photo by Isaiah J. Downing/USA Today Sports
By FRANCO PANIZO
The New England Revolution might be on a roll, but not all things are rosy at the club right now.
A Tuesday report from New England Soccer Today stated that 2014 MLS MVP candidate Lee Nguyen is not pleased with the club’s unwillingness to renegotiate his deal and skipped practice last week to make his feelings known. Nguyen, 28, is currently making approximately $175,000 a year, but wants an improved contract after helping the Revolution reach last year’s MLS Cup final with an 18-goal, five-assist campaign.
Currently in the second year of a four-year contract with the Revs, Nguyen reportedly informed the club of his desire for a new contract during the offseason. The Revolution were resistant to the idea after having signed him to an improved deal prior to the 2014 season.
The decision left the veteran midfielder frustrated, and he contemplated skipping training early in the year before actually doing so early last week. Nguyen ultimately returned to practice, but did not start in his usual playmaker role in New England’s 2-1 home win vs. the New York Red Bulls on Saturday.
This season, Nguyen has one goal and two assists in eight league appearances (seven starts).
Here are more notes from around MLS:
MBOLHI RETURNS TO PRACTICE FOR UNION
Rais Mbolhi’s tenure with the Philadelphia Union is not over just yet.
After spending some time away from the club due to his poor form and subsequent benching, Mbolhi resumed practicing with the Union on Tuesday. It is unclear whether the Algerian goalkeeper will regain his starting spot with the club, or if young John McCarthy will continue to get the nod in between the pipes.
McCarthy, 22, has been starting ever since Philadelphia head coach Jim Curtin benched Mbolhi in early April. McCarthy helped the Union pick up a 2-1 win over New York City FC in his first start, but they have conceded eight times since while going 0-3-1.
McCarthy was beaten by a Sebastian Giovinco free kick from distance this past weekend, as the Union dropped a 1-0 decision at home to Toronto FC.
IMPACT WAIVE NICHT WEEK AFTER SIGNING HIM
One week Kristian Nicht is playing in the CONCACAF Champions League Final. The next he finds himself without a club.
The Montreal Impact announced on Monday that they waived Nicht, the veteran goalkeeper who started for them in the second leg of the Champions League final against Club America last Wednesday.
Nicht had been signed via a full transfer from NASL outfit Indy Eleven two days prior to that 4-2 defeat at Olympic Stadium, but that was on an emergency basis and he was deemed surplus to requirements for the course of the MLS campaign.
“Kristian did well during his short time with us, but he found himself in a position of third or fourth goalkeeper. It would have been difficult for him to get playing time,” said technical director Adam Braz in a released statement. “This gives him a chance to find another team where he will have a better chance to play.”
The 33-year-old goalkeeper, who had also spent two previous loan stints with the Impact this year, made two saves in his 90-minute performance vs. Club America.
What do you think of these developments? Think the Revs should give Nguyen a new deal? Surprised to see M’Bohli back in Philly? Find Montreal’s move to drop Nicht a bit shady?
Share your thoughts below.
Based on the season Lee had last year, yeah he should be earning more money. But not only did he already sign a contract and agree to terms, but they also already renegotiated it. Teams seem to be willing to renegotiate but not more than once. Otherwise they’d be doing so constantly.
So if he played poorly the last few years, would he have asked to negotiate a smaller contract? A contract is a contract…deal with it.
You have look at the industry contract when discussing this issue. It is standard industry practice, legally.
This is were the collective bargaining agreement failed the players. They put too many eggs in the free agent basket and not nearly enough on the salary cap. The salary cap is what 3.3 mil per team? With 20 players counting toward the cap each player gets an average of 165,000 per year. Each team can have 3 DP’s which make more. This was a fail by the player union in the CBA to not have the salary cap further expanded. Nyugen’s contract for an MVP candidate is very team friendly. In terms of financial gain MLS is not the best option for American players.
It is the best financial option for certain American players though. Bradley’s salary at Toronto is 6 times what he was earning at Roma. Dempsey and Altidore got bit raises too. But for the non-DP type player, you’re right.
