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On Wednesday, the MLS Players’ Association released the annual MLS Player Salary Guide for the 2019 season. The guide lists annual base salary and guaranteed compensation for every MLS Player.
Annual guaranteed compensation includes base salary plus all signing and guaranteed bonuses over the course of a player’s contract. It does not include any performance or incentive based bonuses. It’s worth noting that these numbers are at times inaccurate, so take it all as a general guideline as opposed to exact figures.
Below is the list of salaries and guaranteed compensation for the players on the Portland Timbers roster:
Portland Timbers Player Salaries
| First Name | Last Name | Position(s) | Base Salary | Guaranteed Compensation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Name | Last Name | Position(s) | Base Salary | Guaranteed Compensation |
| Diego | Valeri | M-F | $2,320,000.00 | $2,420,000.00 |
| Sebastian | Blanco | M-F | $1,300,008.00 | $1,375,008.00 |
| Brian | Fernandez | M-F | $1,200,000.00 | $1,275,800.00 |
| Larrys | Mabiala | D | $750,000.00 | $793,333.00 |
| Lucas | Melano | F | $700,000.00 | $700,000.00 |
| Jorge | Villafana | D | $600,000.00 | $617,500.00 |
| Claude | Dielna | D | $560,000.00 | $600,000.00 |
| Diego | Chara | M | $550,000.00 | $572,000.00 |
| Jorge | Moreira Ferreira | D | $545,455.00 | $607,955.00 |
| Tomas | Conechny | F | $396,000.00 | $403,500.00 |
| Cristhian | Paredes | M | $252,000.00 | $283,500.00 |
| Dairon | Asprilla | M-F | $200,000.00 | $213,750.00 |
| Jeremy | Ebobisse | F | $175,000.00 | $238,000.00 |
| Jeff | Attinella | GK | $175,000.00 | $187,250.00 |
| Julio | Cascante | D | $170,004.00 | $170,004.00 |
| Zarek | Valentin | D | $160,000.00 | $160,000.00 |
| Aljaz | Ivacic | GK | $150,000.00 | $160,000.00 |
| Andy | Polo | M-F | $150,000.00 | $150,000.00 |
| Steve | Clark | GK | $140,000.00 | $140,000.00 |
| Eryk | Williamson | M | $120,000.00 | $136,500.00 |
| Bill | Tuiloma | D-M | $100,008.00 | $107,508.00 |
| Marco | Farfan | D | $80,250.00 | $80,250.00 |
| Andres | Flores | M-F | $70,250.00 | $70,250.00 |
| Modou | Jadama | D | $70,250.00 | $70,250.00 |
| Kendall | McIntosh | GK | $70,250.00 | $70,250.00 |
| Renzo | Zambrano | M | $70,250.00 | $70,250.00 |
| Foster | Langsdorf | F | $57,225.00 | $57,225.00 |
| Marvin | Loria | M-F | $56,250.00 | $56,250.00 |
Diego Valeri tops the list as the highest earner with $2.42 million guaranteed, with Sebastian Blanco and Brian Fernandez rounding out the top three. Despite a reported transfer fee of north of $10 million, Fernandez’s annual guaranteed compensation reportedly winds up standing at a little over $1.2 million.
Other numbers of note include Lucas Melano’s guaranteed compensation of $700,000, and Claude Dielna’s guaranteed compensation of $600,000. Neither number is especially surprising considering the team used Targeted Allocation Money on both players’ contracts. But it does raise an eyebrow or two that Portland’s 3rd (or possibly even 4th) choice striker and 4th choice centerback are the 5th and 7th highest paid players on the roster, respectively.
More interesting tidbits:
- Five of the Timbers top ten highest-paid players are defenders. Considering the defensive record of the team this season, that’s a bit, uh, intriguing.
- Andy Polo’s compensation seems relatively low. My guess is that number comes from the nature of his loan deal from Monarcas Morelia.
- Considering his goal scoring numbers, Jeremy Ebobisse will more than likely be looking for a significant raise with his next contract.
- We live in a world where Diego Chara is paid less than Lucas Melano. Hm.
You can read the entire salary report for all of MLS here. You can also find reports from previous years, and a breakdown of salary growth in the league over the past five years. Keep in mind that these numbers only tell part of the story of how contracts impact a team’s budget. They don’t include performance-based bonuses, and there’s also not a ton of information out there on the MLS salary cap.
What are your thoughts on the salary report? What do you think of the breakdown of money on the Timbers’ roster? Leave a shout in the comments!