He's So Wondo! The continuing chronicle of Chris Wondolowski's career

It's one of those indigenous Wisconsin fish. Tastes great with some butter and lemon.

 

Looking `at the scoring sheet across the league, Wondo has been in line with all of them. He will never get the credit that either Zlatan or Vela have but he still managed to score 15 golas and is the leagues 5th leading goal scorer on the year.

1 Carlos Vela Los Angeles FC 34

2 Zlatan Ibrahimović LA Galaxy 30

3 Josef Martínez Atlanta United FC 27

4 Diego Rossi Los Angeles FC 16

5 Héber New York City FC 15
Kacper Przybyłko Philadelphia Union
Chris Wondolowski San Jose Earthquakes

8 Kei Kamara Colorado Rapids 14

9 Mauro Manotas Houston Dynamo 13
C.J. Sapong Chicago Fire
Gyasi Zardes Columbus Crew SC



I wish he and the team would have scored more in the beginning and at the end but he certainly proved me wrong when he scored 15 goals. He did his job and that is all you can really ask a forward to do.

Vako makes double and isn't as good. I hope they give Wondo enough so he can retire in style!

San Jose Earthquakes offer new contract to captain Chris Wondolowski
Pro Soccer USA·10 hours ago


Coach Matias Almeyda will stay with Earthquakes, says team has offered Wondo contract

 

https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/sa...ontract-offer-captain-chris-wondolowski-2019/

"His previous contract, which paid him $800,000 per year according to figures released by the MLS Players Association, gave him Designated Player status. He was one of two DPs on the team, with Valeri “Vako” Qazaishvili the other, and his new contract offer is below the threshold to earn that label. Almeyda and general manager Jesse Fioranelli will want to, in addition to bringing Wondolowski back, strengthen the roster however possible, including, possibly through Designated Player contracts."

 

We should make a sign for one of the parking lot hotdog vendors.

 

Could Wondo get a better deal through free agency especially with the newer , expansion clubs?

If Beckham for example offers him double , which could easily happen, wouldn’t Wondo take it in a heartbeat especially since it would be his final big payday?

 

Here is a look at the most prolific attackers in the league and their price tags.
Sorted by goals + assists (the first column)
This probably won't look good on mobile.

My idea was to try to get an idea of how much goals and assists are worth in this league. Of course there are many other factors like if a player is young they can be sold, if a player is famous they can sell tickets and jerseys, and so on.

EDIT: I should say that I'm only including players who scored 9+ goals (and a few that scored 8). This leaves out players like Maxi Moralez who scored 7g/20a which would put near the top of the list. Possibly I'll fix that later.

Code:

34/15 Carlos Vela                6,300,000.00
30/7  Zlatan Ibrahimovic         7,200,000.00
27/4  Josef Martinez             3,058,333.25
12/12 Alejandro Pozuelo          3,800,000.00
10/14 Carles Gil                 2,337,500.00
8/16  Diego Valeri               2,420,000.00
16/7  Diego Rossi                1,052,000.12
12/10 Nani                       2,486,249.75
13/8  Mauro Manotas              1,245,050.00
15/4  Kacper Przybylko           277,000.00
15/4  Heber Araujo dos Santos    788,750.06
11/8  Daniel Royer               768,749.94
11/8  Wayne Rooney               3,507,500.00
9/10  Alberth Elis               650,340.00
11/7  Valentin Castellanos       274,806.41
11/7  Jozy Altidore              6,332,250.00
9/9   Johnny Russell             1,450,000.00
15/2  Chris Wondolowski          800,000.06
11/6  Pedro Santos               864,560.00
10/7  Jordan Morris              619,600.00
11/5  Diego Rubio Kostner        353,749.97
9/7   Saphir Taider              1,400,000.00
14/1  Kei Kamara                 750,000.00
13/2  Gyasi Zardes               1,471,666.62
13/2  CJ Sapong                  475,000.09
12/3  Alexandru Mitrita          500,000.03
12/3  Felipe Gutierrez           1,650,000.00
10/5  Albert Rusnak              2,001,666.62
10/5  Darwin Quintero            1,750,000.12
8/7   Adama Diomande             934,999.94
8/6   Jesus Ferreira             70,250.04
11/3  Raul Ruidiaz               2,000,004.00
12/0  Nemanja Nikolic            1,913,333.38
11/1  Jeremy Ebobisse            237,999.95
11/1  Brian Fernandez            1,275,800.00
10/2  Tesho Akindele             150,000.00
9/3   Christian Ramirez          666,250.00

 

Very roughly speaking I would say Wondo is somewhere in the top 10 in terms of best valued players in this league. It's a little tricky because I don't know if any of these players will get sold for a ton of money or how much money was made on Zlatan jerseys and so on.
However for risk averse owners Wondo is ideal. I don't know what the deal is with
Kacper Przybylko - that dude is an insane value. How did Philly scout that guy? Why don't we see more Germans in the league (they seem to do well)?