While I agree with core of what you said, the examples you cite are off. Bradley is making about 2.5 to 3 times his salary. He was schedule to make 1.5 million Eur that season AFTER TAXES. At the 1.3 exchange rate at time, that was about $2 million after taxes (or about 3 – 3.33 pre -tax). Jozy makes about the same. He stated exactly that in his ESPNFC interview during MLS pre-season. He just knew he could not get close to that based upon his performance if he went to any other league
Bradley’s salary at Roma was 800k euros, which is about $880k now. Even if that’s after tax, he’s earning $6m now which is much much more. Jozy was earning 2.6m GBP which is about $4m a year. He’s now earning $6m a year and, what’s more, he has a five year contract.
Slow, where did you get this information? I admit getting definite numbers is hard because the rest of the world does not make salaries public the way the US does, but I have different numbers.
– Bradley: He made Eur1.2 million 2012-2013 NET (after taxes) and he was scheduled to make more 2013-2014. He had an escalated contract which went up each year. I cannot find the details of his contract, but it was supposed to go up in 2013/14 to 1.3/1.4/1.5 ish. The tax rate in Italy is 43%. That means his income would have been anywhere from Eur 2.1 – 2.63 million. Early last year the conversion rate was 1.35 so his pre-tax salary would be Eur 2.84 – 3.55 million/year at the time.
-> Jozy: He specifically said in an interview on EPNSFC tv show back in February (I DVR’d it), that his pay was basicallythe same as he made in Sunderland so it was not about the money. You said GBP 2.6million. I read it was about GBP3.4million. The 2.6 would make sense if it was post tax.The GBP/USD exchange rate dropped from 1.65 to 1.55 (not much). When all is said I would believe what he said in a television interview on ESPN.
I know that the Euro/USD rate is currently 1.1, but that will not last forever. The rates that we are seeing are 13 year low. The historical average is about 1.3. Also keep in mind that the tax rate in Toronto is 49.53% on anything above Eur220K vc 45% on anything above GBP150K vs. 43% in Rome.
I recall a young, talented attacking midfielder for the Revolution complaining for a few years in a row that New England would not restructure his contract. He went abroad and played pretty well for in the EPL for a few years. Kraft is not one to restructure a contract once you are signed on.
If you are one of the best midfielders in MLS and score goals as an CAM then you deserve to get paid,especially when the average salary of top midfielders in MLS is in the millions and if New England doesn’t understand that simply go somewhere else. We can talk about Loyalty and a players love for his team but at the end of the day its all about getting what you are worth because once they are done with you, you are cut and dropped and on your own.
Mr. Nyugen if NYFC or OCFC or even LA Galaxy can pay $500,000 to $1,000,000 then leave. You are the face of New England, one of the best midfielders in MLS, are being underpaid when top Midfielders of other teams are making millions; if they don’t want to pay you…………Leave, Leave, Leave go team up with Kaka, or David Villa or Robbie Keane
How can he leave, he’s under contract?
Advice is for him to play like the level shown last year and teams will throw offers at him. He can easily make $200-$300k in Asia, but he’s already done that in V-League (maybe 100k or so), so I think he should still go back to Europe where the real money is.
Bizzy, obviously, you don’t understand MLS at all. He can’t leave and go to another MLS team, even after his contract ends. Overseas? Who’s gonna pay a big salary and a transfer fee for a good, but not great, 28 year old?
First, TFC obviously has a deal in place. B/c they’re cutting NIcht so…(wait for it)…he can be signed by Philly (who is always in the market for another keeper).
Second, I believe that Nguyen should honor his contract and show up. That said, the NE Rev have a crappy record of how the team treats players on this issue (I’m particularly thinking of Twellman and Joseph in their prime). MLS has been successful in part b/c teams are willing to give a little ground. DCU for instance, has had a bunch of players (Troy Perkins, Bobby Boswell) who were signed on the cheap and when they won starting jobs, the club tore up the contract before the season was over. You see, there’s this thing called “good will” that is incredibly important for a club to have with their player. Any other league in the world, if Nguyen insisted his contract was crappy and avoided practice, the club would either tear up the contract OR he’d be on a transfer list to a club that offered him a bigger deal. I hope MLS never reaches that stage. But to avoid doing so, players need to know that good play will be rewarded. The argument that “well, it’s his fault, he signed” ignores the reality that in MLS, you don’t have a lot of options. It’s not like Nguyen could have signed with any club in MLS when his contract was out.
