The Major League Soccer Player's Union took a bold step today that puts it in line with the rest of the professional sports leagues in this country. In the 12-year history of MLS, player salaries were never made public — even though they were inevitably leaked to the media.
Today, they were posted on the MLS Players Union website, www.mlsplayers.org. The link can be found under the resources tab.
According to the website, "the decision was made to facilitate the accurate reporting of this information and to help educate the public regarding player compensation."
Here's a list of the 10 highest paid players in the league, in addition to all of Real Salt Lake's salaries.
Salaries are broken into two catagories. The base salary is just that, a base salary that counts toward the salary cap. The second includes all signing and guaranteed bonuses divided over the term of the contract. The second salary does don't include performance bonuses.
It's interesting to note that Jason Kreis had a base salary of $160,000 before he retired. That gives RSL a lot of salary cap space to go out and sign a replacement player.
Top 10 Players
Player 2007 Base Salary 2007 Guaranteed Compensation
David Beckahm, L.A. $5,500,000 $6,500,000
Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Chicago $2,492,316 $2,666,778
Juan Pablo Angel, New York $1,500,000 $1,593,750
Claudio Reyna, New York $1,000,008 $1,250,008
Landon Donovan, L.A. $900,000 $900,000
Eddie Johnson, Kansas City $750,000 $875,000
Carlos Ruiz, Dallas $325,000 $435,000
Taylor Twellman, New England $325,008 $350,000
Freddy Adu, RSL $300,000 $550,000
Carl Robinson, Toronto $300,000 $315,000
Real Salt Lake
Player 2007 Base Salary 2007 Guaranteed Compensation
Freddy Adu $300,000 $550,000
Mehdi Ballouchy $70,000 $88,000
Nikolas Besagno $75,000 $111,500
Kyle Brown $17,700 $17,700
Chris Brown $70,000 $70,000
Jeff Cunningham $220,000 $232,500
Steven Curfman $12,900 $12,900
Kenny Cutler $30,000 $30,000
Willis Forko $30,000 $30,000
Atiba Harris $30,000 $30,000
Duke Hashimoto $17,700 $17,700
Christian Jimenez $33,075 $43,075
Dustin Kirby $12,900 $12,900
Chris Klein $180,000 $187,250
Chris Lancos $30,000 $30,000
Eddie Pope $265,000 $265,000
Kyle Reynish $12,900 $12,900
Nick Rimando $64,125 $68,468
Jeff Rowland $17,700 $17,700
Chris Seitz $55,000 $90,500
Jack Stewart $41,081 $48,581
Carey Talley $118,248 $118,248
Luis Tejada $105,000 $105,000
Daniel Torres $90,000 $100,000
Jamie Watson $45,100 $50,100
Andy Williams $70,008 $70,008