Sport on Saturday: If this was happening in any other industry, it would be illegal.

Here is a name to feed into the pop culture search engine between your ears: Cristiano Ronaldo. He looks like a supermodel, plays soccer like a demi-god and as a result of these two factors features in ad campaigns for everything from Armani underwear to Jacob & Co timepieces. Just for playing for Real Madrid, he earns upwards of half a million dollars. A week. After tax.

As preposterous as this figure is, it may well rise on the fact that he recently took out the Ballon D’Or prize, which effectively proclaims him the world’s best player.

Reset your search engine and try this name for size: Nadine Angerer.

Need a minute? Thought so.

Angerer is a German goalkeeper currently plying her trade in our (Australia’s) W-League. She also happens to be the current female Ballon D’Or winner.

Now, to watch Ronaldo in action, you’ll need at least $350 for a ticket. To see Angerer do her thing, it’ll cost you a fiver. And you’ll more than likely get a photo with her, plus an autograph afterwards.

As a rabid sportsfan who’ll watch pretty much anything involving athletes fitter than I’ll ever be, this disparity is utterly ludicrous. The best player on the planet is right here in Australia, it costs a pittance to get in and she’s stopping shots in front of the crowd that’s smaller than that which gathers in the loading dock of a hotel where One Direction may or may not be having dinner.

Angerer, her colleagues and her competitors play for exactly the same length of time as men and as for those who say the skill levels are lacking when compared to the boys I respond, when was the last time you watched a women’s match?

The dainty, underpowered argument bruises way easier than its supposed targets and get this: the salary cap in the W-League is $150,000 per year. For the entire team.

Were this gender disparity evident in any other field – plumbing, law, choreography – it would be deemed illegal quicker than you could say “unconscionably discriminatory”.

But these women get out there and do it, week in, week out. For the love of the game and maybe the idea that they’ll inspire a few little girls who have a wicked volley and sizzling left foot.

For this punter, the travesty lies in the fact that female athletes across a wide variety of sports are not only deemed lesser than their male counterparts, they are the ones who should be reaping the million dollar contracts.

Why? In a word: conduct. In the English Premier League alone, which is often considered the world’s best, the last year has seen footballers racially vilify opponents, bite one another and throw barely disguised Nazi salutes. And that’s just on the field. But as long as the ball keeps hitting the back of the boys, it’s slaps on the wrist all around, boys will be boys and all that.

You know why you never hear about this happening with female players? Because, for the most part, most are too busy working their second jobs to have time to misbehave with Victoria’s Secret models while their spouse is at home, post offensive Tweets and peddle the hollow excuse “but I didn’t ask to be a role model”.

Of course, you didn’t ask, you overly-tattoed ludicously-coiffed, Maserati-crashing buffoon. It’s part of what you get paid for. Or at the very least it should be. Just ask Nadine Angerer.

David Smiedt is one of Australia’s finest comedian MC’s and corporate performers. He a regular on television shows, the author of six humorous books, and a writer for a wide range of magazines.

And in other women’s sports news of the week…

It’s International Women’s Day this week – and to celebrate, fundraising website Indiegogo are kicking in $1 for every $25 raised on their site. It’s a great way to support some of our brilliant Australian female athletes, such as Jess Gardiner, a 20-year-old motorcyclist who races offroad and enduro.

This year, Jess is competing in the Australian Off Road championships as well as flying to Europe to race in the Enduro World Championships. She funds this by driving a enormous dump truck 10 hours a day; she also mentors junior riders and is an ambassador for NSW Womensport. If you’d like to help her out, you can find her campaign here.

Our very own Matildas soccer player, Katrina Gorry, has signed with National Women’s Soccer League side FC Kansas City. This makes her the fifth Australian to participate in the NWSL in 2014, and means that she’ll get plenty of attention overseas, as well as in Australia. Congratulations, Katrina!

While there’s still a long time to go before the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off, the Matildas are starting to get some decent practice in – for the first time ever, they’re competing in the Cyrus Cup, a 12 team competition featuring a number of Top 10 teams in the world. This year, it runs until the 12th March and features – amongst other teams – France, Canada, England, Italy and the Netherlands.

Have you seen anything in the news that you’d like to talk about?