Uyo, September 25, 2026. Nigeria came from behind to beat Madagascar 2-1 and Moses Simon walked off the Godswill Akpabio pitch in his 100th Super Eagles jersey. Fans are still asking a simpler question about the Kaduna-based winger: what does he actually earn?
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Musa Baba-Ajala Simon |
| was born | July 12, 1995 |
| Origin | Idoma, Benue State; He grew up in Kaduna |
| Club | Paris FC, contract until June 2028 |
| Reporting fee | Around €7 million from Nantes (2025) |
| Calculated wages | €225,000 per month, per Foot Mercato (unconfirmed) |
| Nigerian caps | 100 was reached on September 25, 2026 |
| Great prizes | Gent, Belgian champion with Coupe de France 2022 |
From GBS Academy to Stade de France
He spent ten years at the GBS Academy. A move to Ajax was agreed in 2013.
The next place was Slovakia. He joined AS Trenčín in January 2014 and scored 13 league goals in 33 games, enough for KAA Gent to bring him to Belgium a year later and help the club win their first national title in 2014–15. Levante signed a 5-year contract with him in August 2018. Spain never clicked. He scored 1 goal in 19 games.
Nantes changed everything.
Came on loan in August 2019 and the move was permanent. In six seasons, he scored 37 goals in 201 matches according to Flashscore. It reached its peak on May 7, 2022. Nantes won the French Cup by defeating Nice club 1:0 at Stade de France.
Paris FC action and money
Paris FC called in June 2025. The club had just returned to Ligue 1 after a 46-year hiatus. Simon has signed a three-year deal that runs until the summer of 2028 and Foot Africa have reported that the fee has never been officially disclosed, with several outlets putting it at close to €7 million. “Moses was a priority for us,” sporting director Francois Ferracci told reporters.
The first season was difficult. Afrik-Foot has three goals and two assists in his first 23 league matches. No target since November. He became only the second Nigerian to reach 200 Ligue 1 games since John Utaka in March 2026. Former Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior was appointed in July. And what is Musa Simon’s salary? Neither the club nor the player published it. The only figure available from an established outlet is Foot Mercato’s, which is listed as €225,000 a month, around €2.7 million a year, without explaining how it was arrived at, so take it as a report rather than a confirmed salary.
Net worth is murkier.
No reliable publication has put a confirmed figure on this. Anything you see on the internet is a general guess.
Family, Kaduna and academia
Daily Trust described him in July 2026 as “originally from the Idoma ethnic group in Benue State”, born and raised in Kaduna. Some records give Jos as the place of birth instead. He is listed under Benue in the list of Super Eagles players and their states of origin.
Ripples Nigeria reports that he got married to Sarah Adenuga of Ibu in December 2015. Their second daughter arrived on April 30, 2020. “God has added another princess to my castle,” Simon wrote as we beamed as we welcomed our baby girl.
The family’s public project is the Simoiben Academy, founded by Ibukun in 2015. He works in Kaduna and Abuja. Its most famous graduate, defender Benjamin Fredrick, moved to Brentford. “My husband is the president of the academy and I’m more of a sponsor and mentor to the younger guys,” Simon told RG. The reason is personal. “I remember growing up in Kaduna, there was no platform to connect young talents with European clubs,” he said, adding that the academy he opened in Kaduna was built to fill that void.
Green and white centurion
He made his debut on March 25, 2015 against Uganda as a substitute.
Eleven years later, he is one of five Nigerians to reach 100 caps alongside Ahmed Musa, Vincent Enyeama, Joseph Yobo and Alex Iwobi. Daily Trust scored 12 goals before Madagascar. At AFCON 2023 in Cote d’Ivoire, he was man of the match against Angola in the quarter-finals, setting up Ademola Lookman’s winner en route to the final. In Morocco, he came off the bench in the AFCON 2025 third-place play-off where Nigeria beat Egypt on penalties.
Eric Chelle renamed it in September 2026 for the AFCON 2027 qualifiers against Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau.
He is now 31 years old.
What it means for Nigeria
The NFF often struggle to keep senior players loyal and Simon keeps coming. Acting Secretary General Emmanuel Ikpeme called him “a patriot in his own right”. With players already moving from his academy to Europe, his impact on Nigerian football could be more than anything Paris FC paid him.
This article was last revised and updated 24 seconds ago