Sir Landon Of Donovan

[chriswho]

$56k/yr seemed a little low to me, but then again $104k/yr seems high for an avg MLS player salary.

To other people's comments though, you are right, neither one of these represents the fortunes that footballers make over there. Both are livable wages, even in big cities (which the MLS teams are in) but <56k in a city like New York is very difficult. It is important to understand that averages are misleading here in that they will range from 36k to multiple millions for Beckham (I think Donovan was on 900k/yr).

To give you some reference, $36k/yr is less than a public schoolteacher would get straight out of college.

For most of the MLS players, they do live with each other to help pay rent and carpool, etc. Most MLS players play for the love of the game as precious few will make enough money to retire during a playing career.

However, put yourself in their shoes for a moment. When they were presented with post college options, one may have been working a desk job with Boeing for $50k or being a soccer player for $40k, many choose to prolong the "dream" and play for a living vs working for a few years. Likely make a little less $ but be a lot more enjoyable for the few years your body can still cut it...

 

[moyes_bringin_it_back]

$56k/yr seemed a little low to me, but then again $104k/yr seems high for an avg MLS player salary.

To other people's comments though, you are right, neither one of these represents the fortunes that footballers make over there. Both are livable wages, even in big cities (which the MLS teams are in) but <56k in a city like New York is very difficult. It is important to understand that averages are misleading here in that they will range from 36k to multiple millions for Beckham (I think Donovan was on 900k/yr).

To give you some reference, $36k/yr is less than a public schoolteacher would get straight out of college.

For most of the MLS players, they do live with each other to help pay rent and carpool, etc. Most MLS players play for the love of the game as precious few will make enough money to retire during a playing career.

However, put yourself in their shoes for a moment. When they were presented with post college options, one may have been working a desk job with Boeing for $50k or being a soccer player for $40k, many choose to prolong the "dream" and play for a living vs working for a few years. Likely make a little less $ but be a lot more enjoyable for the few years your body can still cut it...

For those English supporters here. current exchange rate is GB£ : US$ 1.5

So divide each of those figures by 1.5.

Oh and for those of you on the continent: EURO € : US$ 1.35

 

[RNG]

The median figure I heard was $86k or around 56k POUNDS.
Either way, it's not much for a pro athlete.

Has anyone heard anything about Moyes's trip to LA?
Is that a rumor or a fact?

 

[Rook]

I'm not keen on having Nzogbia at Everton

Whereas Donovan has had a good attitude. Nzogbia's is questionable.

If Donovan were 21. A £10million fee would probably be justified. But unfortunately he isn't 21.

Donovan is a young 28 though, he doesn't have that many miles on him and has stayed healthy thorought his career. 6-7.5M would be a fair price.

Unless they go down Wigan won't sell N'Zogbia, he's their best player and they just sold about 50M worth of players and they probably have some leftover cash. They will be buyers not sellers in the summer.

The labor impasse isn't about wages though. What is more important to them is freedom of movement. MLS teams still have rights to players out of contract preventing them from moving to another MLS team.

 

[SirFozzie]

The median figure I heard was $86k or around 56k POUNDS.
Either way, it's not much for a pro athlete.

Has anyone heard anything about Moyes's trip to LA?
Is that a rumor or a fact?

Here's a PDF from the MLS Players Union showing what everyone made.

[media]http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/september_15_2009_salary_information__alphabetical.pdf[/media]

(and yes, there are players making a mininum of $20,000 US)

 

[Huey]

Look, here is the average 2009 salaries:

Average for all players under contract:

$133,704 per year / £88,830 per year / £1700 per week

Average for all non-designated and non-development:

$104,076 per year / £69,167 per year / £1330 per week


That is fact. All of the salaries are listed here:
MLS Players Union :: Player Salary Information

The median salary does come out to $86k per year due to a lot of the bench warmers (and the five pool goal keepers) being on minimum wage.

 

[chicoazul]

strokes moustache*

USA captain Landon Donovan set to return to LA Galaxy from Everton | Football | guardian.co.uk

"Both clubs know how I feel, which is that I would like to stay, though I can't end the season here, I'd have to go back 15 April at the latest. If that can be worked out, great. If not, then the Galaxy are my team and I'm very grateful for the chance I had here. It would be bittersweet either way."

He's got the bug man.

 

[Brownie]

Donovan is a young 28 though, he doesn't have that many miles on him and has stayed healthy thorought his career. 6-7.5M would be a fair price.

Unless they go down Wigan won't sell N'Zogbia, he's their best player and they just sold about 50M worth of players and they probably have some leftover cash. They will be buyers not sellers in the summer.

The labor impasse isn't about wages though. What is more important to them is freedom of movement. MLS teams still have rights to players out of contract preventing them from moving to another MLS team.

Whilst Dave Whelan owns Wigan they will always sell players. He never ever stops players from leaving if they want to go, I'm fairly sure N'Zog would want to come to us.

 

[TX Bill]

Lots of good reading on this thread.

And Huey, Hurtado quite possibly could have been the signing of the year in MLS if comparing salary to output.

 

[spikeman]

strokes moustache*

USA captain Landon Donovan set to return to LA Galaxy from Everton | Football | guardian.co.uk



He's got the bug man.

