Looking for a quick understanding of MLS salaries

[GoJeff!]

I don't really follow soccer, but was hoping someone here could give me a quick understanding of the MLS salary structure.

I'm doing a pitch and am thinking of changing the protagonist from a baseball player to a soccer player for an easier international sell. The sport itself isn't relevant to the story, it's just that he needs to be athletic and about to hit a big payday.

In the baseball world, I was imagining a top player still in the club control years who is negotiating a buyout of arbitration/early free agency. Xander Bogaerts would be a good example, or that original Longoria deal. Free agents wouldn't work quite as well, because they have already earned crazy money.

Is there something close in MLS? I realize the salaries are a lot lower, but do some get multi-year multi-million dollar deals after earning (relative) peanuts?

thanks

 

[Titans Bastard]

Here is the MLS salary data from 2019, provided by the MLS Players Association. They did not release any data in 2020, probably for reasons related to COVID salary cuts.

https://mlsplayers.org/resources/salary-guide
You can see that some players make many millions of dollars. All of the biggest earners were signed from abroad (mostly foreigners, a few Americans who formerly played in bigger leagues).

The highest paid player who is an MLS lifer in 2019 was Dom Dwyer, an Englishman who played college soccer, signed a pro deal, did well, and eventually earned a very sizable $1.5m/yr contract. (He married an American and is now a naturalized citizen and has played briefly for the US national team.)

Gyasi Zardes, who is American, checks is at $1.42m/yr is another guy who has spent his entire pro career in MLS and has worked his way up the salary scale.


One reason why you don't get too many Americans higher than $1.5m is that once they get into that range of quality/salary, they're going to be in demand by clubs from Europe's more prestigious leagues.


EDIT: Dwyer made around $75k starting in the league in 2012 and Zardes made $175k as a rookie in 2013.