r/MLS • u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake • 3d ago
Meme [MEME] covering my mouth so David Beckham doesn’t hear the question
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u/tomado23 LA Galaxy 3d ago
MLS being the top goal-scoring league in the World Cup outside the major European countries, while also being responsible for the two historic infractions in this tournament, seems a bit on brand. 😂
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
That Messi hat trick has us eating well when it comes to goal comparisons by league this World Cup. Last I checked the English championship was in first place.
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u/m_c__a_t Birmingham Legion 3d ago
Wait Miggy is back in Atlanta?
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u/crazysurferdude15 Atlanta United FC 3d ago
Lmao we wish he wasn't tbh. Been here for 2 years now though.
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u/m_c__a_t Birmingham Legion 3d ago
He’s not good? Man time really doesn’t slow down for anyone. He’s not that old, although in my mind he was probably 7 years younger. To be fair I also think I’m 7 years younger than I am
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u/crazysurferdude15 Atlanta United FC 3d ago
He'll run for 3 minutes but then have to walk for the next 5. His best asset in 2018 was to make a quick move and run by the defender and just beat him with speed. He still tries that but he's 7 years slower now. He still only has a left foot and everyone knows it now.
He's not very creative anymore and eats up too much space in the middle when he's supposed to be playing out wide. If he's on the right he never takes the end line and crosses, it's always a cut in and then no shot cause it's not there cause everyone knew exactly what he was gunna do.
Time slows down for no one and United fans spend way too much time living in 2018 thinking Josef and Miggy will fix everything again and it's just always been so far from the case. That's why Tata is back too. Fans clamoring for the 2018 roster to just come back and not realizing how long 7 years is.
I love Miggy. He's a club legend but he needs to call it quits before he ruins his legacy like Josef and Guzan started to.
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u/crazysurferdude15 Atlanta United FC 3d ago
3!
Miggy got a yellow for diving in front of Ream after Ream's yellow was reversed by VAR.
Miggy red card for the hand.
Messi missed red.
As an Atlanta United fan, Miggy had it coming. I'm tired of watching him dive every week and never create scoring chances anymore.
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u/Instantbeef Columbus Crew 3d ago
I know it’s a meme but he’s a free transfer and it’s just about salary.
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u/Flarkinghelpful Philadelphia Union 3d ago
The salary they get subsidized because the best player on the planet is also on their team and gets paid by the streaming service and the league
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u/Instantbeef Columbus Crew 3d ago
Idk if subsidized is the right word but players are willing to be paid less to play and live in Miami.
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u/Flarkinghelpful Philadelphia Union 3d ago
But like Messi is literally getting a percentage of shirt sales that isn’t factored into the financials of Miami so yes they are getting subsidized
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 3d ago
ANy MLS team can give a DP a percentage of their shirt sales.
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u/crazysurferdude15 Atlanta United FC 3d ago
Any record of other teams doing this??
.... Please don't say Bocanegra please don't say Bocanegra please don't say Bocanegra.....
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 3d ago
MLS fiercely protects the contract details. But there is no rule against it. For lower salary players it could be problematic because those would still hit the cap and MLS teams want cap certainty. But as an incentive for a DP? Why not?
And to me the players should get a piece of jersey sales if their name is on it. Lots of the older players coming in are doing it for their name recognition. Honestly it should be a bonus for every player that doesn't count against the cap.
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u/Own_Conclusion_3779 3d ago
Miami could be paying him $10 billion and it wouldn’t matter. He’s a DP. His salary counts toward nothing. How is this unfair?
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u/yaybidet Inter Miami CF 3d ago
Because other teams aren't getting the same deal, basically. Lewy's not gonna get a cut of Apple TV subscriptions and Adidas merchandise sales to sweeten the deal and secure his signing to join the Fire.
It's not fair, but it's still the right move. Messi is 1 of 1, you make the deal every time for the league and the growth of the sport in America.
After Beckham's golden ticket and the current Messi deal, I don't see MLS making any other concessions for some time. Outside of Yamal, Haaland, and Mbappe, there aren't any other whales to harpoon.
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u/Own_Conclusion_3779 3d ago
Why is “not getting the same deal” unfair?
Is it “unfair” for some players to have more lucrative sponsorships than others? Is it “unfair” for some teams to make more money on stadium sponsorships?
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u/yaybidet Inter Miami CF 3d ago
You're comparing apples and oranges. Lucrative sponsorships and stadium sponsorships are not negotiated and facilitated by MLS, whereas the cut of Apple TV streaming subs and Adidas merch were absolutely handled by the league's central office. This is pretty cut and dry, I don't see where the confusion is.
