Gullit Tops League in Salary. Or: How Much Does Sexy Football Cost?

Frank Dell’Apa at ESPNSoccernet and Buzz Carrick at 3rd Degree put together a list of approximate MLS coaching salaries, shown at the bottom. There’s a lot of wiggle room in these numbers (note all of the greater thans and less thans), but one thing is clear: The Galaxy’s Ruud Gullit is way over the top of the list at $1.33 million per year. (Probable bottom? Steve Nicol at $175,000.)

What does this tell us, aside from the fact that the Krafts are notorious cheapskates? (Which we knew already. They’re always among the big voices against raising the salary cap.)

Perhaps it tells us that sexy football, as exemplified by Brand Beckham, is expensive football?

I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around these numbers. The average salary seems to be hovering around $200,000, and yet we’re paying almost seven times that for a guy who doesn’t know MLS and hasn’t spent much time coaching recently. And whose results were mixed when he was coaching.

Why is this? Why was he hired, exactly? I understand that he was an amazing player, but so were a lot of guys. To bring him in as a coach on a three year contract at an exhorbitant salary doesn’t seem to make sense. Is this just an expression of AEG’s frustration with the player salary cap? (If we can’t throw money at more huge stars, we’ll…we’ll…throw it at a coach!)

Can anybody out there explain it to me? Or should we just wait and watch the alchemy occur this year, at which time we’ll all understand?

Here’s the entire list.

Rudd Gullit (LA) = $4 Mil over 3 years = $1.33 Million a year.
Bruce Arena (NY) = $600,000 a year, $1.2 Mil buyout.
Dominic Kinear (Hou) = $250,000
Frank Yallop (SJ) = $210,000
Juan Carlos Osorio (Chi) > $200,000
Mo Johnston (TFC) > $200,000
Jason Kreis (RSL) > $200,000
Sigi Schmid (Clb) > $200,000
Curt Onalfo (KC) < $200,000
Preki (CUSA) < $200,000
Tom Soehn (DCU) < $200,000
Fernando Clavijo (Col) < $200,000
Steve Morrow (FCD) < $200,000
Steve Nicol (NE) = $175,000$200,000

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Category: Preparing for 2008