This situation is not unusual in sports for young players. You have to put in the time, 3-4 years, before you get paid (in salary... you can do well with signing bonuses if you've got the juice). MLB has control of the player for 3 years at the Major league level (forget that they also controlled them in the minors for bupkiss) at basically the league minimum salary. Doesn't matter how good you are, you get peanuts (if you can call $500k/yr peanuts). After those 3 years (and mind you it's service time, so if sent back to AAA your clock stops), then you are eligible for arbitration for another 3 years. At least then you can argue for a wage commensurate with performance, but you still are basically in servitude to your club for those traditional 3 years. The NBA and NFL was getting out of whack with rookies getting huge contracts, so they killed the free market as well. Your salary the first 4 years in the NBA is predetermined based on your draft position. Now, it's pretty good money, but if you are a late 1st round pick and turn into a top player...suck on it for 4 years. If you go 2nd round or FA you negotiate which is nice. NFL is likewise slotted by draft pick. Of course it's better and worse in the NFL. They do get big upfront money (that's nice) but it has everything to do with draft position, not performance. And then you don't get a guaranteed contract for most. Blow out knee, see ya, $0. Yearly salaries though for those first 4 years are basically set by where you are drafted, and unless you were a top pick it's close to the minimum for 4 years solid.
TFC has the highest payroll at 22.5M. That's an average of 801K per player. Quite misleading though as 25 of their 28 players fit under ~4M. So outside their three DP's it's an average of 160K per player. The above chart was in GBP's so 160K equals ~120K GPB's per player. That's MLS's highest team. The 11th highest paying team in MLS, Colorado, right in the middle but almost all teams closer to them than TFC, has 8M total salary. The three DP's take up ~5.2M. The other 23 players fit under 2.8M, 122K per player, or ~92 GBP's per player. So as to ielag's point given that chart was from 2014, MLS salaries have certainly increased. It would be higher up that table. I'm not sure how much higher. DP/TAM is still where most of the money goes and MLS is the most top heavy paying league in this sport. The majority of the league, seemingly 22-25 players on most rosters fall into the average of about 80-100 GBP's per player. So most MLS talent is paid at the Sweden/Poland level and the DP/TAM players are paid like top 10 league players with a select few in that 4M+ bracket.
Each sport tweaks for their particular situation and soccer has to do likewise. We get ideas from other sports but then have to make adjustments. Basketball is heavy on star system because on a 5 man team in basketball you have a big reliance on one or two guys. Baseball is a legal monopoly. The careers are long in baseball. NFL is brutal. They pay by the game with no guaranteed contracts and if you think about it, the entire season is 16 games if you don't count playoffs. In Europe they look at soccer as a year round activity with one month off at the end of league season. Nowadays the big teams tour in summer before pre season. However, Europe tends to be into longer term relationships in business and that includes sports. I think most would say it's ridiculous to be making 60k while playing next to a Giovinco type dp. Imagine Shelton making league minimum of $60k and looking for an apartment in NYC. Laughable. Maybe he can reserve a bench in Central Park on a night to night basis.
Well, you'd be wrong. MLS would today be around 12th (give or take a spot or two) on the list jond posted. As for the rest of your post, it frankly isn't really relevant to anything I posted (though fyi, the Championship is included in the table...and I think you'd be surprised what Ligue 2/Serie B/La Liga 2 pay)
The money would be there if Acosta were a better player. If our players are not leaving for Europe is because, if a mid-table Portuguese or Dutch club want a 22-year old with severe positional & passing limitations, they'd rather get some guy from Ghana or Ecuador for half the price.
What's worse is it appears Roldan signed the worst class of contract MLS has to offer. He's on a GA contract. There's little info on how long those are but if ielag is correct, and he pointed to Larin's GA contract which was signed the same year as Roldan signed his, it's a 3+1+1 contract, essentially five years. And they pay a fraction of a HG contract with smaller raises. But why's it the worst? Lower pay, lower raise rate and longer length. Morris signed a three yr HG deal. Durkin signed a HG deal which ends when he's 19. Roldan didn't sign until 20 so he'll be locked into this thing until he's 25 most likely. He must either have received horrible advice or didn't think much of himself when signing. He might be the best American mid in MLS now, and the next three years and be stuck earning about 140-160K/Y until he's 25, making him so valuable on that contract there's no incentive to sell, and by the time it expires Europe will consider him a finished product. But who knows, Sea did right by Yedlin. Maybe they will with Roldan and take the hit.
Pulisic's decision making has been a standout ability since at least age 15. McKennie served as Schalke U19's captain in his first year there.
Without reading too much into this friendly I think we're going to be ok in central midfield for the future. Add Jonathan Gonzalez and maybe some younger MLS guys for depth. Acosta needs to get to Europa ASAP. Worry about creativity though, outside of Pulisic it's lacking.
Yes, he has room for improvement. Would you mind providing sources for the portion quoted above? Oops. Never mind. Someone else did the work here.
You can read it from the actual Schalke fans here: http://forum.westline.de/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=910276&start=70 He was seen as one for the future, and a bench player for the season at most, but now are quite happy with the progress he's made, and even happier that he's extended his contract to 2022. However, they know he's not likely to be a regular starter if everybody is back in full health. I don't know what the point of debate is here, it's all very public knowledge.
