It is often said that professional footballers make a trade-off.
Sure, they make more money than most of the population, but their careers are short and there’s no guarantee they’ll have anything close to the same earning power after they retire.
But that’s only the case in the top European leagues. Often, players will only take home a pay-packet comparable with relatively ordinary workers.
The classic example is in Major League Soccer, where clubs can break their salary caps for a limited number of ‘Designated Players’. This leads to situations where the likes of David Villa and Kaka are earning 70 or 80 times as much as some of their team-mates, or sometimes even more than that.
But how do the current crop of MLS players compare to the regular working world? Thankfully there’s a way to find out.
The MLS Players’ Union has released a summary of salaries for players currently active in North America’s top league, and we’ve compared some of the figures to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics’ May 2015 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.
Not everyone gets the big money like Steven Gerrard, but it’s interesting to see just how disparate the figures can be.
Tyrone Mears
A veteran of the Premier League (with four clubs) and Ligue 1 (with Olympique de Marseille), Mears is now plying his trade with the Seattle Sounders.
He’s now bringing in less than $200,000, around the same amount as a general paediatrician in the United States.
Legendary Pictures/Tumblr
Julio Baptista
Baptista is a UEFA Cup winner. He scored Champions League goals for Real Madrid, Arsenal and Roma. Now, after a spell back home in Brazil, he has joined compatriot Kaka in Orlando.
He’s now taking home just $90,000 a year – the same amount earned by a nuclear power reactor operator.
20th Century Fox/Giphy
Tommy McNamara
For all the talk of Villa, Lampard and Pirlo, 25-year-old McNamara has been the real unsung hero of New York City FC’s start to MLS life over the last two seasons.
The attacking midfielder has scored eight goals in 29 games, but earns a base salary of $73,500. That’s about the same as your average fashion designer.
Ari Lassiter
A team-mate of Steven Gerrard at LA Galaxy, Lassiter – who made his debut late last season – takes home less than 1% of the amount earned by the former Liverpool captaion.
His $51,500 annual pay packet is just below the American national average, and puts him in line with choreographers and graphic designers, and less than $1,000 more than mailmen.
Woodland Animations/MakeAGif
