Hull boss Steve Bruce has revealed the club's new match-winner Dame N'Doye took a 'huge pay cut' to try his luck in the Barclays Premier League.
Many players who arrive in England from overseas do so on bumper contracts funded by lavish broadcast deals, such as the latest £5.1billion domestic rights agreement, but N'Doye is a different case.
He was on a handsome contract at Lokomotiv Moscow and was persuaded by Bruce to join the Tigers on transfer deadline day, despite being offered a considerable drop in wages.
That, coupled with a modest transfer fee of just £2.2million, already looks like good business after the Senegalese scored one and set up the other in a 2-0 win over fellow strugglers Aston Villa on his full debut.
"All the hard work that went into (the transfer) was well worth it when you see him play like he did tonight. Not many players take a significant wage cut to come and play in England, but he wanted to do that," said Bruce, whose side jumped out of the relegation zone and into 15th place courtesy of a crucial three points.
"I can't speak highly enough of someone who gave up a huge amount of money to come and play here.
"We've all seen the figures and what it (broadcast rights) will be in 18 months, but he's somebody who's taken a huge pay cut to come here and fair play to him.
"He wanted to show his skills here and I thought it was a fantastic (full) debut. Let's hope it's the first of many."
Victory over Villa completed a strong week's work for Hull, who drew 1-1 with Manchester City on Saturday and now look a resurgent force in the relegation scrap.
"Psychologically to come out of the bottom three was key," said Bruce.
"The result over the weekend gave us a bit of confidence and that's a strange thing in football."
Confidence is an ingredient conspicuous by its absence in a ragged Aston Villa side.
They are now 18th in the table and appear increasingly toothless, having failed to add to their dismal tally of 12 goals all season.
Under-pressure manager Paul Lambert made no attempt to downplay the gravity of their situation, but admitted his side were short of self-belief.
"I can't describe how we feel as a group," he said.
"It's as flat as you'd probably guess. But I've just said to the lads there's two ways to go - you can meet it head on or you buckle under it. Make sure you don't buckle for your own career.
"You can't feel sorry for yourself, you've got to pick yourself up and go again.
"The supporters expect a reaction. No matter what you do you've got to make sure you're out of the bottom.
"It's the biggest 13 games of their careers coming up."
Source: PA
