All Paid Crew Players since 2010

Here is a look at total wages paid to each player wearing a Crew uniform, 2010 (when the 2008 MLS Cup winning team was blown up) till now. It's not perfect, of course (being MLS - players leaving half year or use of allocation or just... MLS), but it gives us a good enough idea who has pulled in the most money.

Total Wages : Player : Years Paid
$4,748,000 : Federico Higuain : 5
$1,802,138 : Gaston Sauro : 3
$1,342,500 : Chad Marshall : 4
$1,211,333 : Tony Tchani : 6
$998,222 : Justin Meram : 7
$971,750 : Wil Trapp : 5
$940,000 : Ola Kamara : 2
$916,508 : Dilaver Duka : 5
$900,000 : Michael Parkhurst : 3
$869,648 : Ethan Finlay : 6
$844,000 : Jonathan Mensah : 1
$835,833 : Andres Mendoza : 2
$790,208 : Eddie Gaven : 4
$775,917 : Waylon Francis : 4
$738,333 : Harrison Afful : 3
$635,000 : Emanuel Pogatetz : 2
$576,600 : Danny O'Rourke : 4
$565,000 : Steve Clark : 3
$536,667 : Kei Kamara : 1
$483,529 : Cedrick Mabwati : 2
$480,500 : William Hesmer : 3
$450,004 : Nicolai Naess : 2
$420,000 : Hector Jimenez : 4
$399,500 : Emmanuel Ekpo : 2
$385,000 : Tyson Wahl : 4
$373,417 : Josh Williams : 5
$365,625 : Emilio Renteria : 3
$360,375 : Jairo Arrieta : 2
$334,167 : Jack McInerney : 1
$279,220 : Andy Gruenebaum : 4
$276,250 : Ben Swanson : 3
$273,333 : Agustin Viana : 2
$263,333 : Glauber Berti : 1
$255,000 : Sebastian Miranda : 2
$255,000 : Robbie Rogers : 2
$253,455 : Ben Speas : 4
$241,250 : Guillermo Barros Schelotto : 1
$230,000 : Mohammed Saeid : 2
$230,000 : Matias Sanchez : 1
$223,333 : Milovan Mirosevic : 1
$218,325 : Chad Barson : 4
$211,500 : Aaron Horton : 3
$205,008 : Zack Steffen : 2
$199,325 : Matt Lampson : 4
$190,000 : Gino Padula : 1
$189,075 : Aaron Schoenfeld : 4
$189,075 : Kevan George : 4
$181,425 : Bernardo Anor : 4
$175,000 : Emil Larsen : 1
$175,000 : Olman Vargas : 1
$172,169 : Julius James : 2
$171,925 : Eric Gehrig : 4
$171,500 : Brad Stuver : 3
$171,250 : Mohammed Abu : 1
$170,496 : Dejan Rusmir : 1
$168,375 : Kekuta Manneh : 1
$161,671 : Jukka Raitala : 1
$160,000 : Adam Jahn : 2
$152,500 : Jeffrey Cunningham : 1
$144,319 : Brian Carroll : 1
$137,141 : Cristian Martinez : 2
$128,125 : Rodrigo Saravia : 2
$127,500 : Frankie Hejduk : 1
$127,450 : Rich Balchan : 2
$126,100 : Shaun Francis : 3
$125,500 : Nemanja Vukovich : 1
$122,015 : Dominic Oduro : 1
$119,438 : Kristinn Steindorsson : 1
$115,306 : Romain Gall : 2
$109,000 : Chris Birchall : 1
$106,209 : Carlos Mendes : 1
$105,575 : Marshall Hollingsworth : 2
$105,500 : Corey Ashe : 1
$105,000 : Conor Casey : 1
$99,879 : Artur De Lima Junior : 1
$89,250 : Tommy Heinemann : 2
$87,802 : Chris Klute : 1
$86,100 : Cole Grossman : 2
$82,000 : Kevin Burns : 2
$80,350 : Korey Veeder : 2
$76,667 : Daniel Paladini : 1
$76,250 : Jason Garey : 1
$74,000 : Ryan Finley : 1
$72,500 : Alhassan "Lalas" Abubakar : 1
$72,500 : Nikolaj Hansen : 1
$71,110 : Andy Iro : 1
$65,004 : Abuchi Obinwa : 1
$60,000 : Sagi Lev-Ari : 1
$53,004 : Connor Maloney : 1
$53,004 : Logan Ketterer : 1
$52,500 : Sergio Campbell : 1
$51,500 : Matt Pacifici : 1
$50,400 : Adam Moffat : 1
$49,200 : Joshua Gardner : 1
$48,500 : Matt Wiet : 1
$48,500 : Ben Sweat : 1
$46,500 : Konrad Warzycha : 1
$42,333 : Steven Lenhart : 1
$40,008 : Leandre Griffit : 1
$40,000 : Duncan Oughton : 1
$40,000 : Eric Brunner : 1
$36,504 : Adam Bedell : 1
$36,504 : Kingsley Baiden : 1
$36,500 : Ross Friedman : 1
$36,500 : Matt Walker : 1
$35,125 : Kyle Hyland : 1
$35,125 : Daniel Withrow : 1
$35,125 : Shawn Sloan : 1
$35,125 : Drew Beckie : 1
$33,750 : Aubrey Perry : 1
$33,750 : Kirk Urso : 1
$32,600 : Ben Sippola : 1
$32,600 : Alex Riggs : 1
$32,600 : Santiago Prim : 1

