Let the scrutinizing begin.
The MLS Players Union released its current list of player salaries (which can be seen by club here) on Friday, and it should come as no surprise that the highest-paid players in the league, respectively, are New York Red Bulls Designated Players Thierry Henry and Rafa Marquez and Los Angeles Galaxy DPs David Beckham, Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan.
Beckham, who made $5.5 million in base salary to be the highest-paid player in MLS last season, took a $2.5 million paycut to return to Los Angeles (although he is due $4 million in guaranteed compensation, which includes bonuses) and is now the third-highest-paid player behind the Red Bulls duo.
The top 10 highest-paid players in base salary and some of the league's top bargains are after the jump:
TOP 10 HIGHEST PAID PLAYERS (in base salary)
Thierry Henry, NYRB – $5 million
Rafa Marquez, NYRB – $4.6 million
David Beckham, LA – $3 million
Robbie Keane, LA – $2,917,241
Landon Donovan, LA – $2.4 million
Torsten Frings, TFC – $2 million
Julian de Guzman, TFC – $1,863,996
Kris Boyd, POR – $1.25 million
Danny Koevermans, TFC – $1.15 million
Dwayne De Rosario, DCU – $617,857.20
TOP BARGAINS (in base salary)
George John, FCD – $47,250
Nelson Rivas, MON – $50,000
Jaime Castrillon, COL – $50,000
Sebastian Grazzini, CHI – $50,400
C.J. Sapong, SKC – $65,000
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Who do you think are the biggest bargains in the league? Who do you think has some work to do to justify their salary?
Share your thoughts below.
Could that not be down to other factors? I go frequently, and he seems to be caught out of position quite often and beaten for pace. The defense is often left exposed when the ball’s gone by him. The team’s quality has improved, I just don’t see where Marquez himself has added to it in making up for numerous personal errors.
Wow this is pretty crazy. The league needs to do something about minimum wage or some of these guys will use their University educations to go to grad school after college instead of playing professional soccer.
I’m shocked that there are players who have some foothold in Starting XI’s making less than $50k, let alone less than $40k. There has to be more money lying around somewhere for these guys, no?
Frings is worth it, but De Guzman is not an impact player in MLS
Disagree…Despite the suspensions, NY’s quality has drastically improved since he was brought in.
Am floored by how little Omar Cummings makes …
John has been offered new contracts for more money, but turned them down because he wants to go to Europe. So far it hasn’t worked out for him and he should have taken a new contract a couple years ago.
I’m not extremely well versed on Canadian tax law, but they have very friendly laws. For example lottery winnings aren’t taxable. Bonuses aren’t either.
I don’t know how it works in Canadia, but in Amer’ca, the difference in that first and second column (i.e. anything that’s not base salary) is gonna take a bigger hit than the player’s standard wages.
THIS!
People kept wondering how the Galaxy got Buddle and Sarvas and Juninho back and claimed bloody murder that the league was helping them…..well guess what?
They are only giving Buddle 200K, and between guys such as Hedjuk, Kirovski and I’m trying to remember there was someone else who retired….someone help me out here lol oh and Birchall leaving who made like 150K that was more than enough add to that Saunders being the starter and Ricketts making more than him it adds up to a lot of cash, plus the allocation money the got from the Ricketts trade and for making this past CCL quarters and next season of CCL in group stage…
Good point. I gotta say, the MLS players union is not doing a very good job of helping lower-paid players get a decent (professional sport) wage. I bet there are washed-up PR flacks at most MLS clubs making more money than 90% of the players. Bench warmers in the Second Bundesliga earn at least 150k-200k per year.