The answer: $9.33 million.
The question: How much is San Diego FC paying Mexico winger Hirving “Chucky” Lozano not to play this season?
The Major League Soccer Players Association, as it does twice annually, released its spring batch of salary numbers Tuesday for every player on every team. SDFC ranks fifth in total team compensation at $24.4 million, behind Inter Miami ($54.6 million), LAFC ($32.7 million), Atlanta United ($27.9 million), LA Galaxy ($26.4 million) and Vancouver ($24.6 million).
Subtract Lozano’s $9.33 million in guaranteed compensation, and SDFC — which sits 13th in the Western Conference heading into Wednesday’s match against Austin FC at Snapdragon Stadium — plunges to 23rd out of the 30 MLS clubs in payroll at $15.1 million.
The MLSPA provides two numbers for each player: current annualized base salary and annualized average guaranteed compensation.
Lozano is set to make $6 million in base salary and an additional $3.33 million in total compensation. The $9.33 million total ranks fourth this season in MLS behind Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi ($28.3 million), LAFC’s Son Heung-min ($11.2 million) and Inter Miami’s Rodrigo De Paul ($9.7 million).
Last season, before a fallout with the club resulted in his banishment, Lozano’s salary ranked fifth in the league at $7.63 million — $6 million in base salary and $1.63 million in additional guaranteed compensation.
The guaranteed compensation number includes signing bonuses annualized over the length of the deal, including option years, plus marketing bonuses and agent fees. It does not include performance bonuses, the MLSPA points out, “because there is no guarantee that the player will hit those bonuses.”
Messi’s $28.3 million is more than the entire payroll for 28 of the league’s 30 teams. And that’s just a fraction of what he is believed to make.
“The reason that I need to have sponsors and for them to be world class is because players are expensive,” Bloomberg quoted Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas earlier this year. “I pay Messi — worth every penny — but it’s $70 million to $80 million a year. Across everything.”
After Lozano, Danish winger Anders Dreyer is SDFC’s highest-paid player at $3.5 million, up from $1.1 million last season. He’s the only other Designated Player on the roster.
Three others make seven figures: Scottish forward Lewis Morgan ($1.87 million), Danish forward Marcus Ingvartsen ($1.8 million) and Danish midfielder Jeppe Tverskov ($1.1 million), a $400,000 bump from last season.
Amahl Pellegrino, a late-season acquisition who replaced Lozano in the starting lineup, made $912,000 last season. Pellegrino took a pay cut to stay with SDFC at age 35; he’s making $645,000 this season.
Oft-injured defender Andres Reyes, who has made one MLS appearance for 44 minutes over the past two seasons with SDFC, made $807,000 last year and is slated to receive $879,000 this year.