MLS Salaries, Team Rank 2010-16

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So Goes Ohio So Goes MLS

The MLS Players Union published their updated player wages document today. Not a whole lot of surprises since they just released it a few month's ago. This one does include some of the secondary window players. Now that rosters are locked the list carries a little bit more meaning.

High-level bullet points:

• Median Team wages up two million in two years (+50%)
• Toronto, LA, NYCFC, Seattle, Orlando biggest spenders (10m-23m)
• Rest of league remains in the 5-6 million $ range

Not a whole lot of surprises on the Columbus Crew SC front other than Gaston Sauro is making close to $600k annually. A wage that puts him the top 5 in the league, defensively. It's likely prorated this year, but that's still a hefty bill. Under Gregg Berhalter, the Crew have spent big on center backs.

I've gone over these wage lists dozens of times over the past few years and there's not much that surprises me anymore. I did discover that Columbus almost always matches the league median, as far as median guaranteed salaries go.

Just as the age old political saying goes, I guess. So goes Ohio, so goes the country.

Here's the full list of Crew players:

1,175,000 - Federico Higuain
599,513 - Gaston Sauro
536,667 - Kei Kamara
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MLS TOP 10%
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334,167 - Jack McInerney
300,000 - Michael Parkhurst
262,500 - Emanuel Pogatetz
220,179 - Cedrick Mabwati
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MLS TOP QUARTILE
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195,000 - Tony Tchani
188,333 - Steve Clark
175,000 - Justin Meram
170,167 - Waylon Francis
150,000 - Harrison Afful
164,500 - Wil Trapp
142,500 - Ethan Finlay
119,438 - Kristinn Steindorsson
110,000 - Mohammed Saeid
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MLS MEDIAN
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99,667 - Tyson Wahl
90,000 - Hector Jimenez
87,802 - Chris Klute
80,417 - Ben Swanson
68,355 - Ben Speas
63,420 - Romain Gall
60,000 - Kevan George
60,000 - Matt Lampson
60,000 - Sagi Lev-Ari
60,000 - Aaron Schoenfeld
60,000 - Brad Stuver
60,000 - Chad Barson
52,500 - Sergio Campbell

MLS Cost per Point, per Goal

MLS is just a hair over 50% complete with the season, so what better time to look at cost per point earned and cost per goal scored. Keeping it simple - take the total wage bill for each team (as reported by ESPN earlier this year) and multiply it by the percentage of the season complete to get how much each team has spent thus far.

Example; Columbus has a reported yearly wage bill of 4.2 million dollars this year. They are 18 games in, which is 53% of the season complete. That means they have paid 2.22m in salary so far.

First up is Dollars per point earned...