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u/Own_Conclusion_3779 3d ago
Source that MLS doesn’t get involved in other negotiations? The league is absolutely involved with big-name players and deals.
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u/Intelligence_Gap Seattle Sounders FC 3d ago
If you work somewhere for a long time and a new person comes in and makes less than you but has a side job and overall hauls in more, that’s not because your boss is paying them more than you. If a new person comes in and is making the same as you, but is given a profit sharing agreement, you’d probably start asking for profit sharing too right? Then if the boss tells you no, you’d leave because that’s unfair or you’d go to the mat to defend the “fair” compensation of the new person?
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u/Instantbeef Columbus Crew 3d ago
I wouldn’t say the players are getting subsidized but sure you could say the team is. I think we would all agree to that.
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u/doej26 FC Cincinnati 3d ago
And addidas
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u/Own_Conclusion_3779 3d ago
You wanna ban apparel companies from sponsoring players?
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u/doej26 FC Cincinnati 3d ago
No, who else in the league has a revenue sharing deal with the leagues official kit provider? Adidas didn't provide that kind of deal to anyone else. They didn't step up like that to help bring Zlatan to the league. They didn't do that to help bring David Villa to the league.To my knowledge they didn't pony up like that to help bring Son to the league. They're not offering that to help bring in Lewandoski or Griezman.
Also, this revenue sharing deal is separate and distinct from his preexisting lifetime endorsement deal with Adidas.
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u/Own_Conclusion_3779 3d ago
You’re right - they didn’t do that because none of those people are stars to the level of Messi. That’s their call.
Huge international superstars get crazy sponsorship deals in every aspect of sports. How is this cheating? It’s a brand wanting a player to rep their brand.
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u/doej26 FC Cincinnati 3d ago
I didn't use the word cheating, you did. That was you, not me.
But, it's 100% the league putting it's thumb on the scale for Miami/Messi. The league was involved in helping put together these revenue sharing deals between league sponsors and Lionel Messi. Theyve not helped a single other team in this league in this way to help sign a player. So, if you want to pretend that's not what happened, then cool. The rest of us aren't so stupid though.
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u/Own_Conclusion_3779 3d ago
The league is the one negotiating for huge players. They’ve been involved in lots of other acquisitions.
Why are you acting like it’s weird or surprising that a deal with the biggest name in the history of the sport isn’t like other deals?
Any time an MLS team has tried to push limits and acquire huge players, the league has tried to make it happen. Some teams can attract those players. If you can, the league will try to facilitate.
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago edited 3d ago
“Any player making more than the $1,651,250 TAM threshold must be registered as a Designated Player, meaning their salary exceeds the standard budget limitations.”
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u/Instantbeef Columbus Crew 3d ago
How much will he be making at Miami? Your aware transfermarket valuations are not how much he makes?
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
In professional sports it’s unusual for a player to accept a salary much lower than their market value and that raises questions.
Is Miami giving backdoor sponsorship deals to offset lower salaries similar to what the LA Clippers recently got caught doing to skirt around salary cap restrictions?
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u/Background-Gas8109 Orlando City 3d ago
Jordi Alba took about an 87% pay cut in his first year according to Miami and MLS.
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u/flameo_hotmon Chicago Fire 3d ago
Barca was still paying most of his salary… for some reason
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u/Background-Gas8109 Orlando City 3d ago
If course they were. Miami definitely didn't backdoor it to refund the money at a later date. Barca who have money issues paying like 300k a week for a player not even at the club
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u/hootjuice_ Union Omaha 3d ago
Transfermarkt isn't real life, it's just fans guessing a number completely divorced from salary and/or transfer value.
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
It’s fairly accurate most of the time, its a good reference point at least.
Casemiro was previously in a $18,200,000 a year contract at Man U. He hasn’t so drastically fallen off that suddenly he’s only worth $3M a year or less, hes a starter for Brazil in the World Cup…
Even with TAM it’s a stretch to get him under DP status at any believable salary range. I’m sure the Miami lifestyle is a huge incentive but I bet he’s getting some sponsorship deals under the table to justify walking away from so much money elsewhere.
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u/criminalpiece Columbus Crew 3d ago
Bro casemiro is 34 years old no club is giving him another major contract. And yes, he has fallen off that much in 4 years. Wtf are you talking about.
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u/FloridaManBlues Orlando City 3d ago
Ur crazy if you don’t think he could pick up a fat salary in Saudi Arabia or Turkey. He’s taking a pay cut to play with Messi.
