If you did not think MLS had a serious interest in luring Didier Drogba to North America this summer, think again.
Speaking at a panel at the Bloomberg Sports Business Summit in New York on Thursday, MLS comissioner Don Garber said that the league offered Drogba a salary of more than $10 million per year, which would have been an MLS record. Drogba ended up joining former Chelsea teammate Nicolas Anelka at Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua for an even higher payday.
"We offered Didier Drogba, great Chelsea player, over $10 million a year to play," Garber said, when talking about the financial state of the game around the world along with AS Roma CEO Mark Pannes. "It would have been the largest salary we've ever had in Major League Soccer, and he signed (in China) for 18 million euros, net."
A $10 million salary would be double what the current highest salary in the league is, with Theirry Henry's $5 million base salary leading the way.
What do you think of this development? Do you think Drogba would have been worth that salary for MLS? Surprised to hear that MLS would offer that high of a salary?
Share your thoughts below.
I think the thought is to invest $10 mil in Drogba with the hopes that merchandise, TV, attendance, and other revenue streams increase by more that $10 mil as a result.
Oh I believe they made the offer, the more nebulous bit is how the teams involved stay under the salary caps. It used to be pretty much opaque, and though the salaries are now on the table, the transfer fees (for others more than Drogba) are less so, and the allocation bit is pretty obscure. I understand of late they’ve given money for success which is the opposite of the traditional parity/ build from the bottom concept and goes to some teams like LA that have always been the subject of complaints for playing by their own rules.
I also think people need to admit that the Beckham rule is basically an above-table restoration of the old star system that favored teams like LA and DC in the first few years. Many teams cannot afford the DP which makes it like the French laws against sleeping under bridges, which are said to be objective because they bar the rich and poor alike. It’s arguably a means of papering over the fact some teams get to sign expensive players while others don’t, while claiming to have an equal salary cap for all. I think it was more justifiable at 1 player but when you get to 3 you can field more of a team of expensive players and thus the imbalance becomes more apparent.
James, 95% of anyone who knows anything about MLS knows “Baldie” has been and is a great commish.
Drogba was named one of the most influential people on Earth a year or two ago. The whole of Africa would have known about MLS or more about it in an instant.
The more interesting subject is great players going for one more payday in Asia. China has stupid amounts of money but as someone who’s traveled in China, it will never be a major draw because of the extreme cultural shock going there. Same can be said for UAE or Kuwait or some place similar. MLS’ biggest threat to becoming a big league capable of drawing the signature of Drogba and the like is Australia’s A-League.
And how does applying the $10million to the Reserve league or the rookies instantly improve the quality of MLS over bringing in a world class player? Will Mike Stephens be a better player tomorrow because he’s making an extra 10K or because he has to now defend Drogba or a player of his caliber?
All those things you said are already happening, 10 million is not going all of a sudden make youth players better. Each team takes care of its own academy anyway, we are already seeing which teams value those youth set ups and which dont. Rank and players need to get better before they are paid much better, the ones going to europe are good enough that we would need much much more in the way of salary to retain them, 10 million is not going to do that, thats slightly less then 500k per team to distribute between 20+ players.
What would be the affect of making the rookie minimum $100K? That $10M would go a fair way toward that I would guess. Still, I would love to see Drogba play in the MLS but upgrade everyone’s roster would make the league better. If $10M (or some reasonable number) would mean more playing out of the back and completed passes for every team, then I’m all for it. I love MLS but I’m still dreaming about the day when the overall skill level is more attractive.
I think it would have been overpaying at his age but he would have had leverage from his goal + penalty in the CL final, and it would be substantial publicity.
I’d be concerned as with everyone his age whether he’d hold up. Montreal probably has a row of rocking chairs on their sideline dedicated to Serie A players of similar age that they’ve signed and then gotten injured.