74,118 - DC United
76,688 - Sporting Kansas City
87,627 - FC Dallas
92,000 - San Jose Earthquakes
92,647 - Columbus Crew
94,301 - Vancouver Whitecaps
105,882 - Colorado Rapids
106,357 - Portland Timbers
106,905 - Real Salt Lake
112,745 - Montreal Impact
113,445 - Houston Dynamo
132,353 - Philadelphia Union
166,275 - Chicago Fire
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170,255 - League Average
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178,922 - New England Rev.
218,290 - Seattle Sounders FC
293,478 - New York Red Bulls
297,794 - Orlando City
306,831 - L.A. Galaxy
397,059 - New York City FC
419,437 - Toronto FC

...and here is dollars spent per goal.

82,353 - Columbus Crew
82,824 - Sporting Kansas City
101,471 - Montreal Impact
105,882 - FC Dallas
108,289 - Houston Dynamo
112,788 - DC United
114,305 - Philadelphia Union
121,053 - San Jose Earthquakes
131,202 - Vancouver Whitecaps
136,134 - Colorado Rapids
136,601 - Real Salt Lake
138,562 - Chicago Fire
149,866 - Portland Timbers
171,765 - New England Rev.
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188,578 - League Average
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279,412 - Seattle Sounders FC
293,478 - New York Red Bulls
306,831 - L.A. Galaxy
310,742 - Orlando City
397,059 - New York City FC
438,503 - Toronto FC

MLS Wage Charts (2010-14)

Still messing around with team wages between the years 2010-14 that spin off the research I did for my post over at Massive Report. So, here is a few more charts and graphs to share. Top one is my favorite (box and whisker). I have it sorted by YE 2014 salaries.

• LA looks pretty
• New England' is interesting due to the Jermaine Jones signing
• Expansion teams are missing a year or two
• The filled in items show a trend down

You should be able to interact with the next couple a little. Not a whole lot here to sink your teeth into, but does well at painting a quick and informative picture of what's going on in regards to salaries.

MLS Wages by Team (2010-14) | Create infographics

Dilly Duka, Void

This illustration is sort of what happens when you try and take on a post about the Columbus Crew's Dilly Duka. Nothing to latch on to with this guy.

One thing to comment on is his contract. It's a little wonky. Let me 'splain.

I had the pleasure of meeting David Burgin (of Global Football Today) recently and he raised some interesting questions about the difference between Duka's Base Salary and his Guaranteed. Same thing as with Tony Tchani's contract.

Why the large discrepancy betwixt "base" and "guaranteed" with these two? Is it performance related? Or is it, as Burgin thinks, tied to playing time. If so, are we seeing a couple players getting more starting minutes solely based on contract stipulations and/or requirements?

How about we look at these two Crew players in relationship to the rest of the league. Below are are the Major League Soccer Players that stand to double (2x) their listed base salary* in guaranteed monies. In other words, these are the contracts with the biggest difference between base and guaranteed in the league!

Team : Name
POR : Darlington Nagbe (2.5x)
CLB : Dilly Duka (2.2x)
NER : Kelyn Rowe (2.1x)
MTL : Andrew Wenger (2.0x)
DCU : Perry Kitchen (2.0x)
CLB : Tony Tchani (2.0x)
SKC : Teal Bunbury (1.9x)
CHV : Laurent Courtois (1.9x)

Wow, talented players there. It's predictable that MLS has tagged these players as "hot" and have negotiated contracts as such. I would much rather a broader market determine the worth of these players and not single entity like corporation. It is what it is though.

Interesting that Columbus has two players in the top 8 here. I personally think that the Crew org. went after Generation Adidas players in order to navigate waters below the cap as long as they could. Both Duka and Tchani declared their graduation last year though and thus have thrust their base salaries on the 2012 cap.

Overall the Crew is 13th in league Base Salary. 12th in Guaranteed. They are as about as average as you get when looking at this salary stuff. Remember all that mess about being the lowest paid team in major league whatevers? Yeah, the Crew are fine now. A lot of that had to do with timing and << shocker >> bad data.

Chicago, New Englend, Kansas City, Houston, Chivas and Montreal all have lower base salaries than the Crew right now.

Stepping back now, in early June, Columbus is just in the middle in everything. Regardless of whether Dilly Duka and Tony Tchani do well... it looks like it'll be just fine for the club, in relationship to the rest of the league. Just a matter how how much Mark McCullers, Brian Bliss, Lapper, Iribarren, and Warzycha think these guys matter. Contract or not.

