As they approach a potentially decisive year, the members of the 2009 MLS SuperDraft class will take heart from the scenes unfolding at Upton Park.
FC Dallas defender George John will spend the next two months in London on a brief loan spell with West Ham United. The temporary switch provides a first foray into European football for the promising 24-year-old center back. If all goes well, he could seal a permanent switch for a set price. If it doesn't, he can take solace knowing that his current contractual situation will allow him to test the market on a free transfer at the end of the year.
While John benefited from his Greek passport as he plotted his course towards Europe, he has mostly navigated himself into this position through his own actions. He played well enough with FCD to prompt overseas interest and then protected his chances of pursuing a move by rejecting overtures from FCD and MLS to sign a new deal for higher wages.
John isn't the only player to gamble on his ability and his fitness in an attempt to preserve his contractual flexibility and strengthen his bargaining position. The once-compulsory and always league-friendly contract extension – think a comparatively significant pay increase for a couple of extra option years tacked onto the end of the deal – has fallen out of favor over the past few years. The evolving landscape usually sees agents counsel their players to eschew the additional dollars up front and rely on the growing network of European contacts and clubs willing to evaluate MLS players as potential additions to generate some negotiating leverage.
(Note: Consider the recent transfer of Tim Ream to Bolton Wanderers as one piece of evidence in this developing phenomenon. Ream managed to win his work permit on appeal despite falling well short of the traditional mark of playing in 75 percent of his country's competitive fixtures over the past two years. Bolton's situation [in desperate need of a central defender after selling Gary Cahill to Chelsea] and willingness to pay a significant fee [2.5 million pounds] likely influenced the proceedings, while the liberalization of the entrance standards at the Home Office played a role as well. Even with those circumstances in play, the result stands in stark contrast to Josh Wolff's failure to seal his 500,000 pound move to Championship side Derby County in 2006.)
The final results aren't guaranteed despite the somewhat leveled playing field. Not all of those players will ultimately leave MLS despite their improved lot. Some of them may eventually extend their deals after acquiring plenty of leverage (2008 SuperDraft third-rounder and Houston defender Geoff Cameron qualifies with a four-year extension in Dec. 2010 that included a pay rise from $40,000 in base salary in 2010 to $220,000 in base salary in 2011, per MLS Players Union documents), while others may survey their European options and ultimately shun them like Los Angeles defender Sean Franklin did during this close season. A few may not even warrant fresh terms at their current salary next season. None of them, however, appear likely to shortchange their perceived value in order to secure a deal at this juncture.
(Note: It's also worth pointing out that some players have disagreed with MLS about the value of their services and taken remedial steps to rectify the situation for quite some time. Wade Barrett [2003 to Danish side AGF Aarhus – free transfer], Nat Borchers [2006 to Norwegian side Odd Grenland – full transfer with less than a year left on his deal], Adin Brown [2005 to Aalesund FK – free transfer], Ramiro Corrales [2005 to Norwegian side Ham Kam – free transfer], Clarence Goodson [2008 to Norwegian side IK Start – free transfer] and Brian West [2004 to Norwegian side Fredrikstad FK – free transfer] all decamped for Scandinavia as agents started to export Americans there on a regular basis. Particularly qualified college players have also chosen to bypass MLS for suitable European opportunities. The point isn't to say that the decision to test the European market represents some novel approach devised by agents over the past few years. It is merely to note that the success of some players in Europe has increased the viability of similar moves for a larger group of hopefuls to a wider swath of leagues and placed some pressure on MLS to increase its valuation of certain players it wants to retain.)
John's comparable contemporaries – senior graduates who generally signed four-year, minimum-salary, option-laden deals with MLS out of school – have mostly followed his path. Just one out of the seven first-round selections (D.C. United's Chris Pontius in Feb. 2010) in that category has signed an extension to his contract. One of the two most notable second-round picks (Los Angeles' A.J. DeLaGarza in June 2011) has also agreed to new terms with his club during his initial contract.
(Note: While DeLaGarza inked a fairly standard extension, Pontius' second deal doesn't fit the usual mold. In the wake of his standout rookie season, United and MLS offered Pontius a nearly three-fold increase on his base salary for the 2010 campaign ($36,000 in '09 versus $100,000 in '10, per MLS Players Union documents) and another significant rise in base salary for the 2011 season ($125,000, per MLS Players Union documents). The equitable, if somewhat club-friendly, pact worked for both sides at the time and underscored United's willingness to compensate its players for good performances if possible.)
Several Generation adidas players could join the likes of Matt Besler, Sam Cronin and Graham Zusi on the open market this winter depending on their contractual situations. The status of those nine GA players remains somewhat more difficult to project – those contracts contain greater benefits at the outset, but they also vary from player to player in length and option years held and may run longer than four combined years – at this point. Three players (Danny Cruz, Baggio Husidic and Peri Maroševic) saw their contract options declined at the end of the season and will move on to new clubs. The remaining six players (Kevin Alston, Omar Gonzalez, Stefan Frei, Jeremy Hall, Rodney Wallace and Steve Zakuani) will weigh a variety of options over the next year or two as they hit the market.
Most of the players in the class of 2009 face a somewhat uncertain future as they evaluate their next move. Their choices along the way have placed them in a position to benefit from their recent success (like Besler and Zusi enjoying breakout seasons with Sporting Kansas City in 2011) or suffer from an untimely injury (like Gonzalez's left ACL tear during his first training session in Germany) or loss of form. Either way, they have chosen an increasingly common route to create a series of options they would not have otherwise enjoyed as they entered the next phase of their careers.
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