cup coach. Meanwhile, Kovac makes just 19 times what the average Croatian does.

Click this link to check out the Sports Intelligence chart for yourself.