I hate how the English press say that Donovan is USA's captain. He only wore the armband once or twice.

 

[chicoazul]

I hate how the English press say that Donovan is USA's captain. He only wore the armband once or twice.

Aye but on the flipside, Leighton Baines will now have the prefix "England International" in all media reporting now.

Thems the rules man, and the English press are generally [Poor language removed] so don't bother yourself.

Mind you, Fox News is absolutely horrific. The bad weirdoes.

This might have been covered before like.

 

[spikeman]

Aye but on the flipside, Leighton Baines will now have the prefix "England International" in all media reporting now.

Thems the rules man, and the English press are generally [Poor language removed] so don't bother yourself.

Mind you, Fox News is absolutely horrific. The bad weirdoes.

This might have been covered before like.

The press everywhere is bad. I over reacted a bit.

 

[thebes20]

US soccer players are there for the game. A look at their salaries should tell you that. Athletic kids that start in soccer, soon change their minds when they need to support their families or themselves. Here is the salary schedule for the St. Louis Rams in the NFL.football league. They won 1 game and lost 15. They are probably one of the lowest paid teams. Then compare them to soccer. Are you seeing the problem in the US? Same for the other large sports like basketball and baseball. They all make much more than soccer players.

Keeping kids involved in soccer is an ongoing task for the US. Not all great potential players come from money, so it is hard to keep them. The fact that soccer is shown on national television less than other sports, well...you get my drift.
It is this reason, because there are so few great players, that a breakout player like LD is so important to US fans of the game.

Soccer players here play for the love of the sport, not to say that they do not in the EPL, but the pay sure does help keep them enthusiastic.

St.-Louis-Rams Salaries | St.-Louis-Rams Player Salaries | 2009 St.-Louis-Rams Salary

 

[mabindurham]

Look, here is the average 2009 salaries:

Average for all players under contract:

$133,704 per year / £88,830 per year / £1700 per week

Average for all non-designated and non-development:

$104,076 per year / £69,167 per year / £1330 per week


That is fact. All of the salaries are listed here:

...[/url]

The median salary does come out to $86k per year due to a lot of the bench warmers (and the five pool goal keepers) being on minimum wage.

You're mixing up what an average and a median tell you. Unless the distribution is reasonably symmetric, the average (mean) is actually a distorted estimate of what a typical player makes. The median is actually the better estimate of what a typical player makes. In this case, it's the average that is artificially inflated due to a relatively small number of outlying high salaries, not the other way around, as you suggest.

 

[dabes2]

US soccer players are there for the game. A look at their salaries should tell you that. Athletic kids that start in soccer, soon change their minds when they need to support their families or themselves. Here is the salary schedule for the St. Louis Rams in the NFL.football league. They won 1 game and lost 15. They are probably one of the lowest paid teams. Then compare them to soccer. Are you seeing the problem in the US? Same for the other large sports like basketball and baseball. They all make much more than soccer players.

Keeping kids involved in soccer is an ongoing task for the US. Not all great potential players come from money, so it is hard to keep them. The fact that soccer is shown on national television less than other sports, well...you get my drift.
It is this reason, because there are so few great players, that a breakout player like LD is so important to US fans of the game.

Soccer players here play for the love of the sport, not to say that they do not in the EPL, but the pay sure does help keep them enthusiastic.

St.-Louis-Rams Salaries | St.-Louis-Rams Player Salaries | 2009 St.-Louis-Rams Salary

Everything you say here is true, but I also think this is somewhat of an old-fashioned view of this issue in the USA.

Kids growing up playing soccer in the USA increasingly plan for a future where MLS is either a stepping stone to Europe or can by bypassed all together. Whether you are a white suburban kid watching the Premiership on your parents flat screen tv (Stu Holden), or a child of Mexican immigrants watching the America-Chivas super classico (Jose Francisco Torres), or a child of Haitian immigrants who dreams of playing for Barcelona (Jozy Altidore), or a lower middle class kid playing on the playground all day (Clint Dempsey) the awareness that soccer stars can be rich and famous is becoming more and more difficult to miss. There are probably 20-30 teenagers playing in European youth sides now without ever going to MLS (two at Everton even). There are internationals for european countries that grew up in the USA (Guiseppi Rossi, Nevin Subotic, Vedad Ibisevic).

I think your comment is based upon the conventional wisdom that US soccer will break through only when the African American kids that dominate basketball, NFL and baseball start playing and sticking with soccer. I'm just not sure that's required. Given the size of the immigrant population in our country, the number of young american children who view soccer as their number one sport is larger than European powers like England, Italy and Germany. We just don't have the training. And even for these African American kids, we are seeing stars in other sports (like Kobi Bryant and Chad "OchoCinco" Johnson) intensely interested in world soccer.

Obviously MLS having more media attention and higher salaries would help, but I don't think it's the lynch pin. You can't get rich playing soccer in Ghana, but Ghanian kids know that soccer can be a path to fame and fortune. I think this is become true for enough kids in the USA to overcome the problems of attracting enough good athletes.

IMO, the biggest issue is that quality training for children in the USA is too expensive, and the local clubs don't have the infrastructure or budgets to subsidize the costs for kids from poorer backgrounds.