‘The argument that “well, it’s his fault, he signed” ignores the reality that in MLS, you don’t have a lot of options. It’s not like Nguyen could have signed with any club in MLS when his contract was out.’
yeah, his options were limited to only about 2,000 (wild estimate) other clubs in the world that aren’t part of mls.
i certainly think he could be paid more, but pitching a fit because your club won’t renegotiate the contract that you freely signed is bad form.
See my earlier post. Analogizing this to some other business situation doesn’t make sense. Sports are different.
when did i equate this to another business? even there, i disagree with you.
but here, i was merely pointing out that saying that nguyen didn’t have many options is either ignorant or disingenuous. i’m sure he had plenty of options all over the world, and hopefully he chose the one that would benefit him most.
This proves Klinsman’s point that American players are better off without MLS. The highest paid American players in MLS all went to Europe first to gain legitimacy. If the league wants to be taken seriously it needs to pay its players when they have success as MLS players.
+1
that’s a very valid point Scuba Steve
175k is paltry?? Really? Its like everyone complains about MLS salaries but 60% of the guys in the league will be in the USL or NASL if MLS offered wages of the top 4 leagues, hell the middle ten leagues even. Sports like any business is not about what you did then but what you’re doing now. If he wants a new contract back it up with something, you don’t skip practice, that’s a childish and amateur move.
That might be the case, but Lee Nguyen is not in that 60% of the guys that would not be in the league. He was the New England MVP and a finalist for MLS MVP. He has a great run of form for the past few years and is coming back from injury to find his form again. In no way, NO WAY should an MVP candidate make only $175k/yr unless you are minor league. Hell players in Belgium make more than that. Sacha was not an MVP type caliber at Anderlecht and was still making over Euros 800K/year. Lee Nguyen can be an impactful player at Anderlecht.
No one is saying million dollar contracts of the Big 5 leagues. Put this in perspective, he would get paid more in Scandinavia. THAT should not happen. Should every player make serious cash – no! However, your elite players should earn much better. I like MLS. It is getting better, but it is not anywhere close to being one of the best leagues in the world in 10 years. MLS is not close to being a destination league. No one is asking to pay the guy 4/5 million a year, but he is an elite player in MLS, he should making a lot more. He only has 5 -7 year left in his career, then he will be done at 35.
“Find Montreal’s move to drop Nicht a bit shady?” – lol, yes hope he gets his old job back!
Idk how much Nguyen was making abroad, but a 28 year old MVP-National team level player has a good case for more.
Maybe it gets ugly and the Red Bulls can get him for Sean Davis and Matt Miasga in a trade
No thank you.
I’ll pass thanks. RBNY’s midfield is fine at the moment and Miazga has been pretty good this year, which is impressive for a 19 year old CB.
Something that bothers me about Nguyen is that the announcers pronounce his last name the same as the word “win”. Is that the way he has said his name is supposed to be pronounced?
I have quite a few Vietnamese friends, and they all have that same last-name. Nguyen must be the most common or one of the most common last-names in Vietnam. They all say the correct pronunciation is “nu-en” or “new-en”. Definitely not like “win”.
But hey, who am I to tell someone how to pronounce their own name? Assuming he has instructed the media to pronounce it like that.
I know a handful of Nguyen’s as well. They all pronounce it very close to “win”.
It’s really oversimplifying (like Dice – K). Nu-en is more like it, but with an ung sound at the beginning.
https://youtu.be/yJehmaPnxgY
I’ve heard conflicting advice too: I have a friend who pronounces his last name “nu-wen” and a coworker who pronounces his “wynn.” ::shrugs::
I used to live in San Diego which has a large Vietnamese community and I taught school and had several Nguyens. I’ve only heard it pronounced win.
My wife is Vietnamese. The pronunciation is basically “win” with a little bit of subtle drawn out “ee” to extend the “I” but pretty much its “win” I also speak a rough but fairly expansive Vietnamese vocabulary enough to know the pronunciations and the six main tones. The reason why there are only about 12 main Vietnamese last names is because originally people take the name of the emperors dynasty their clan originally came from, so the names more represent historical time periods when a family was solidified. These names are hundreds of years old.
