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Here is the full list for the Fire:
| 2013 MLS Player Salaries: May 1, 2013: By Club | ||||||||
| 2013 | 2013 Guaranteed | |||||||
| Club | Last Name | First Name | Pos | Base Salary | Compensation | |||
| CHI | Alex | M | $ | 110,000.00 | $ | 119,950.00 | ||
| CHI | Amarikwa | Quincy | F | $ | 46,500.00 | $ | 46,500.00 | |
| CHI | Anibaba | Jalil | D | $ | 91,245.00 | $ | 131,245.00 | |
| CHI | Atouba | Yazid | F | $ | 46,500.00 | $ | 51,500.00 | |
| CHI | Berry | Austin | D | $ | 63,425.00 | $ | 78,425.00 | |
| CHI | Bone | Corben | M | $ | 46,500.00 | $ | 49,000.00 | |
| CHI | Dos Santos | Maicon | F | $ | 157,000.00 | $ | 164,433.33 | |
| CHI | Duka | Dilaver | M | $ | 140,000.00 | $ | 273,000.00 | |
| CHI | Fernandez | Alvaro | M | $ | 300,000.00 | $ | 366,666.67 | |
| CHI | Friedrich | Arne | D | $ | 300,000.00 | $ | 367,500.00 | |
| CHI | Gulley | Kellen | F | $ | 65,000.00 | $ | 79,000.00 | |
| CHI | Johnson | Sean | GK | $ | 120,000.00 | $ | 153,000.00 | |
| CHI | Jumper | Hunter | D | $ | 46,500.00 | $ | 46,500.00 | |
| CHI | Kann | Alec | GK | $ | 35,125.00 | $ | 35,125.00 | |
| CHI | King | Brendan | M | $ | 35,125.00 | $ | 35,125.00 | |
| CHI | Kinney | Steven | D | $ | 46,500.00 | $ | 46,500.00 | |
| CHI | Larentowicz | Jeff | D | $ | 225,000.00 | $ | 231,000.00 | |
| CHI | Lindpere | Joel | M | $ | 180,000.00 | $ | 205,000.00 | |
| CHI | MacDonald | Sherjill | F | $ | 400,000.00 | $ | 527,125.00 | |
| CHI | Nyarko | Patrick | F | $ | 230,000.00 | $ | 249,500.00 | |
| CHI | Paladini | Daniel | M | $ | 86,625.00 | $ | 91,103.25 | |
| CHI | Pause | Logan | M | $ | 180,000.00 | $ | 197,833.33 | |
| CHI | Pineda | Victor | M | $ | 46,500.00 | $ | 53,242.42 | |
| CHI | Puppo | Federico | F | $ | 125,000.00 | $ | 125,000.00 | |
| CHI | Rolfe | Chris | F | $ | 225,000.00 | $ | 248,333.33 | |
| CHI | Segares | Gonzalo | D | $ | 155,000.00 | $ | 155,000.00 | |
| CHI | Thompson | Wells | M | $ | 105,000.00 | $ | 113,125.00 | |
| CHI | Tornaghi | Paolo | GK | $ | 46,500.00 | $ | 46,500.00 | |
| CHI | Videira | Michael | M | $ | 46,500.00 | $ | 47,125.00 | |
If you want to check out the full list for every team, you can do so here. A few notes I am taking away from this latest release:
- Dilly Duka is making a relatively nice chunk of money. Considering Lindpere's struggles right now, it would be nice to see Frank commit to Duka at LW to see what we have really got. We were all hoping that Duka would fulfill all the promise that many attached to him coming into the league. While I think it's still too early to write him off considering he was hurt and he also hasn't had enough consistent starts, the club needs to start seeing some return soon. I still hold out some optimism that he can be a valuable piece to the team yet this year.
-Flaco is eating up a lot of salary (as much as Arne which is a crazy contrast when you compare what both actually contributed to the team last year). Unfortunately we are still paying Flaco to essentially live in Qatar, and Arne has not seen the pitch this year. And he may not for quite awhile unfortunately. While no one can predict poor form or injuries, the Fire have sank a lot of money into Flaco with little return. Hopefully it's a valuable lesson learned for the front office.
-Hopefully Kellen Gulley will be pushing for a spot in the 18 next season. He is making more than Victor Pineda by a good amount, who should start to show up in the 18 very soon now that he is healthy. The talented but raw Gulley could certainly be a useful piece. Let's hope that he starts earning that nice paycheck at such a young age. It's much like how much Corben Bone was earning (and how little he was playing) when he was on his Generation Adidas salary.
-Larentowicz and Lindpere are making a little less than I expected. While Larentowicz has started to round into form, Lindpere hasn't been anywhere near a $200,000 player- yet. It's another large chunk of money that, at this point in the season, seems ill spent.
-As many people have probably noticed, I am a Nyarko apologist. For better or worse, he brings value to the team in my opinion. Honestly though, his figure is pretty surprising. It jumped up about $30,000 over last year. Despite my fondness for Patrick, this number seems a bit too high for the production. While we certainly could (and have in many cases) done worse, I would like to start seeing a little more out of Patrick for that kind of money.
-Wells Thompson makes a bit more than I would have thought. I didn't bother looking at what he made last year since he wasn't a member of the Fire (he made just over $95,000 in 2012). If we had proper depth at RB, Thompson would be a bench player making spare appearances at best. Even though he is now starting more because of lack of proper team depth in many spots, he is still making more than I would like to see for his role. At this point unfortunately there aren't any better options to speak of.
-Finally, Sherjill MacDonald. I feel physically ill just looking at that number. What an absolutely colossal waste of money. Imagine what type of player we could have for that money instead. I know that it's easier said than done but we have had far too many misses rather than hits the past few years. When you have an exceedingly high failure rate on bigger signings, it speaks to a problem of scouting personnel or the system itself. And this is something the owner needs to acknowledge, investigate, and fix.
Other teams seem to regularly find good deals and some bargains. On the other hand, we seem to always be lamenting a deal that was supposed to work out but ended up being a great waste of money. Looking at the list above (and the production we are getting for the money we are paying), one can see quite a few bloated salaries. This certainly hamstrings us when we want to go out and make some desperately needed signings to fill holes. Rather than having room to work, we have to fight just to make room for 1 signing, let alone multiple acquisitions. The very numbers above are one of our biggest enemies right now. Until some of those contracts get fixed, we are going to be handcuffed. It's a reality of where we are at right now.
Fans keep talking about spending Keane money. However, think about all the money wasted on what essentially ends up being worthless contracts. A couple of Keanes could have been bought in exchange for the likes of MacDonald, Flaco, Robayo, Puppo, Castillo, etc etc. And unless our talent evaluation system starts making some drastic changes, I unfortunately can see this trend continuing. Hopefully these numbers help to wake up the powers that be to realize there are some serious flaws in the system that must be corrected.