Nico Lodeiro and Ozzy Alonso would easily be starters for us. Dempsey and Morris sometimes were. Roldan has been better than them all this year. He should be discussed in the same breath as Jonathan Gonzalez, Weston McKennie, and Tyler Adams (really a rb). I think we're in great shape going fw in cm. But I share your creativity concerns thanks to MLS' DP/allocation rule impediment and our attackers there outside Pulisic disappearing for different reasons.
Without looking up all the other leagues average salary and just sticking to that chart. MLS does indeed jump 10 places to number 12 averaging $316,777.33 for wages in 2016.
Its coming..................................... I know people "poo-poo" it but we were only one of two nations to reach the quarterfinals of both the U20 World Cup and the U17 World Cup. While that doesn't mean we're on the cusp of being World Champions, it does tell us there's talent on the way. We're the current U20 CONCACAF Champions and lost the final of the U17 CONCACAF Championships on penalties to Mexico (after beating them in the group stages). By the way, we made the quarterfinals of the U20 World Cup without Pulisic, McKennie, Gonzalez, and other youngsters we couldn't get released (Taitague, Perez, Wright, etc.) I think people do have expectations that are a little out of whack. After only 20 years of MLS and only 10 years of the Development Academy.....................do people really expect us to be at the level of Germany and Spain? Of course not. That's ludicrous. We need each generation to be better than the next, and there were always going to be ups and downs in our journey. AFter 20 years of MLS and 10 years of the development academy we should have beaten a T&T "B" team 6-0. So obviously, the USMNT has issues. Nobody is denying that. One of the issues isn't a lack of talent coming thru our younger ranks right now. Its the lack of talent amongst our 28 year olds and players that are supposed to be in their "primes." The biggest problem right now isn't our development of 18 year old raw materials. {Although improvement will always be desirable.} Foreign clubs are hoovering our prospects at that age up at a good clip. We can't say "we're not developing talented youngsters" and then talk about McKennie and Sargent and Palmer-Brown and Taitague and on and on. Ayo Akinola is currently on trial at PSV. Our problem domestically is the 18-22 year old age group. And that has a lot to do with the lack of a coherent 2nd division/3rd division/reserve league structure. We're only now getting that into place. You can't blame FC Dallas for starting Mauro Diaz over Paxton Pomykol. Oscar Pareja is trying to win games. You can, however, blame them for not having an FCD 2 or for not loaning Pomykol out for playing time. Same with Atlanta and Andrew Carleton. These are the creative types of players you're talking about. How are they being nurtured and developed?
New coach, new season. I for one hope he sticks around and they send Kamara packing. The Revs biggest problem is too many forward, mids and mostly bad defense. We'll see what Friedel does and I think his number 1 priority should be to lock up Lee and Juan and Diego. Those 3 should be the main stays going forward
That's fair. Giovinco, an elite player in MLS, might have made a difference for Italy. Williams, not quite an elite in the EPL and also injured, might have made one for the USMNT. MLS has expanded much too much and thereby diluted its talent. In addition, the lack of relegation/promotion makes it inferior to the feeder leagues you mention. Except for the EPL that requires permits, other top tier European leagues would have provided a great platform for American players who were good enough to play there.
I'd go with the younger Rowe over Nguyen. But I agree the Revs need to streamline the attack and get a killer LB.
Lack of Pro/Rel would actually be a benefit to development if non-playoff teams played youth. If this were baseball, which has the same development structure that MLS is trying to implement, a team like LAFC would have traded a good veteran to a team like Atlanta in the Summer and got back Carleton and/or Goslin and then played them. Why not play your prospects when you are elminated? But this doesn't happen in MLS. All American sports lack Pro/Rel, but they all do this rebuilding. Trade away veterans, get prospects back, and play those kids to see if they are any good and get them experience for next year. Why this doesn't happen in MLS has to be one of the big issues the league fixes immediately. That EPB could waste away on the bench for two years is a disgrace. That NE or Philadelphia didn't look to trade for Carleton. e.g., is crazy. As for MLS players on the USMNT. You are right, the problem wasn't that they played in MLS (at least for the handful that had played in Europe); it is that they are at an age (mostly over 30) and talent level to only be able to play in MLS.
EPB is twenty years old. He plays CB. He has 42 appearances in 3 leagues, to his credit. He has signed with Manchester City. How have SKC done him wrong? Carleton turned 17 this year. He has 5 appearances in 2 leagues, to his credit. How is he suffering? MLB send kids to the minors.
I don't think this is true at all. This isn't baseball, where there is a more finite global pool of available top level talent generally and pitching in particular. As MLS has expanded the quality of play has actually continued to improve, bit by bit. As the league has expanded, new teams and existing teams have done an excellent job at mining the global market for undervalued or underpaid players or young players with promise. Atlanta, NYCFC, TFC, RBNY, the Crew (of the teams I watch with some frequency) all play fairly attractive soccer.
He has played 1200 minutes for SKC over 3 years. A total of 13 soccer games. For a 20-yo, that seems to be counter productive to development.