The arrival of Leo Messi at Inter Miami is shaking up the MLS and the economic part is one of the most talked about topics about this move by the Argentine to the United States, where he will earn much more than all his new teammates combined.
Messi’s salary in the American team is not yet known in detail, however, the Argentine star received more than 40 million euros a year at PSG and his new tab in Miami will be around that figure.
That number is already far from the little more than 18 million dollars (16.7 million euros) currently received by the entire squad of the South Florida team, made up of 31 players.
From the lowest-paid American Cole Jensen and Englishman Harvey Neville ($67,360) to the highest-paid Venezuelan striker Josef MartÃnez ($4,391,667), all together don’t even come close to half Messi’s salary in Ligue 1.
Salaries in the MLS are public, as is the case in other American sports such as the NBA, so the payment that Messi will receive in Miami will soon be known in detail.
With his arrival in the United States, Messi will also become the highest paid footballer in the league, by far. Currently the Swiss Xherdan Shaqiri is the one who leads the list, with a salary of 8.1 million dollars.
That is to say, the salary that Messi received in France is five times that of Shaqiri in the Chicago Fire. It is also more than nine times greater than the one received by Josef MartÃnez, his future partner.
In fact, in order to surpass Messi’s pay at PSG, you must add the seven highest salaries in MLS, which include Shaqiri, Insigne, Chicharito, Bernardeschi, Sebastián Driussi, Héctor Herrera and Douglas Costa.
All of this happens in the context of a league that runs a salary cap. MLS limits its teams to a maximum of $5.2 million for the salary of the entire squad. However, there is an exception: franchise players.
This rule allows teams to keep three players in their ranks without being counted toward the limit. In the case of Inter Miami, it currently has two, the aforementioned Josef MartÃnez and the Mexican Rodolfo Pizarro.
Curiously, this rule is known as the “Beckham law” because it was created to promote the arrival of the English star to the LA Galaxy in 2007 and who is now part of the owners of Inter Miami for which Messi will play.
The remuneration that Lionel Messi will receive at Inter Miami will be officially known soon, but if reality meets expectations, the Argentine will reach historic figures in the MLS.
