Lost in the midst of the weekend MLS action was the news that Major League Soccer's players union had revealed the 2011 salaries for the league's players.
To nobody's surprise, David Beckham and Thierry Henry are the highest-paid players in MLS. In fact, the four highest-paid players in MLS were on the field together in Saturday night's LA-New York match.
The salary list also revealed some real bargains, such as New York's Tim Ream ($62,625), Seattle's Mauro Rosales ($42,000) and Chicago's Diego Chaves ($45,000).
Here are the 2011 MLS player salaries.
Give the list a look and tell us who you think some of the best bargains and most overpaid players in the league are.
Share your thoughts below.
I am very surprised at the low salaries of the Earthquakes. I didn’t take a calculator but I don’t think the whole team adds up to Donovan’s salary.
I always wanted to be a professional soccer star. But now I know I couldn’t afford the pay cut.
Taino, Solli, Lindpere…I think you’d have to say those guys are providing some serious value right now for what they make.
$ 1,345,500 = Ferriera + Zakuani + Morales.
$ 280,000 = Leathers + Mullan + Mondaini.
Casey laughs all the way to the bank.
He is a starter now that he is back from his hernia surgery.
He has started the last two games and came off the bench the two games before that. He was injured the first part of the season.
He does have talent and is either that good or is still young enough to have the confidence to take players on with the dribble. So often older players have this aspect of their game driven out of them by coaches who don’t want to lose possession.
He is still feeling out the team and the league so it is hard to say how good he will become. At this early point, he is not one of the five best players on the team to have a salary like that. Time will tell.
Arturro Alvarez (RSL)continues to be a giant enigma to me with his salary number as well.
I just don’t get it? RSL fans, what am I missing? Too much money for a depth player on a very good team!
i agree. i saw that too. way too much for him.
Has Nagbe played much?
Casey makes $400,000?!?! wow. and i can’t believe juninho makes less than magee, barrett and dunivant.
i love that henry’s total salary is $5,600,000.04. those four pennies are important!
i can’t believe espindola only makes $75K, especially while Gil is pulling in $185K. or arturo pulling in $201K.
Ibrahim Salou (NYRB) has a great agent
yeah, just don’t tell Rosales that. For the Seattle area and that cost of living, he’s not making very much.
True!
For Portland, Gleeson at 40k is a steal compared to Perkins 280k and Brown 75k. I think the kid is going to soon get a raise or be traded to a team in need that can pay him what he is worth.
Goldthwaite at 126k for a bench player does not look good. He has been outplayed by Danso 75k and Horst 42k and Brunner 74k.
Nagbe for Generation Addidas at 200k seems high for an untested quantity just out of the draft, compared to Charra, Portland’s lone designated player at 143k which is just a bit more than 50% of what Kenny Cooper makes at 267k. Shouldn’t Cooper really be the DP?
The list does help explain some of the playing time decisions the organization has made. Higher salary players will get more playing time.
I’m even more shocked that they’re paying Luis Gil 185,000.
I love that Henry gets 5 million dollars and four cents. They were obviously picking a nice round number for the $5 million part, but $0.04 extra? That’s a 0.0000008% tip.
You’re writing about bargains, but there’s one salary that is so outrageously high, I’ve got to believe it must be a mistake.
DC United had the 1st pick in the FA draft. In the first phase, they passed on some of the higher-priced players, to take what everyone called a “bargain” player — Joseph Ngwenya, who made $72,000 last year. As I understand the rules, Ngwenya might have qualified as a 30/8 player, meaning DC had to offer him 105% of his previous salary. THat would be a little over $75,000.
For some reason, Ngwenya is listed as getting $156,000. That’s not 105 of his old salary — it represents more than a 105% raise — Actually it’s over 210% higher than his prior salary. Maybe, it’s possible that Ngwenya had some foreign offers with which DC had to compete, but this seems absurd.
Agudelo is already under paid. I also can’t believe Hejduk makes less than 100 grand.
Yeah but the cost of living in England is in pounds not in dollars so it levels out.
Mondragon was a steal at just north of $200k. That guy is worth DP money.
Are these salaries actually what they get paid? I thought the Dynamo signed Koke for almost $2million. There were several reports on that. If we’re only paying him $150k, he’s a moron for leaving Aris where he made $1.5 million last season at age 27!
I know Portland is one of the younger teams in the league by age as well as they wanted to build their system for the most part, not just spend to get names. I believe this is why their overall salary is low.
Yes but they also pay for everything in the pound which increase the cost of living. Also the pound is 1.6 not 2 to 1.
He is already at Aris and shining there. Fire did not have any talent around him to take advantage of his skills. I think he is staying at Aris.
Fire need to get rid of castillo.
looking at this maakes me realize I made a wise decision to stop playing collegiate soccer and become an accountant.
has looked worth it so far
per year, this is the amount they get for the whole season
Philly and Portland are frugal.
$250,000 for Kenny Cooper?
Is this how much they get paid a year or a month ?
The league only keeps a portion of transfer fees. Depends in a relatively complicated way on roster category and tenure.
Don’t forget that the pound is nearly double the dollar.
79,000 pounds is around 130,000 USD.
Keep in mind the value of the pound vs the dollar. Tim Ream making $62,625 is less than his age group’s average in the Championship…and that’s before you convert to dollars…79,200 pounds is close to $130,000 meaning Ream makes less than half of the average championship player in his age group.
it is hard to get a loan from mls and the league keeps 100% of the transfer revenue when sold unlike other leagues where the player gets a cut.
Doesn’t it seem like quite a few backup keepers are overpaid? I was surprised to see some teams with three six-figure GKs…
Championship players earn an average salary of £195,750, League One players £67,850 and League Two £49,600. (the Independent)
So basically, on a wage scale, MLS is somewhere between Championship and League one, which is also probably where we fit in on the competition scale.
Also, figure in that the MLS is trying to at least break even, which is not necessarily true of most of English soccer.
Figure in this:
Championship
Age 17-18 £22,500
Age 19-20 £43,700
Age 21-22 £79,000
Age 23-24 £79,200
Age 25-26 £136,000
Our young stars don’t necessarily get paid well to move to Europe.
George John at $42k held Charlie Davies to 0Goals, 0Assist, 0SOG, 1FS
+1
I understand the salary cap system, but what’s the difference between MLS’ transfer policy and, say, the EPL or La Liga?
Picture Caption – Can you believe that we are getting paid more than the rest of our teammates combined??? HA
YES! Shocked and a little saddened, to be honest. He has more talent in his pinky toe than 95% of the six-figure guys.
Count me in.
Omar Cummings only makes $80K … paltry compared to Conor Casey’s $400K
Was anyone else shocked that Fabian Espindola only makes $75,000?
When the American soccer fan cries about players choosing to play in midling leagues of Scandanavia/Europe, etc. remember some of the salaries you see on this list…not to mention it is easier to make jump to even bigger leagues with more money on table. True, it does not work out for everyone, but as long as MLS has current salary structure and restrictive loan policy you will see talent choose these leagues over MLS.
And this comes from a supporter of the way MLS has built the product…but it is time to make some tweaks. Especially in the transfer policy.
Signing bonus. So if you get a 60K signing bonus on a 3 year deal, it will count 20K per season over your base salaries.
What makes up the difference between base salary and guaranteed compensation?
For the sounders rosales is an amazing deal!! It makes me love him even more! I don’t know why he is that cheap!
Noonan and jaqua are wayyy overpaid!!