Questions will linger about whether or not Duka and Tchani are playing based on current form and playing level, though. You can be the judge. Tchani or Duka making a mysterious start out of nowhere is more than likely contract related.

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*I'm only using what MLS Player's Union has publically provided in terms of contract data. I consider it reliable (at this time).

Crew Salaries, Notes

Here are the pay rate changes for players that were either part of the Columbus Crew or Major League Soccer last year and this year. On the far right is current *Guaranteed Salary.

+67.9% : Aaron Horton $70k
+38.6% : Julius James $100k
+35.0% : Eric Gehrig $44k
+33.1% : Korey Veeder $46k
+21.7% : Sebastian Miranda $140k
+18.0% : Andy Gruenebaum $79k
+16.5% : Rich Balchan $69k
+12.5% : Tommy Heinemann $47k
+10.7% : William Hesmer $181k
+09.8% : Emilio Rentería $134k
+09.1% : Danny O'Rourke $146k
+09.0% : Dilly Duka $243k
+07.7% : *Tony Tchani $209k
+06.6% : Chad Marshall $341k
+06.3% : Justin Meram $71
+05.0% : Josh Williams $44k
+05.0% : Shaun Francis $44k
+05.0% : Bernardo Anor $44k
+05.0% : Cole Grossman $44k
+04.8% : Carlos Mendes $106k
-07.0% : Eddie Gaven $195k
-30.6% : Chris Birchall $109k

NEW : Kirk Urso $34k
NEW : Ethan Finlay $59k
NEW : Aaron Schoenfeld $34k
NEW : Nemanja Vukovic $126k
NEW : Kevan George $34k
NEW : Olman Vargas $175k
NEW : Milovan Mirosevic $223k
NEW : Aubrey Perry $34k
NEW : Matt Lampson $44k
NEW : Ben Speas $58k

*Tony Tchani's contract appears to be loaded with incentives. His base salary is about half his guaranteed. Meaning: It's up to him. When I'm sorting through salaries I use Guaranteed. It'd be foolish for anyone running a club or business to plan around base salary.

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NOTABLE NUMBERS (approximate)

$580k : Amount Columbus shed through player transactions (dropping $1.4 Million and signing $820k).

$230k : Pay increases to players with the Crew last year and this year

$350k : Pay reduction in total salaries, - players salaries dropped + pay increases (note: I capped Andres Mendoza at the $350k DP cap hit)

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PLAYER OUTPLAYING THEIR 2012 SALARY

Andy Gruenebaum
Josh Williams
Eric Gehrig
Kirk Urso
Shaun Francis
Sebastian Miranda
Ethan Finlay

Contracts are complicated animals in MLS. Some of the younger drafted players probably have 3 year deals with incremental COLA -like increases. Un-drafted players are probably less. Duka and Tchani are both former Generation Adidas players. GA players are guaranteed six figures by MLS. Both Duka and Tchani "graduated" last year which means they are fair game now. Tony Tchani is essentially on trial right now. I also expect Dilly Duka's value to decrease if he can't stay healthy over longer periods.

A good chunk of the younger players with bright futures are coming up on 2 and 3 years with the team. Josh Williams, Aaron Horton, Bernardo Anor, Justin Meram, Shaun Francis, Eric Gehrig, Korey Veeder, Cole Grossman, are all solid MLS players and seem to be durable enough. Rich Balchan is a good talent, but needs to get healthy. Same goes for Tommy Heinemann.

Could it be that some of these players will make up the core Crew group for the next 5-7 years? It's really impressive that the Crew has a group like this all learning the ways of Warzycha, Bliss, Lapper and Irribarren. My hope would be that Columbus keeps them together.

Finally, how much of that is dictated by MLS is not known so I don't see a lot to get frothy about until those gaps get filled. Columbus seems to keep team salaries at or below the $3.5 million dollar mark and is doing an excellent job pulling in young regional players (highest rate in league, actually).

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I will probably take a closer look at the 2-3 year Crew players later this year as their development is getting very interesting to me.

If I've got something wrong here or if you want to know more about this post you can email me: ljbaby654 (at) gmail.com