After days of dodging speculation regarding the transfer of Tim Cahill to MLS, the New York Red Bulls made it official: The Australian international and former Everton star attacker is the club's third Designated Player.
The Red Bulls announced the signing of Cahill Thursday after he trained with the club for the first time. Everton announced the transfer on Monday, saying it was pending Cahill passing a physical and agreeing to personal terms with the Red Bulls. Both conditions are taken care of, and according to Fox Soccer, the 32-year-old Cahill is signed for three years at $3.5 million per season, which would make him the third-highest paid player on the team and fourth-highest player in the league behind Thierry Henry, Rafa Marquez and David Beckham.
"(Cahill) is the technical, physical presence we have been looking to add in our team, and he brings a wealth of experience to our club having played in some of the highest levels of international soccer," Red Bulls general manager Erik Soler said in a statement. "Tim is a proven leader both on and off the field, and we believe that he can help us immediately in our quest to win the MLS Cup this season."
What do you think of the signing? Are the Red Bulls the favorite to win MLS Cup now? Is Cahill worth that price tag?
Share your thoughts below.
ET,
none of those sports you mentioned are the global game. Soccer is the global game. The NFL has no competitor. They can set up any kind of restrictive system they want to.
I think the NFL has gotten worse though with how much parity they force on the league. I prefer college football.
I’ve never seen such an outpouring of respect and love as Everton fans have shown to Cahill. This guy seems a class act (Rafa eat some crow!) Donovan was right when he spoke of how with Evertonians you feel right at home.
I hope that with Cahill in the picture, this is the Year of the Bulls! (the red ones)
So I guess the NFL,NHL,NBA are mediocrity. All of them make way more then any soccer league.
The goal should be to dump CLB . What a minor league market that is. Why did Hunt put a team there?
Well actually the salary cap is to ensure teams don’t spend themselves into oblivion. European clubs are in mountains of debt, teams like Real Madrid have to get bailed out to stay afloat. Parity is better than the same 2-4 teams winning each year, makes for a more well rounded spectacle rather than seeing Barca or Man U crush teams in trheir league that can’t afford the talented players like they can.
China will be giving MLS all the incentive that’s needed to change the cap structure. Probably get something similar to baseball’s revenue sharing model.
T,
parity shouldn’t be the goal. Parity leads to mediocrity.
JRP,
I agree with you 100%. I was being facetious.
The current cap structure makes it difficult to have a balanced club with players making a similar wage.
I’m against forced parity and salary caps.
agreed
Open your wallets just like we do to buy beer,Jerseys, fifa video game,mls tickets and so on. MLS teams need to open their wallets, we do for them. So pressure your team owners.
Exactly…For the league to take it the next level there has to be a CCL win.
Typing at work buddy
Seriously? You believe the goal is parity? The cap is stupid and punishes teams that are trying to build the league. It rewards teams that want to sell jerseys. Take RSL and SJ. The two best teams in the league. They both are near the salary cap and may in the near future not be able to keep talented players on their team because the cap won’t allow them to have 7 players making up to $400,000 but will allow them to have three players who make $45,000,000. The difference is there isn’t a nasty energy drink in SJ or SL to pay for this kind of stupidity. So they have to juggle rosters and under pay players so they can stay under an artificial cap. This cap discussion should be brought up by every fan in the league. The argument made sense when the DP was one player. Now that it is three it is a joke. It will be 4 DPs the second LA and NY want it so.
I still believe that parity is the goal, it isn’t MLS’s fault NY and LA are backed by owners with large amounts of cash. Either way players have to show up to play, and if they don’t less finacially rich teams like RSL and the Quakes can still defeat them.
Columbus could have signed Cahill for 3.6M. So the answer is yes.
NY Red Bulls now pay 16.5 million a year for players
Columbus Crew are around 3 million. Columbus highest paid player is Chad Marshall @ 341K . NY Red Bulls pay Henry 6 million, Marquez 4 million and now Cahill 3.5 million.
NY Red Bull have 3 players that make more than Columbus and Montreal combined with a lot left over.
is the goal still parity?
Guess it is true signing big name players does boost your global profile. From the Cosmos with Pele to Beckham/Henry with the Galaxy/Red Bulls, these well-known players gives your club that much more international exposure. Signing Kaka would make the Red Bulls even more interesting, but it is unlikely to happen, and they’d have to rid themselves of Rafa.
3.5 million a season seems a bit high, but I think it’s a good signing.
this is a reference to something funny right?
For now, it’s this:
-Henry-Cooper-LeToux-
———–Cahill———–
—–Lade—–McCarty—-
Pearce-Conde-Holg-Barklage
When Lade cools off a bit Lindpere or Rafa will retake that spot. When Barklage cools off or is injured (like now) Solli will go back to RB. Rafa may take Holgersson’s spot.