There were rumors from Ching that one of the equity stakeholders at Shenhua was peeved that the state-owned enterprises holding the rest of the team were not contributing to the club, threatening to stop funding the team himself if he wasn’t given more control. But nothing’s come of it.
Has anyone put a discovery claim on him? 😉
This is American food! Let’s talk about Szechuan!
I realize that most will think that the fan that knows who Drogba is, isn’t the casual fan, but I disagree.
IF they only watch the top notch, that defines the casual fan to me. MLS doesn’t want the casual fans.
You end up with the Cosmos syndrome. IF Pele isn’t playing and we win everytime, we aren’t going…and the Redbulls draw not enough again.
I would much rather see the money spent to keep national team players here and get the average salary up so that athletes deciding on sports, dream about playing pro-soccer like they do other sports.
This just shows when the MLS has the means aka MONEY to play w the big boys they will. As long as they are smart about it you can count on the MLS being a top class league w/ world class players in 15-20 years. Drogba would’ve been pure class and dominated the MLS. It’s a shame he took a few more yen and missed out on a plethora of marketing opportunities here in the US. #DOOP!!
Should have said “is delicious” – I think Vic’s non-sensical post has impacted mine.
Can’t make much sense out of most of what Vic has posted here, but in Drogba’s defense I will say that Orange Chicken in delicious.
wow this is very interesting! i am glad to hear MLS was bold but not stupid crazy like Shanghai was. I agree with JK and Helium; Drogba would be a real football fan’s dream signing for just about any MLS squad! So physical and technical, plus coming off a Champions League victory.
If his Chinese deal falls through I hope he comes to MLS, either for 10 mill or maybe Garber could hardball him down! I would love to see him somewhere besides LA/NY, maybe Chicago, SKC or Seattle, at the same time it would be great to see Beckham or TiHe deliver crosses to Drogba.
as much as MLS isn’t perfect I stand by the Don. He is determined to capitalize on the growing interest in the game here and its getting better every year.
Don’t you have an Asian passport?
Really? Seriously? Rookie MINIMUM in NBA: 473k. NFL: 390K. And it only goes up every year, and that’s just for training camp bodies.
Shea meanwhile is as far as I know probably the only young American making a DP salary and that is of course years after coming into the league.
Do you REALLY think that’s good enough?
But hey, if the best thing you think the league can do with 10MIL is throw it at Drogba, good for you.
which Asians? Eurasia or Eastasia? who is Oceania?
you can’t say for or against the leagues willingness to spend. you don’t know anything about the $$ the league has.
i do know that Don is great at managing the league money-wise. if he went for this im sure he has it under control.
You can’t look at attendance alone. Drogba would be worth the money just for the TV ratings that would come with wanting to see a superstar striker that still has a lot to give.
Really? Who is he going to draw?
Current soccer fans already have an opinion about the MLS. They either currently watch it or not. The MLS looking crazy spending money on a pre-retirment player isn’t going to get them to watch anymore than they do or don’t.
And the casual American? Do you really think that demographic cares about some old guy coming over? At best they will watch the first of his games. After that, they will go back to not caring about soccer at all.
I can’t speak for James but why not spread those $10 million per year to up the level of the rank and file players or bring in better coaches or put into the academy system. Money could be spent better with a more long range vision.
Pay the younger players more? That’s why we have recently introduced the young-DP rule. Brek Shea makes over 350k/year. That’s all the incentive the players should need. If they’re deserving, the league has provided a way for them to be rewarded without negatively affecting a team’s salary cap.
It’s all about supply and demand. Drogba can command that kind of money. Not only because he is a great player but because he has name recognition. He will put people in front of their tvs.
His not coming doesn’t change things for Rev fans at all. He would never have come to New England. For us, it’s one less foreign international to rub our noses in our second class status.
DING DING DING
You should apply to be commissioner of MLS, you’d do a better job than Baldie would.
That’s not exactly proof for or against the success of DPS since LA won last year with three.