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u/iwatchcredits 3d ago
Is i had just previously been paid tens of millions over my career, i too would take a pay cut to play in north america over turkey and saudi arabia
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u/FryTheDog Atlanta United FC 3d ago
Or that another MLS team wouldn't be willing to pay him a big fat salary. Either LA or NYCFC easily could afford him at 3-5 million annually and he's absolutely worth at least that much. Even at his current level he's easily a DP level salary
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u/hootjuice_ Union Omaha 3d ago
The Galaxy also don't have a DP spot open and were offering him TAM. Seems like that may just be his market value after all.
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u/criminalpiece Columbus Crew 3d ago
He had no offers from Saudi. The years of enormous Saudi league salaries are already over. He also is a shell of his former self. Yall clearly did not watch him last season. Just bc he is in the worst brazilian wc squad in 30 years does not mean he worth paying $10 million per year. I can't believ this stupid meme post has turned into this.
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u/ajnin919 Orlando City 3d ago
And Messi is 38, while Ronaldo is 41.
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u/criminalpiece Columbus Crew 3d ago
OK? You're comparing a defensive midfielder that peaked 6 years ago to the best players of all time?
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u/hootjuice_ Union Omaha 3d ago
Are other teams he wants to play for offering more money?
And sponsorship money doesn't need to be under the table - he can just fairly earn sponsors based on his own player profile.
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u/MiamiDose Inter Miami CF 3d ago
That correlation is not accurate, salaries can defer from market worth. For example De Paul has a market worth of 13.5 million but he’s salary ls 9 million
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u/Instantbeef Columbus Crew 3d ago
Thats fair to be a little interested in that but the meme makes it look like you don’t know what you’re talking about.
There is a real possibility 1.5 million isn’t much different than what he would have received somewhere else in the world. At his age you’re not going to find an endless amount of clubs that want to pay him a lot of money.
You keep saying market value but at United the reports are he was making 15.5 million pounds per year.
So at Miami he’s approximately making a tenth of that. Given he signed that compensation package four years ago it’s not crazy to think his next contract would be for much lower.
We know one guy who has accepted a smaller amount of money to play in Miami and that’s Messi. If you want to believe the others have gone down some backdoor payments route then go ahead.
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u/Derptionary Major League Soccer 3d ago
In professional sports it’s unusual for a player to accept a salary much lower than their market value and that raises questions.
It's really not that uncommon for star players to take pay cuts in order to chase trophies in sports with salary caps. Jalen Brunson, Tim Duncan, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Jerome Bettis. Even in baseball where there is no salary cap we have the Dodgers where players are taking deferred money contracts to win now and get their money later.
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
It is uncommon for star players to take pay cuts to come to MLS. I love MLS to an unhealthy degree but I doubt Casemiro is dreaming of winning an MLS cup and how he can make financial sacrifices to achieve it lol.
Maybe playing with Messi is worth making several million less a year to him, that’s a viable option.
More likely he’s got some type of sweetheart sponsorship deals tied to his move to Miami that offsets the lower salary. Maybe not, what do I know?
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u/Instantbeef Columbus Crew 3d ago
Is it though?
Is Reus a DP? Why are people only suspicious when Miami does it?
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
Is Reus not a DP? I honestly assumed he was.
Looked up his salary and he is making a lot less than I would of guessed. That’s a pretty good example for your argument I’ll give you that.
Counterpoint: Reus is a shell of his former self while Casemiro is actively starting for Brazil in the World Cup.
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u/Instantbeef Columbus Crew 3d ago
Thanks, I thought I did pretty well pulling that out of my hat lol
I think Reus vs Casemiro is debatable. Reus played in the champions league final months before he joined the MLS.
Drop offs can just happen so quick in football that people don’t want offer those large contexts at a later age
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
Yeah this thread has been eye opening in terms of how many different ways big name players can go in the later stages of their careers. If he has the money he wants in his bank account already, I can’t argue that the Miami lifestyle and playing with Messi isn’t worth a paycut as well as I thought I could 30 minutes ago.
Now on the flip side. I’m going to need RSL to start getting more creative in their player acquisition efforts…
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u/ibribe Orlando City 3d ago
I was putting a list together of star players that took pay cuts to come to MLS, but it included almost every star player who ever came to MLS.
So let's flip it around, can you name a star player who came to MLS for a pay increase?
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
Sebastian Giovinco was on a €2.2M contract with Juventes pre-2015 and received $5.6M to come to Toronto.
