Best Paid Players in MLS - Plus all the rest
Player | Team | Base | Guaranteed* |
1. Juan Francisco Palencia | Chivas USA | $692,308 | $1,360,000 |
2. Landon Donovan | Los Angeles | $900,000 | $900,000 |
3. Eddie Johnson | Kansas City | $750,000 | $875,000 |
4. Juan Pablo Garcia | Chivas USA | $461,520 | $624,260 |
5. Freddy Adu | D.C. United | $300,000 | $550,000 |
6. Josh Wolff | Kansas City | $350,000 | $420,357 |
7. Clint Mathis | Colorado | $270,000 | $410,000 |
8. Eddie Pope | Real Salt Lake | $330,521 | $394,688 |
9. Tony Sanneh | Chicago | $285,000 | $365,000 |
10. Carlos Ruiz | FC Dallas | $250,000 | $360,000 |
* Guaranteed salary includes a player`s base salary and all signing and guaranteed bonuses annualized over the term of his contract, including option years.
Since the paper`s local beat in DC, they mention some other information about United`s pay in their article.
After Adu, the next highest-paid United players are South Americans: Bolivian forward Jaime Moreno ($241,250), Argentine midfielder Christian Gomez ($182,500) and Argentine forward Lucio Filomeno ($163,250).
They also point to the large gap between the haves and have nots.
The league list also exposes glaring differences in salaries. For example, while Palencia is earning $1.36 million, 14 of United`s 28 players will make less than $36,500, and nine of those will get less than $16,500 under terms of developmental contracts.
The great thing is they have the full list of all players salaries (I think this might be the first time something like this has leaked, but I could be wrong).
Here are a few of the none top-10 players in the league.
Player | Team | Base | Guaranteed* |
Eskandarian, Alecko | DC | $110,000 | $130,500 |
Boswell, Robert | DC | $29,400 | $29,400 |
Armas, Chris | Chicago | $250,000 | $325,000 |
Mapp, Justin | Chicago | $95,000 | $101,000 |
O`Brien, John | Chivas | $270,000 | $270,000 |
Kljestan, Sacha | Chivas | $45,000 | $78,000 |
Hejduk, Frankie | Columbus | $200,000 | $211,000 |
Gaven, Eddie | Columbus | $130,000 | $153,000 |
Mastroeni, Pablo | Colorado | $250,000 | $268,000 |
Cannon, Joe | Colorado | $172,000 | $172,000 |
Mina, Roberto | Dallas | $80,000 | $80,000 |
Cooper, Kenny | Dallas | $55,000 | $58,000 |
Ching, Brian | Houston | $160,000 | $173,000 |
DeRosario, Dwayne | Houston | $140,000 | $140,000 |
Conrad, Jimmy | KC | $115,000 | $118,750 |
Jewsbury, Jack | KC | $29,400 | $29,400 |
Jones, Cobi | LA | $180,000 | $210,000 |
Gomez, Hercules | LA | $47,000 | $47,000 |
Twellman, Taylor | NE | $175,000 | $181,666 |
Dempsey, Clint | NE | $75,863 | $86,488 |
Wynne, Marvell | NY | $47,500 | $150,000 |
Meola, Tony | NY | $125,000 | $125,000 |
Kreis, Jason | Salt Lake | $160,000 | $197,500 |
Klein, Chris | Salt Lake | $170,000 | $177,250 |