Yeah, because just blowing money when the league is financially healthy and growing at a steady rate is a good business decision.
The league is healthy and growing steadily because they have control of expenditures. If they could pay more, they would.
Drogba is a great player but if MLS can afford that kind of salary then it’s time to pay their younger/homegrown players more. Where is the incentive to perform in this league if only international stars in their twilight years can get paid? That’s why young american kids give up on soccer or choose college over turning prop because the pay off for being a professional is as good as an entry level job.
If the offer still stands, then he will be playing in MLS next year due to Shanghai’s inability to pay.
The people who will be filling MLS seats are the real ones who know about Drogba, not the hipsters who buy soccer jerseys because they think it looks cool or to be different than the guys who wear NFL/NBA jerseys.
Maybe MLS will still get a chance to make good on that offer – if Garber isn’t just blowing smoke up our butts. Last I heard, a couple days ago, Shanghai was looking to sell Drogba and/or Anelka because a wealthy team financier was pulling his funding – or something like that. Come on, MLS, take China’s sloppy seconds.
Yes, because DPs are the receipe to success since the two teams leading the league have exactly none.
I love when people say “the Asians,” because, you know, they’re so monolithic in language, culture, economy, history, etc.
So why would MLS as a league make the offer, and not a specific team? I get the whole single entity, but I haven’t heard of the league going out on signing missions. How would they allocate him if he decided to sign, only LA and NY get put in a pot?
Unfortunately it’s easier said than done. The salary cap increases 2% every year. If they raise it too fast then that will obliterate the mechanisms the league put in place to maintain competitiveness across a the large and small markets.
That’s a real enlightened comment you have there. :/
Why cant they spend that money on a better reserve schedule and league to develop young players that can then bring in transfer money.
yes.. the Asians…
In what way is this completely ridiculous?
MLS clearly has a long way to go to compete with the top leagues. Trying to bring in a player that carried Chelsea to a trophy last year and would instantaneously be one of… ok the top striker in the league, proves nothing other than they realize this and are trying to step it up.
Oh by the way mls needs 4dps n raise salary cap- if not other leagues like the Asians or Mexican and Russian will just kill our momentum
Maybe not a bigger draw… but still has some prime playing years left. Would dominate the MLS way more than either of them…
How, he just lead Chelsea to a UEFA CL cup.
Drogba is a dumb fool- God…….. What does he want? Asian food,girls, orange chicken. On the other side, mls at least open their wallet. Can’t wait for Cosmos and their stadium so they can take mls to 3.0 and pressure all teams to get fancy experienced dps. For now anelka,drogba,raul, trezegue,ronaldinho, loca toni, Owen, forlan, and the rest……….stop smoking or something n come to mls
Okay, I’ll bite. You care to elaborate on what this is proof of, exactly? Is Drogba not worth it? There’s no transfer fee, remember. He would immediately upgrade any MLS roster at striker.
Completely ridiculous. Things like this are proof that the MLS still has a long way to go.
After leading Chelsea to the UCL, I don’t think it’s fair to say he wouldn’t be as big a draw. No one’s going to be as big a draw as Beckham, simply because Beckham spent years cross-promoting himself. Drogba (like Henry) is a soccer star known for soccer, not underwear commercials. The “casual” American fan might not recognize him, but true soccer fans would in a heartbeat.
No matter, he went for the big money in China that may get pulled from the team and force a move for him elsewhere anyway.
Until MLS lifts the veil on DPs and allocation money, I have trouble 100% believing such things from Garber.
What team would he have joined though? Probably LA or NYRB…
That’s nuts. There is no way Drogba would be a bigger draw than Henri or Becks. A guess the Chinese moneypit dried up.
FIRST! Well, I think this, coupled with the NYC2 stadium deal, shows that MLS isn’t afraid to splash cash when and where they want. It shows that the last decade has been very good to MLS. Another good decade like the last and MLS could be ready to try to run with the big dogs.