Tuesday, August 01, 2006

MLS Transfer Fees (Received)

Fee Player From To Source
$10,000,000 Altidore, Jozy New York Villareal link
$6,000,000 Johnson, Eddie Kansas City Fulham link
$4,000,000 Dempsey, Clint New England Fulham link
$3,600,000 Howard, Tim New York Manchester Utd link
$3,000,000 John, Stern Columbus Nottingham Forest link
$2,500,000 Beasley, DaMarcus Chicago PSV Eindhoven link
$2,000,000 Adu, Freddy DC United Benfica link
$2,000,000 Ralph, Damani Chicago Rubin Kazan link
$1,900,000 Lewis, Eddie San Jose Fulham link
$1,700,000 Friedel, Brad Columbus Liverpool link
$1,500,000 McBride, Brian Columbus Fulham link
$1,500,000 Convey, Bobby DC United Reading link
$1,300,000 Bartlett, Shaun New York Zurich link
$750,000 Perkins, Troy DC United Valerenga link
$700,000 Jean Philippe, P.
New York Brondby link
$600,000 Diallo, Mamadou New York Al Ahli link
$365,000 Borchers, Nat Colorado Odd Grenland link
$350,000 Arguez, Bryan DC United Hertha Berlin link
$300,000 Lowe, Onandi Kansas City Rushden link
$150,000 Hahnemann, Marcus Colorado Fulham link
$150,000 Szetela, Danny Columbus Santander link
$100,000 Bradley, Michael New York Heerenveen link
$100,000 Gbandi, Chris Dallas FK Haugesund link
$100,000 Savarese, Giovanni New York Viterbese link


Notes

1) This list is by no means complete. I'm sure the sales of Luis Hernandez and Ariel Graziani are up there. They were loaned out first, though (and I believe they got transfer fees out of it), so there really wasn't an announcement. Carlos Hermosillo's another one. Did they get a fee when he left? According to Soccer America, they had a "special arrangement" with Necaxa for his rights. Plus, there's probably a few smaller players I'm leaving out.

2) It's likely "a nominal fee of $50,000" was paid by Everton for Joe-Max Moore, because his contract wasn't up until the end of the calendar year 1999 and they wanted him to join the team right after the MLS season ended. The source for that is Robert Wagman and Soccertimes.

3) There can be several different numbers floating around the internet for a single transfer. There's two major reasons for that. First is the exchange rate. Most MLS transfers are to England, so it's common to see figures in both dollars and pounds. It can become confusing as the exchange rate changes. For example, Tim Howard was transferred in 2003. The fee was £2.3 million. It was originally reported in the US as $3.6 million. But in this Reuters article from March 2004, it's reported as $4.2 million. That's because the exchange rate changed from around 1.6 dollars per pound to around 1.8.

Second, incentives are tough to figure out for the fans. Stern John's transfer fee is a good example. $3 million is the price from the Washington Times article I used as the source. But I kept seeing $2.4 million as well. According to Soccertimes, it turns out that $2.4 million was guaranteed, while it could have been worth up to $6 million with all the bonuses. There's a pretty amusing story about all this. A few years ago John was on the verge of scoring 15 goals for Nottingham Forest in a single season, and therefore triggering a payment to MLS. The team was broke, so they decided to bench him just because of that and would sell him at a cut rate price to Birmingham. As for the accuracy of the $3 million fee, I read on Soccer America that John did fulfill one of the bonuses, so I guess it seems about right.

Come to think of it, wasn't part of Tim Howard's deal incentive-based? We may never know the exact amounts.

EDIT: Altidore's deal is a similar example, it's reported that it could be worth as much as $12 million.

Comments on "MLS Transfer Fees (Received)"

 

Blogger scaryice said ... (2:54 PM, August 02, 2006) : 

2006-Borchers, Peguero
2005-Ralph
2004-Beasley, Convey
2003-Howard, McBride
2002-Diallo
2001-Lowe
2000-Savarese
1999-John, Lewis, Hahnemann
1997-Bartlett, Friedel

That should be pretty close.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (3:09 PM, August 02, 2006) : 

Another nominal one was Frankie Hejduk to Leverkusen to get out of his contract early. I think that was $50K too.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (9:22 AM, August 03, 2006) : 

how about donovan. what happened with him?

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (12:08 PM, February 05, 2009) : 

Hey -- waht about Maurice Edu's transfer fee?

 

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