And that is just factoring the 2019 season - obviously if you look at the history of the league Wondo would be at the top.

 

I'm told John Fisher is "doing all he can" to pay for players, bless his heart.

 

Good Wondo vs Evil Wondo pic.twitter.com/yVWqOmdnve

— San Jose Ultras (@SanJoseUltras) October 10, 2019

 

Were $8 million made off of Zlatan’s jerseys? At a $100.00 each, that means they will have had to sell 80,000 jerseys. The Gals don’t have that many fans snd other than Atlanta, neither does the rest of the league.

 

I’m not saying Zlatan has or hasn’t been a good value for the Galaxy (I would guess they’re very happy with him). Just because he didn’t sell 8m in jerseys doesn’t determine that though.

 

I just don't see how spending all that money on a 37 year old player regardless of his name is good for the league or his club. I guess it puts them on some type of global map but that already happened when Beckham signed.

Still if Ibra who hates the league , the structure and everything about it complains and makes $8 million, Wondo, the leagues all time leading scorer, who proved he can score 12+ goals a year plays for the love of his team, should make a lot more than $800k.The salaries in this league by comparison are way off.

 

Falvo, I agree with you, and ultimately somebody is worth what someone else is willing to pay them. I don't like Ibra, he demonstrated to me in the Classico game at Stanford that he is selfish and lazy, and I suspect Flo will own him next year as well (should he come back). I don't like the money being splashed around for players well past their prime just to sell tickets to Eurosnobs. Unfortunately, we are all going to have to live with it for quite a while longer.

What is unconscionable, however, is the favortism the league displays to them. That has to change, they should be treated like any other player in the league.

 

Regardless of what all the other players did on the world stage or at the national team level, for what he has accomplished in this league, Wondo should have been rewarded. Its sad that its coming to an end.

Hopefully Fisher will buy him a house or at least give him GAP stock options......

 

Indeed.
Hope he'll continue his career and score a bunch more.
One of my favorite MLS players.

 

How about he gives him a job with the Quakes?

 

I’m sure he could coach for $800k!

 

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/major-league-soccer/story/3963152/zlatan-ibrahimovicthe-best-mls-

 

You're saying that Zlatan is a bad value for the Galaxy and the league because he's expensive, old, doesn't surpass Beckham, and hates the league.
That's a good argument but I'm not sure I'm convinced yet.

Remember zlatan came to mls for free. He made 1.5m in 2018 and 7.2m this year which comes to 4.35m per year. He is out of contract at the end of this season. Considerably less money than Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, Vela, Schweinsteiger, Piatti on salary alone. These players didn't come for free either.

In two years Zlatan has scored 52 goals and 17 assists.

You also have to take into account that galaxy won the wooden spoon the year before lafc started. They were worried about staying relevant. In that context remember Zlatan's first game - zlatan had flown into LA the night before the game, the galaxy were being dominated by lafc in the first half 3-0, zlatan was subbed in at half time and nearly by himself beat lafc. To date galaxy have not lost to lafc and zlatan takes almost all the credit. The galaxy attendance hasn't dropped off much at all and most importantly nobody talks about galaxy not staying relevant with their new neighbor. The el traffico games are some of the most hyped games the league has.
Finally, Zlatan has sold a ton of jerseys and tickets not only in LA, but every away game has increased attendance when he plays (or at least expected to play).
So I'm not saying Zlatan is a good value - I just don't know for sure. I suspect the Galaxy have been very happy.

 

If I had known that article existed I could have saved my time spent writing my own comment.

 

Yeah ok. Not that I care about the Gals or what they spent and I'm not discounting Zlatan's worth or what he has done , although he did nothing against the Quakes , it remains to be seen if he will win a trophy.

Still if he is worth $8 million, Wondo is worth at least 1/5th that salary or what they are paying Vako at $1.6 mil....

 

Totally agree that Wondo is worth a lot more than he gets paid. Matt Doyle (mls content guy) estimates it will cost us about 4m to replace Wondo.

 

I don’t think there has ever been an American born player who could do what Wondo did at the club level. He proves everyone wrong with each passing year. Very few stateside have done what he has. Going back in time , of course LAndy and I want to say Ante Razov, Buddle , Twellman and maybe McBride.

As for the foreigners you had Moreno Wright-Phillips , Kamara and Cunningham. Can’t think of many others...

I’m betting had he started shining sooner, he would have been a force on the national team as well. Sadly, it wasn’t to be.

 

I think that most of us believe Wondo has been underpaid.

Please if some knows correct me if I'm wrong. I thought that Wondo (with help from his father?) acted as his own agent. He should have hired a sports agent with sports/MLS/background/knowledge to work out the contracts for him and get him more $.

 

Yes you are right. He acts as his own agent so he won't have to pay their fee. Guess that's worth another 20% in his pocket. It is still less than a million though and/or $600ok or $700k less than what Vako gets....