Top 27 MLS Players (2021 so far)

The oldest running MLS player rating system (mine!) has been updated. Here are the top 27 players of the season so far (30% in). Orlando and New England are the two surprises of the season so far. Alex Roldan pops up in my analysis a lot when looking at top players.

Top 27
Score	Player Name	Position	Team	Wage	Birthplace	Age
10.00	Raúl Ruidíaz	FW	SEA	$ 2,100,000	PER	30
9.72	Javier Hernández	FW	LAG	$ 6,000,000	MEX	33
8.98	Cristian Roldan	MF,FW	SEA	$ 881,542	USA	26
8.83	Carles Gil	MF	NER	$ 2,769,667	ESP	28
8.57	Alex Roldan	DF	SEA	$ 93,581	USA	24
8.56	Dániel Sallói	FW	SKC	$ 456,667	HUN	24
8.41	João Paulo Mior	MF	SEA	$ 1,050,000	BRA	30
8.40	Damir Kreilach	MF	RSL	$ 1,350,000	CRO	32
8.15	Valentín Castellanos	FW	NYC	$ 324,806	ARG	22
8.08	Nani	FW,MF	ORL	$ 2,486,250	POR	34
8.02	Jesús Medina	MF,FW	NYC	$ 1,170,833	PAR	24
7.98	Jamiro Monteiro	MF	PHI	$ 1,476,250	CPV	27
7.98	Antonio Carlos	DF	ORL	$ 865,000	BRA	28
7.97	Júnior Urso	MF	ORL	$ 730,000	BRA	32
7.96	Kyle Smith	DF	ORL	$ 118,660	USA	29
7.84	Gianluca Busio	MF,FW	SKC	$ 127,504	USA	19
7.80	Brad Smith	DF	SEA	$ 566,250	AUS	27
7.60	Matt Turner	GK	NER	$ 375,000	USA	27
7.59	Andrew Farrell	DF	NER	$ 418,750	USA	29
7.58	Keegan Rosenberry	DF	COL	$ 298,750	USA	27
7.55	Jakob Glesnes	DF	PHI	$ 448,125	NOR	27
7.53	Diego Rubio	FW	COL	$ 629,583	CHI	28
7.50	Brandon Bye	DF	NER	$ 178,875	USA	25
7.49	Yeimar Gómez Andrade	DF	SEA	$ 387,000	COL	29
7.46	Rubio Rubin	FW	RSL	$ 152,067	USA	25
7.45	Jonathan Bond	GK	LAG	$ 501,875	ENG	28
7.44	Tesho Akindele	FW	ORL	$ 290,000	CAN	29

Top Central Mids in MLS

Going to drift into the middle of the pitch now and take a look at what's become the most important position on just about every MLS team - The Central Midfielder.

First up, a couple housekeeping items:
1. These lists were created July 24th and do not include games after that. It wouldn't move needles that much but does impact any stats you might see.
2. This is my third positional evaluation. Right Mids HERE and Left Backs HERE.
3. Ages are rounded. So if you are 33.6 then it's 34. Just ease of use.
4. Rank is determined by the average of the Helltown Player Rank and WhoScored.

TOP CENTRAL MIDS

Modern metrics and stats are built around these players. They do a little bit of everything so spreadsheets absolutely love them. In year's gone by, stats loved forwards because it was easy to track. Goals, assists. These days is dozens of measurements in Aerials Won, Dribbles, Key Passes, Dispossessed's. So, congratulations central mids, you're getting paid.

	Name(2)	BIRTHPLACE	Team	Age	Salary
1	Eduard Atuesta	Velez, Colombia	LAF	22	$493,000
2	Álejandro Pozuelo	Seville, Spain	TFC	28	$3,800,000
3	Nicolás Lodeiro	Paysandu, Uruguay	SEA	30	$2,502,500
4	Jamiro Monteiro	Rotterdam, Netherlands	PHI	26	$569,200
5	Mark-Anthony Kaye	Toronto, Canada	LAF	25	$177,811
6	Diego Valeri	Valentin Alsina, Argentina	PDX	33	$2,420,000
7	Nico Gaitán	San Martin, Argentina	CHI	31	$2,197,504
8	Magnus Eriksson	Solna, Sweden	SJE	29	$450,000
9	Pedro Santos	Lisbon, Portugal	CLB	31	$864,560
10	Albert Rusnak	Vyskov, Czech Republic	RSL	25	$2,001,667
11	Saphir Taider	Castres, France	MTL	27	$1,400,000
12	Damir Kreilach	Vukovar, Yugoslavia	RSL	30	$1,082,102
13	Gonzalo Martínez	Guaymallen, Argentina	ATL	26	$900,000
14	Felipe Gutiérrez	Quintero, Chile	SKC	29	$1,650,000
15	Paxton Pomykal	Lewisville, Texas	FCD	20	$105,000
16	Sebastian Lletget	San Francisco, California	LAG	27	$312,667
17	Alejandro Bedoya	Englewood, New Jersey	PHI	32	$1,266,250
18	Alexander Ring	Helsinki, Finland	NYCFC	28	$945,000
19	Federico Higuain	Buenos Aires, Argentina	CLB	35	$1,100,000
20	Luciano Acosta	Buenos Aires, Argentina	DC	25	$702,000

As mentioned in previous posts, you can see a couple from the same team because the position assigned to them is the one they play most often, not necessarily the one they are pegged to play. Almost all the top players here are in the Helltown and WhoScored top 50.

28: Median Age of all Central Mids on this list
$1,013,551: Median salary of the players on this list

NOTABLES

Mark-Anthony Kaye Bob Bradley has found a solid player in this Canadian. There's nothing spectacular on his resume. No youth career in Spain or Argentina. He was with Toronto for a bit, collect for a couple years. Played for Louisville in the USL. Along with Eduard Atuesta (who plays more central a bit with Kaye to the left of him), he works. He salary being ridiculously low puts him top of my list.

Eduard Atuesta 5th on WhoScored list, 6th on mine. This 22-year-old is likely not going to be in MLS for much longer. His formative years were with Independiente Medellín, then straight to MLS. LAFC signed him at a great wage.

Alejandro Pozuelo Neat pickup for Toronto from Seville, Andalusia with loads of experience in top leagues. Opta loves him and I'm sure his teammates do too. His salary is steep, but players like him (known) come at that price.

WHOSCORED RATING

Here's their average rating on the season. Anything over 7.25 is outstanding. Important to remember that there are 24 teams in MLS and 20 players here.

WS	Name(2)	Team
7.63	Álejandro Pozuelo	TFC
7.59	Eduard Atuesta	LAF
7.50	Jamiro Monteiro	PHI
7.45	Mark-Anthony Kaye	LAF
7.37	Nicolás Lodeiro	SEA
7.32	Paxton Pomykal	FCD
7.18	Diego Valeri	PDX
7.15	Felipe Gutiérrez	SKC
7.14	Magnus Eriksson	SJE
7.13	Pedro Santos	CLB
7.10	Nico Gaitán	CHI
7.08	Albert Rusnak	RSL
7.06	Damir Kreilach	RSL
7.04	Sebastian Lletget	LAG
7.00	Saphir Taider	MTL
6.94	Alexander Ring	NYCFC
6.92	Gonzalo Martínez	ATL
6.87	Alejandro Bedoya	PHI
6.87	Luciano Acosta	DC
6.81	Federico Higuain	CLB

Final note: Paxton Pomykal is in some pretty good company and having an outstanding season with Dallas. He's 19 and played at every US National team age group (pretty much). I'm sure he's getting attention from overseas.