Cover-Credits:
- Fabien “Neo” Devide - Vitality's Chairman, talks about ZywOo's starting salary.
- ZywOo recently extended his contract with Vitality till the end of 2024.
- Neo on the new contract said that "It's a four-year contract extension which took six months to negotiate with his agent."
One of the best CS:GO players in the world Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut who recently extended his contract with the French team Vitality till the end of 2024 is definitely one of the most valuable players in the professional circuit at the moment.
In a recent interview with HLTV, Founder/Chairman of Vitality - Fabien “Neo” Devide spoke about ZywOo’s salary when he first signed with the organization among many other things.
RELATED: S1mple Explains Why ZywOo is The Best AWPer in CS:GO
Vitality Chairman Talks About ZywOo’s Starting Salary
Having described how Vitality scouted ZywOo, Neo spoke about his initial discussion with the French AWPer about his starting salary. At the time, ZywOo was just 17-years-old and Vitality was the biggest CS:GO organization to have ever approached him. So when he was asked about what his salary expectations, responding in a 'classic ZywOo' manner he said that “If you give me € 1,500 or € 2,000 I'm more than happy; that'd be insane money.”
To this Neo responded by saying that “OK, I don’t think I can pay you that, it’s too low compared to the other guys.” Despite ZywOo being nothing more than a rookie at that time, Vitality only after a few days of practice had an understanding that he was something special.
Neo went on to reveal that the initial offer Vitality made ZywOo “was more than what he had asked for,” and they had even told him that “if he performed well in the first months we’d pay him the same as the rest of the guys.” This was the kind of potential they saw in ZywOo and it has turned out to be probably one of the best investments for the organization.
RELATED: [Watch] ZywOo Takes an Impossible 9 HP Pistol Ace Against Na’Vi
Talking about the new contract signed between the two parties which observed Paris getting illuminated with holograms of ZywOo to celebrate the huge news, Neo said that “It's a four-year contract extension which took six months to negotiate with his agent. It was very natural because they were happy with our project and we're very happy to have the best player in the world—I will never complain about that! We were all on the same page.”
Vitality started off the year pretty rough but found their bearings in the second half of 2020 as they started to show consistency, but a victory at a tournament still eluded them. This too changed towards the end of the year as the French organization won both, IEM Beijing 2020: Europe and BLAST Premier: Fall 2020.
ZywOo was a big reason behind Vitality’s success and even personally has had a fantastic year. The only thing that remains is to see if he does indeed take the top spot as the best CS:GO player of the year for the second time in a row.
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