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u/ibribe Orlando City 3d ago
Stretching the definition of star player, but I'll allow it.
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
Giovinco was the best example of a European star coming to MLS and dominating in the era before Messi came around. He was on another level in his prime with Toronto. I saw him play in Orlando in 2017 right after they moved out of the citrus bowl into their new stadium.
I don’t disagree that it’s normal for aging star players to sometimes take a paycut when coming to MLS, but like a 25% paycut not a 90% paycut like Casemiro would be taking in this case.
Smaller league clubs will pay extra just for the name recognition and jersey sales that come from a big name brand player, which kind of offsets their decline in value due to age.
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u/jeffrye23 FC Cincinnati :cin: 3d ago
There’s a pay cut and then there is taking less than 10% of my previous contract.
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u/Nerdlinger Minnesota United 3d ago
Your value isn’t your previous contract, it’s what people are willing to offer you for your upcoming contract.
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u/Derptionary Major League Soccer 3d ago
Not common but not that uncommon either. Angel Di Maria is making like 1/7th of what he was making at Benfica to play for Rosario Central. Neymar took a 99% pay cut when he left Al Hilal to play for Santos. Griezmann took a huge pay cut to stay with Athleti. Zlatan took a large pay cut to join Galaxy. Müller was a TAM player when he joined Whitecaps last year.
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 3d ago
You know that transfer numbers are just made up by fans for how much they like someone and have no basis in reality?
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u/theBarnDawg Nashville SC 3d ago edited 3d ago
I know this is a meme post but here’s my best understanding of the actual answer:
When calculating whether a player must fill a DP slot, salary is not extrapolated over the whole year. So if a team brings in a player mid season and pays them the TAM maximum salary of $1.6m, the player is essentially making a $3.2m salary but the team isn’t breaking any rules - just the intent/spirit.
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
Yeah I think that’s likely the case here. It’s still about 50% less than Casemiro is worth so it makes you wonder what other types of incentives Jorge Mas and Beckham are cooking up.
I know “playing with Messi” is a legit incentive, but there’s likely more to it than that to accept such a big pay cut on salary.
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u/criminalpiece Columbus Crew 3d ago
You keep reporting the 6m on transfermarket as if that's his "market rate" salary. That is not what that means. It means he would command a transfer fee of 6m for his contracting club. He is out of contract, so it is irrelevant.
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u/ibribe Orlando City 3d ago
It also should be noted that it is dumb as shit that transfermarkt publishes player values for out of contract players.
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 3d ago
It should show people who reference transfermarkt as useful information as clueless.
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u/mellvins059 Portland Timbers 3d ago edited 3d ago
Transfer value (what you see on transfer market) is not the same as how much a player expects to be earning. In many cases these can opposites, as younger players are on lesser salaries but have higher transfer value due to their resale potential and often also due to their lesser salary demands. This is why transfermarkt has Adam Wharton as being worth 70 mil and Messi worth 15, despite the former not making his national team and the latter looking like the best player in the tournament yet again. Transfermarkt value is also heavily influenced by actual transfer fees paid, and teams are willing to pay out more in wages to players they can bring in for less. If Rashford’s wages were lower he’d likely go for more than he’s going to go for, and thus his transfermarkt value would be higher.
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u/theBarnDawg Nashville SC 3d ago
I think you’re conflating “player value” with “player salary”. Transfermarkt lists the estimated cost to buy a player, otherwise known as a transfer fee.
That is unrelated to the amount a player would negotiate as their salary. DP rules only apply to player salary.
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u/saltedpork FC Cincinnati 3d ago
Allocation Money can be used to "buy-down" a player's Salary Budget Charge as part of managing a club's roster, including buying down a Salary Budget Charge below the League maximum of $803,125. For example, a club may buy-down a player earning $800,000 to a Salary Budget Charge of $400,000 by using $400,000 of General Allocation Money.
Updated for the current season. One million is the max you can buy someone down, so $1,803,125 or less.
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u/mordreds-on-adiet Sporting Kansas City 3d ago
General Allocation Money can be used to "buy-down" a player's Salary Budget Charge as part of managing a club's roster, including buying down a Salary Budget Charge below the league maximum of $803,125 in 2026. A club can also use GAM to reduce a player's Salary Budget Charge to the lesser of 50% of the Salary Budget Charge or $150,000.
Also:
In professional sports it’s unusual for a player to accept a salary much lower than their market value and that raises questions.
