Several more players enter millionaires club.
The MLS Players Association revealed the revised salary figures for the players for the 2022 season on Monday, and given considerable roster turnover in the summer, there were plenty of changes for LAFC.
Seven players signed since the first salary drop came out earlier this year. Homegrown Nathan Ordaz and Danny Trejo both signed for minimum salaries, and Sebas Mendez is firmly an MLS “middle class” player, his salary around $600,000, while the other four — Gareth Bale, Giorgio Chiellini, Denis Bouanga and Cristian Tello — all are making over $1,000,000 each (albeit on a pro-rated basis for the rest of this season). Of note, for the rest of this season, at least, Tello is classified as a Designated Player.
Bale will be a talking point around the league, as his base salary is just under the TAM threshold of $1,612,500, but his signing bonus takes him above that. Many will claim LAFC aren’t following the rules, but until we get information to the contrary, I have to believe MLS signed off on it and it is in fact within the rules.
Carlos Vela also signed a new deal midseason, and while his base salary is a slight raise over what his previous contract had been, his guaranteed compensation is substantially smaller than it was, so LAFC did appear to convince him to take an overall pay reduction to stay with the club.
Given the number of high salary players who joined midseason, even with several players departing the club’s overall totals for player salaries is considerably higher: $19,001,888 in total guaranteed compensation, compared to $14,563,717 earlier this season.
Here’s the full figures for LAFC:
What do you think? Leave a comment below.