Lee Nguyen is grossly underpaid and although not a superstar, and understanding American players are undervalued in Europe, and MLS sucks and all that, and EPL wont give him a work permit, etc. etc. 175K is embarrassing, and he will easily get somewhere around 1 mil per in some European league, Eerdevisie, Ligue 1, etc. He is a known commodity and proven performer, and maybe THE single most technically proficient player in MLS.
If Lee Nguyen is so grossly underpaid then what in God’s name was he doing signing a four year contract? A four year contract with MLS is almost unheard of. The only person he has to blame is his agent.
What were they thinking? If, alternatively, Nguyen was struggling, would he be willing to take a pay cut? Hello? That’s why its called a contract people. He is receiving guaranteed income for four years independent of his performance. That’s the risk you take when signing a “long” term contract. When he signed that contract, he chose security over the potential for a big gain.
Now that he’s playing well (very well, actually) he wants to undo his decision. Sorry, that ain’t how it works….
Sorry, 4 year and 3 year contracts are very common in MLS. I am willing to bet that was a gamble that the Revolution made to sign him at the cheap at 175K/yr since they knew he came back to the US to try to fight his way back into the USMNT picture. Truth be told, by MLS standards, he should be making at least 600K/yr (maybe more if a team or 2 that pays him closer to 1 mllion). There is no way that he should be making less than Graham Zusi. He is a better ad more valuable player (and frankly less annoying).
“He is receiving guaranteed income for four years independent of his performance. That’s the risk you take when signing a “long” term contract. When he signed that contract, he chose security over the potential for a big gain.”
exactly. he may be unhappy about his salary, but he’s got no one to blame but himself.
I can’t agree. Contracts are renegotiated all the time. Sports are different than other businesses. Did NE think they were going to get MVP level performance from Nguyen? Doubt it. He’s earned an increase. The moralizing is a bit tiresome and reveals a lack of understanding about how the game works.
yes, contracts are renegotiated all the time, when the two parties agree that they should be.
i’ve already said in another comment that, ideally, he should be earning more, and i have no problem with him asking for a raise. but to pitch a fit when he doesn’t like what he signed last year indicates a lack of maturity and integrity.
Not at all. And I doubt there are many instances where the team just decides to willingly fork over more money. The player has to force their hand.
Honor. Your. Contract.
Wank. Wank. Wank.
Player contracts are business. If he can persuade them to change it, then they still believe it’s a reasonable investment. If he can’t they don’t, and likely his price falls in the future for the intransigence.
This isn’t a morality tale.
“This isn’t a morality tale.”
if it’s not, that’s unfortunately telling in itself.
bottom line: nguyen said he would work four years for a set salary. he signed a contract. now, one year in, he says he won’t–actually, he just doesn’t show up. that’s bad. and it’s bad that you (and probably others) don’t think it’s bad.
This is just stupidity. A contract between a player and a team/league is a business arrangement, meant to generate surplus for both parties–they ain’t getting married.
If the Revs were sick of him, or felt hard-done by his contract, you bet your butt they would also try to figure out how to do better.
Grow up, join the real world.
oh, i get it: the old “everyone else is doing it” argument. still doesn’t mean it’s not bad.
i have no problem with nguyen asking for more money–who wouldn’t? and i’d love for the revs to go along with it–hey, it’s not my money. but for him to act like he’s being hard done by them for holding him to the contract he signed is just nonsense.
If they were getting married it would actually be easier to break up the contract
This kind of stuff happens all the time around the world. With the incredibly low amount of player power in MLS, I’m all for Nguyen getting every penny he can. Sure, he’s making a nice salary now but this isn’t some guy making $15m holding out for $16m or something. Nguyen needs to earn as much as he can now during the relatively short career span for a soccer player.
Does Nguyen not realize who the Revolution owner is? Kraft, the same owner of the Patriots, who will not hesitate to let a guy go.
That wouldn’t be bad for Nguyen…. his market value is much higher thank 175k r
lol nicht