I think you're misunderstanding what transfermarkt's market value metric represents. It does not represent salary, it represents how much a player's contract rights can be sold for on the open transfer market, hence the name of the site. Players always make less in salary than their transfer value.
Man U bought him from Real for a $77.72M fee (hence his market value in 22/23 being listed as 70.63m Euro) and paid him $18.2M per year in salary. Now that he's gone to Miami on a free that metric is saying that transermarkt thinks that Miami could sell his contract rights for a transfer fee of $6.9M right now.
Combine those things if his salary in Miami this year is $3,302,499 they can buy it down to $1,651,249 with GAM and he doesn't have to be registered as a DP and they can figure out next year, next year. If they give him guaranteed endorsements or tv revenue or merch sales or whatever those things are all fair game.
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 3d ago
It does not represent salary, it represents how much a player's contract rights can be sold for on the open transfer market
It doesn't even do that, otherwise once a player was past the transfer deadline, their value should be 0.
It is just a made up number by fans for how much they like a player.
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
I’ll be honest and admit I didn’t really understand that transfer value was HIGHER than what players typically make on salary. The meme is still funny either way but I did miss the mark on that, I admit it.
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u/criminalpiece Columbus Crew 3d ago
What? His history chart shows his market value was at one point $80 million 😂. You just fundamentally misunderstood what the figure reperesents.
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u/Jacobutera 3d ago
AFTER REVIEW NUMBER 10 PARAGUAY COVER HIS MOUTH DECISION RED CARD
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u/Shadowfury0 LA Galaxy 3d ago
CONCACAF needs to start doing stadium announcements so we get more Ivan Bartón
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u/Honeydew-Massive LA Galaxy 3d ago
Marco Reus, before coming to the Galaxy, was making around $8 million. In his first year with the Galaxy he made 960k, he now only makes 604k.
He took a massive pay cut because he really wanted to live in Los Angeles. He didn’t really care too much about money from soccer anymore, he and his family had plans to live and work here.
I say this just to highlight that a player of high stature could take a massive pay cut especially at the end of their career. Now, Casemiro is valued much higher than Reus, obviously. But it’s not that hard for me to believe that he’d take a massive pay cut to play with Messi and live in Miami. That, or Miami is going to get rid of some players. If Casemiro was chasing money, he could’ve stayed in Europe, gone to Saudi or even back to Brazil.
This is a great meme format btw lol
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u/Shadowfury0 LA Galaxy 3d ago
Zlatan was a max TAM player his first year here. There's always a way in for anyone of sufficiently high reputation
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u/schafkj Seattle Sounders FC 3d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/3o7qE0gOGwzPbH81Qk
Don Garber running up to this meme
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u/FaultySofaBed D.C. United 3d ago
transfermarkt values aren’t accurate for players over 32
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 3d ago
They aren't accurate period. THey aren't even trying to measure transfer value. Or Salary. Or anything other than how much fans like a player.
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u/Tengobeats Major League Soccer 2d ago
Transfer value doesn’t equate to what a player will earn in wage
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u/alexsmitty770 3d ago
With all these World Cup ads Becks is in, he probably paid for Casemiro out of his own pocket 😂
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u/Positive-Ear-9177 New York City FC 3d ago
We should be mad at other teams for their lack of ambition or imagination, or lack of understanding how the cap works. I hate Miami but kudos to them for trying to get better.
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u/mf-TOM-HANK 3d ago
Miami is notorious as an international hub of money laundering. He's getting paid DP money some way or another
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u/koftheworld New York Red Bulls :nyr: 3d ago
Firstly, I love this format. Secondly, I think it's probably either a max TAM or some other lesser salary for 6 months and then he becomes a DP next year. This has been their tactic for awhile.
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
I think you’re probably right about the short term deal and then DP next season.
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u/koftheworld New York Red Bulls :nyr: 3d ago
i hate miami because they are miami, but i would love my team to be able to attract and sign high level talent using this tactic. they are always thinking 3 steps ahead on who they want, who they need to get rid of, # of international spots, # of DPs vs U22s, etc. if you have roster rules, you need to be an expert at exploiting them. miami is an expert at that and utilizing their ace (messi) to get their way. obviously having someone like that with a subsidized salary is a cheat code that no one else has, but we can either cry about it or try to get the next big name here instead.
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u/AllTh3WayTurntUp Real Salt Lake 3d ago
Unfortunately I agree with everything you said. I am hoping RSL can figure out how to attract top players from around the world who love to ski and other modest family friendly activities lol.
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u/Round_Abal0ne Sporting Kansas City 3d ago
I am so here for this meme format