Goal + Assist Leaders, MLS 2020

Below are the Goal + Assist leaders per 90 minutes (no penalties, minimum of 900 minutes played) for the 2020 MLS Regular Season. Included are age and last known wages (the MLSPA did not release 2020 salaries).

After putting these together for the past decade I've started to be able to tease out a player or two worth noting. This year it's Cole Bassett, who has been identified by foreign clubs including Arsenal, who had him over for some U-23 training recently. Colorado and Arsenal share ownership, so it isn't all that unexpected that he's getting a chance to show his talents. 

MLS is reporting that several German clubs are looking at him, but who isn't getting a look from German clubs right now. The last two USMNT coaches have obvious ties to that region, Jürgen Klinsmann and now Gregg Berhalter.

G+A-PK	Name	Team	Age	Yearly Wage
1.01	Bradley Wright-Phillips	LAF	35	$ 1,380,000
0.98	Christopher Mueller	ORL	24	$ 109,375
0.94	Alan Pulido	SKC	29	$ 2,000,000
0.92	Cole Bassett	COL	19	$ 84,000
0.89	Jordan Morris	SEA	26	$ 619,600
0.89	Raúl Ruidíaz	SEA	30	$ 2,000,000
0.85	Diego Rossi	LAF	22	$ 1,052,000
0.85	Jeremy Ebobisse	PDX	23	$ 238,000
0.84	Gyasi Zardes	CLB	29	$ 1,471,667
0.79	Romell Quioto	MTL	29	$ 556,501
0.76	Ayo Akinola	TFC	20	$ 124,256
0.75	Darwin Quintero	HOU	33	$ 1,750,000
0.75	Sergio Santos Gomes	PHI	26	$ 668,500
0.74	Daryl Dike	ORL	20	$ 180,000
0.71	Kevin Molino	MIN	30	$ 546,254
0.69	Lucas Zelarayán	CLB	28	?
0.69	Djordje Mihailovic	CHI	21	$ 114,600
0.67	Felipe Mora	PDX	27	$ 310,000
0.59	Kacper Przybyłko	PHI	27	$ 277,000
0.59	Pedro Santos	CLB	32	$ 864,560
0.59	Yimmi Chará	PDX	29	$ 550,000
0.58	Alejandro Pozuelo	TFC	29	$ 3,800,000
0.58	Mark-Anthony Kaye	LAF	25	$ 177,811
0.58	Hany Mukhtar	NAS	25	$ 56,500
0.57	Mauricio Pereyra	ORL	30	$ 1,078,000
0.57	Nani	ORL	33	$ 2,486,250
0.57	Robin Lod	MIN	27	$ 952,496
0.57	Saphir Taïder	MTL	28	$ 1,400,000
0.57	Ethan Finlay	MIN	30	$ 400,008
0.56	Robert Berić	CHI	29	$ 2,000,001
0.56	Teal Bunbury	NER	30	$ 270,750
0.55	Diego Valeri	PDX	34	$ 2,420,000
0.52	Diego Rubio	COL	27	$ 353,750
0.52	Gadi Kinda	SKC	26	$ 72,550
0.50	Cristian Espinoza	SJE	25	$ 550,000
0.50	Brian Rodríguez	LAF	20	$ 1,039,800

If Anthony Precourt, Gregg Berhalter and the Columbus Crew SC...

Are serious about turning our beloved Crew into something which transcends anything that has come before on the Columbus sports landscape, then...

Alan Pulido

and 

Carlos Vela

(pictured above: left and right)

are the kind of attacking players they should be breaking the bank

to offer Black and Gold jerseys

Spending the kind of money needed to grab hold of young attacking quality, such as the two above, must carry with it the real possibility of seeing a return on investment. As I mentioned in my previous post  Berhalter Spotted in the Heart of Gold Spaceship Mexico is a logical and prudent direction to look for the kind of players who can both greatly improve the quality and marketability of the club.

There are thousands of Mexican ex-pats living in Columbus. Anyone who has gone to a Crew game in the last few years knows that the number of those ex-pats showing up to games on Hudson Street is a small sliver of the overall Mexican and Mexican-American population in our town. 

If Anthony Precourt and Greg Berhalter want to extend the reach of the newly rebranded Crew, they have to begin including ALL the soccer fans in Columbus. The only meaningful way to achieve this is player personnel. These players would cost millions. You're looking at $1.5 million/year for each of these players. But they are the kind of players who have a damn good chance of selling enough tickets and jerseys to more than cover the financial risk.

The ball is in our owner's end of the field. The television money is beginning to skyrocket. There will be a new Collective Bargaining Agreement before the 2015 season kicks off. NOW is the time to make this sort of move. Engaging  Columbus' futbol loving Mexican-American residents (and just for the heck-of-it, let's make some front office moves that open doors for the soccer fanatic Somali residents who call Columbus home) would be a game changer of epic proportions. The resulting cosmopolitan feel to a night in Crew Stadium would be sublime.

PS: I realize Vela's transfer fee would be silly big.