Alexei Morozov, Ak Bars

Sport Daily recently posted an unofficial list of the top player salaries in the Russian Super League, including some interesting details along the way.

Kazan's top forward line of Morozov, Zinovjev, and Zaripov grabs the first three spots on the list, of course, with their salaries having nearly doubled over what they earned the previous season. Note that all three players together will "unoficially" earn a combined $10.5 million in '07-'08, even though the Russian Super League has a salary cap said to be in the neighborhood of $11 million per team. Obviously players in Russia are still being paid under the table some, and the Sports Daily article even makes mention of the Russian oil giant, Tatneft, pitching in with "additional financing" to support all three players' contracts.

For some reason, Oleg Tverdovsky and Stanislav Chistov are left off the list, even though both players recently signed with Salavat Yulayev Ufa for a reported $1.7 million each (the same dollar figure as teammates Perezhogin and Koltsov).

The Sport Daily article also notes that the first million dollar player in the Russian Super League was Maxim Sushinsky, back when he played for Avangard Omsk, and the contract that Evgeni Malkin left on the table when he bolted Magnitogorsk for Pittsburgh was worth $2.5 million.

The list:

Alexei Morozov, Ak Bars $4.0 million
Sergei Zinovjev, Ak Bars $3.5 million
Danis Zaripov, Ak Bars $3.0 million
Alexei Yashin, Lokomotiv $2.7 million
Alexander Perezhogin, Salavat Yulayev $1.7 million
Kiril Koltsov, Salavat Yulayev $1.7 million
Nikolai Kulemin, Metallurg Mg $1.3 million
Alexei Kalyuzhny, Avangard $1.2 million
Maxim Sushinsky, SKA-St. Petersburg $1.1 million
Vadim Yepanchintsev, CSKA-Moscow $1.0 million