Very correct sir
Very good question. Can you elaborate on this? Who was he fighting and is their a clip?
There are some who call him…..Tim.
If he stays healthy this could get really interesting. He is no stranger to physical play….
Backe will never play Cahill as a lone midfielder. He will play a diamond with a strong holding midfielder.
Henry—-Cooper
Cahill
Linpere—————–Letoux
McCarty/Marquez
Pearce—–Conde—–Holg—–Barlage
The Brazilian league Economy will never be as big as America. Also America is a media market, it is the reason why the NHL makes 4 billion a year. The Brazilian league will always remain where it is at now, the will sale players to leagues will more money. MLS will have more money in 10 years.
Backe has always and will always love the diamond midfield…when healthy the line up will be..
Henry—-Cooper
Cahill
Lindpere LeToux/Solli
McCarty/Marquez
Pearce—Conde—Holgersson—Barklage
Meara
While LeToux is a better striker than winger, Henry takes A LOT of time off, we’ll see Letoux up front plenty. This team is icredibly deep!
Cahill was boss on Everton and will be boss on the Redbulls! Aussie Aussie Aussie!!
Welcome Tim!
Our league will never be as good as the Brazillian league because their economy is thriving right now and their average domestic player is way way better than the average MLS player.
ya but its more than DeRo or Donovan! Just proves the point that once a player makes it in Europe he will always be overvalued compared to legit stars of this continent.
no depth at forward? You don’t need 3 forwards starting…
No wonder he didn’t head back to OZ land. No team there could pay him more than $1.5million.
He was arguably on like 50 K a week in England. That’s like 2.5million british pounds which is like 4million bucks. So he is making same amount of cash as he did back in England
HOLY GOD HOW HAS HE NOT BEEN EJECTED
MLS need to up the salary cap to like $4.5 million and keep it there for like 5 years or so.
Focus more on homegrown players.
Get some attention on the academies. Buy real cheap players especially from Asia/Africa and Latin America. Long supply of them and several will turn out big like Freddy Montero.
Get more PR for the league domestically and internationally. Tell the world the plan is to make our league the best league outside of Europe by WC 2022
$3.5 million a season. That’s arguably what he was making at Everton. Everton definitely did well in this sale. Able to dump his big salary and recent lack of goals
What crap.
GB is denied a blatant penalty for an MMA takedown after the shot and then Senegal escapes 3 different red cards including the ridiculous tackle on Bellamy that started the brawl.
Official ruined this. Ruined it.
This is the worst officiating I’ve ever seen in a match. Period. Ever. These Senegalese thugs don’t deserve to sniff the Olympics games. They’re trash players.
Trash.
the way the DP’s are structured, it doesn’t really matter if they ay him $500,000 or $500,000,000, a DP spot is worth a fixed amount, so while it may seem high, it’s really of no importance to anyone but the payroll guy at NYRB
this was written by Avi, not Ives
I like the signing for NY, but $3.5 million per? That’s insane.
good for MLS, bad for DCU.
I am excited to see if this actually works. It is a grand experiment for the NYRB. They have just started playing well and now they are changing things up again. I hope it helps the league. They are starting to look like the PSJ of MLS. Throwing money at names to see if it buys them silverware. Good luck.
things are looking more difficult, but I’m still going with DC to win the east… maybe.
I would not take Solli or Lindpere off the field.
Henry – Cooper – Le Toux
Lindpere – Cahill – McCarty
Pearce – Conde – Marquez – Solli
Meara
Lade and Tanio off the bend for Midfield, Barklage, Miller, and Holgersson off the bench for Defense, just no depth at Forward….
Nice, now drop marquez and sign kaka. Excuse me Ives, can marquez be drop off the roster if his injuries still keep going on, or can marquez be let go since i think he has one year left i believe. I guess tomorrow midnight eastern time will find out
He sure is a physical presence, but I don’t know if I’d call him technical.
Cooper——Henry——–LeToux
————Cahill————–
——-Lindpere—McCarty——-
Pearce–Conde–Holgersson—Barklage
————Meara——————
The big question is: When can he start? He has a three game suspension for the fight at the end of the EPL season last year. Will he be forced to serve it at MLS
I’d like RedBull to do well enough to get into the CCL next season. This team could certainly do some damage in that tourney as well. It will be interesting how it all comes together in MLS league play.
Starting 11?
———–Cooper————-
Henry——-Cahill——–LeToux
——-Marquez-McCarty——–
–Pearce–Holg–Conde–Barklage–
———–Meara—————