Milan - Brazilian Kaka tops the list of millionaire footballers in the Italian Serie A with a contract worth more than 100 times those of the least paid colleagues, a report in La Gazzetta dello Sport showed Tuesday. At 6 million euros (8.1 million dollars) per season after tax, which AC Milan will pay him until 2011, Kaka narrowly leads Roma captain Francesco Totti, making 5.46 million euros, and a group of four players, Inter Milan's Patrick Vieira, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Adriano, plus Juventus's 'keeper Gianluigi Buffon, who settled for 5 millions.
The remaining players of Milan earn between 2 and four million euros, for a total of 120 million euros, which includes tax payments amounting to about 50 per cent and the pay of the club's staff.
The European champions are thus Italy's top-spending club for the current season.
Inter Milan follow with 110 millions, ahead of Juventus, at 96.9, while Roma trail on 59 millions, Fiorentina on 30 and Palermo on 24.6.
Reggina, Empoli, Siena, Atalanta and Cagliari, the top-flight's least spending club, dish out between 12.6 and 11 million euros to run their teams, about half the expenses of Sampdoria, Torino and newcomers Genoa.
Expenses of promoted Napoli, Catania, Lazio, Livorno, Udinese and Parma range from 19.8 to 14 million euros.
A curious case is Inter's Argentinian midfielder Santiago Solari, a high-frequency bench sitter, who receives the same 3.5-million-euro check as new arrival Christian Chivu, Dejan Stankovic, Luis Figo and compatriot Hernan Crespo.
There is no player on a salary of a million euros or more in the squad of the Champions League participants Lazio, where the highest- paid player is Roberto Baronio with 750,000 euros.
There is a case of double dipping at Sampdoria, where the top-earning striker Antonio Cassano makes 1.2 million euros, but still receives 3 millions from Real Madrid, who loaned him to the Genoa side.
At the bottom of the list with 40,000 euros per season are Marco Mancosu and Slovenian 'keeper Jan Koprivac, both playing with Cagliari and Simone Iacoponi of Empoli.
The total paid by the 20 Serie A clubs for their 494 players is 666.5 million euros, up from last year's 637, but far from the 764 millions spent in the 2004-05 season.
