Lionel Messi’s first Inter Miami salary unveiled by MLS Players Association

The Major League Soccer Players Association published its latest round of salary data on Wednesday, a first glimpse of how much money Lionel Messi and other summer newcomers are making.

To no surprise, Messi’s pay sets a new league record, but the official number doesn’t do so by as much as many expected. While his reported overall earnings from salary, signing bonus, and an equity stake in Inter Miami top $50 million, his listed base salary is $12,000,000, and his listed guaranteed compensation is $20,446,667.

A spokesperson for the MLSPA told The Inquirer that the equity stake doesn’t count in his guaranteed compensation. Neither do the reported shares stemming from jersey sales and Apple streaming subscriptions driven by his arrival.

As for Miami’s other star newcomers, Sergio Busquets’ guaranteed salary is $1,775,000, and Jordi Alba’s is $1,250,000.

» READ MORE: Lionel Messi picks Inter Miami, giving Major League Soccer its biggest superstar ever

The new young trio of Tomas Avilés, Facundo Farías, and Diego Gómez commanded huge transfer fees, but not big salaries so far: $387,500, $525,000, and $504,167, respectively.

Minnesota United’s Teemu Pukki, formerly of England’s Norwich City, joins the league’s millionaires club at $3,550,000. So do Nashville SC’s Sam Surridge, formerly of England’s Nottingham Forest, at $2,907,639; Atlanta United’s Saba Lobjanidze at $2,150,750; FC Cincinnati’s Aaron Boupendza at $1,127,600; and the Colorado Rapids’ Rafael Navarro at $1,427,708.

Two returnees to the league are getting big checks too: Real Salt Lake’s Cristian Arango at $2,088,746, and the Columbus Crew’s Diego Rossi at $2,677,000. Coincidentally, Los Angeles FC was both players’ last MLS team, though they didn’t leave at the same time.

FC Dallas’ Asier Illarramendi, a former stalwart of Spain’s Real Madrid and Real Sociedad, is earning just $339,750.

» READ MORE: The Union’s José Andrés Martínez gets a multi-year contract extension

The Union’s payroll

With the Union, there are two news items. New striker Tai Baribo is earning $701,000, and José Andrés Martínez got a big raise — $471,250, more than doubling his prior salary — when he signed a contract extension in June.

Each player’s salary figure officially includes two numbers: the base salary and the guaranteed compensation. The latter number includes signing and guaranteed bonuses, plus marketing bonuses and agents’ fees, annualized over the term of a player’s contract, including option years.

For conversational and reporting purposes, the guaranteed compensation number is the one usually used here and around the league.

The annotations in parentheses mean the following:

(1) Designated Player; (2) Cap hit bought down below Designated Player threshold with allocation money; (3) Young Designated Player; (4) Currently loaned out to New York City FC, so not in the Union’s payroll total; (5) Academy product; (6) Currently loaned out to Austin FC, so not in the Union’s payroll total; (7) Currently loaned out to Denmark’s Aalborg BK; (8) Spent the year with the Union’s reserve team.

One other thing: Gino Portella left the organization in June after failing to earn a roster spot with the first team and finally deciding it was better to seek his fortune elsewhere.

» READ MORE: It looks like Alejandro Bedoya and Kai Wagner’s times are up with the Union

The big numbers leaguewide

Across the landscape, MLS teams are paying a total of $501,923,704 to 924 players. Both the total spending and the number of players are up from the sums listed in the year’s first salary release in April, reflecting the many summer signings leaguewide.

The average salary is another new record, $543,207.47. MLS median salaries are down a little from the spring, at $282,125. The lowest salary in the league, which is set by the CBA, is $67,360. Forty-eight players earn that sum, and the only one from the Union is rookie goalkeeper Holden Trent.

Miami is paying four players the minimum, the most of any team. Seven teams have three minimum-salary players each: Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, the Los Angeles Galaxy, Nashville, San Jose, and Kansas City.

The most common salary leaguewide is healthily higher than the low, at $85,444.

Salary data does not include transfer fees, which occupy a significant portion of MLS teams’ budgets. Additionally, all of these numbers are as of Sept. 15, the date of MLS’s roster freeze for the year.

» READ MORE: Andre Blake blasts MLS for having too many games, and calls for players to push for change

Team payroll comparison

Just because a team is ranked down the list here doesn’t mean that team doesn’t spend on transfer fees. But the payroll comparison is still a snapshot of how teams handle the salary part of the equation.

To learn more about teams’ histories with player sales and purchases, check out the data at Transfermarkt.us.

It’s also important to note that players who are loaned out internationally usually still are counted on the MLS Players Association’s books. That can have a significant impact on the payroll rankings.

For uniformity’s sake, all players listed in the MLSPA’s records are included in the calculations here, whether they’re big names or not.

Click here to see the team payroll comparison from the previous set of data in April.

The millionaires club

The number of millionaires leaguewide continues to grow. Right now, there are 114 millionaires on the books.

As with the payroll rankings above, the table below may include some players who are loaned to clubs outside the league, but technically still on MLS teams’ books.

The leftovers

As is tradition in this feature, the last section is devoted to players who are on the MLSPA’s books but aren’t currently on any team’s roster.

There are 10 players still on the MLSPA’s books even though they’re no longer officially with a team, an unusually high number.

The highest-profile is former U.S. men’s national team striker Jozy Altidore ($2,939,963), who was bought out by New England in June.

Adam Armour ($85,444) was waived by Charlotte in April, and is now with the second-tier USL Championship’s FC Tulsa.

Pablo Bonilla ($147,667) was waived by Portland in July. Séga Coulibaly ($517,000) was waived by the Galaxy in June, one of the team’s many expensive busts (though mot the most expensive) in recent times. Dom Dwyer ($85,444) was waived by Atlanta at the start of the year.

Chris Gloster ($260,000) was bought out by New York City FC, and is now with Atlanta United’s reserves.

Nick Marsman ($587,184) was bought out by Miami in August, and is now the MLS emergency pool goalkeeper. He’s been passing the time at the USL Championship’s San Antonio FC.

Dantouma Toure ($100,062) was waived by Colorado in April to allow him to deal with a personal matter. He has yet to join a new club. Kenneth Vermeer (387,334) was bought out by Cincinnati in May after Roman Celentano beat him to the team’s starting goalkeeper job.

Collen Warner ($85,444) is still on the books despite being waived by Colorado at the end of last year. He’s now on the team’s coaching staff.

Historical charts

Here are the latest versions of other charts that are recurring features with this analysis. Many of them show changes in key MLS salary metrics over time.