• by Aalok Patel, writing from the Bay Area

When you take a look at soccer in Europe, it often turns out that the teams with the greatest financial power also experience the greatest success. Super clubs such as Spanish giants Real Madrid are stockpiled with superstar players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka because they have the resources to pay their skyrocket wages. More recently, UAE-owned Manchester City has used its newly found wealth to completely transform its squad in just a few years. In lower tier leagues such as the Super Lig, teams such as Fenerbache and Galatasary have remained dominant because of the great financial disparity that exists in Turkish football. The North American Soccer League (NASL) experienced a similar situation through the New York Cosmos, which was home to players such as Pele and Franz Beckenbauer. The metropolitan team was clearly league’s biggest team, and this large degree of imbalance ultimately lead to the NASL’s demise in the 1980’s. The American sports system has tried to avoid this sort of problem and has kept the playing field as level as possible by using stabilizers such as salary caps.

With MLS in only its 15th season, the league is obviously still very much in its infancy. The league has taken a slow and steady approach to its growth and development. In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the NASL, MLS started with a modest salary cap that has been raised throughout the years and is currently $2.55 million. Many world-class players in Europe have wages that exceed that of entire MLS teams, which clearly makes it hard to entice top talent to play in America. Introduced in 2007, the Designated Player (DP) rule was designed to allow teams to attract soccer players by offering them competitive salaries. With originally only 1 DP slot allowed per team, a club had to work hard to make sure the player they chose would help the organization accomplish its goals both on and off the field. Helping the team perform well and get results was only a small part of this. From a business perspective a DP was an expensive acquisition for teams and it would be crucial to make a return on this investment. A DP’s ability to sell jerseys and increase attendance was crucial, giving birth to the most popular association with this type of player: putting butts in seats. The fact that the DP rule was commonly referred to as the “Beckham Rule” only furthered this stereotype.
The original image of DPs fit into a similar mold: a big-name talented but aging soccer star who is clearly past the prime of his career. Through players such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry, we can see how there may be some truth to this perception. The fact that their MLS teams (Los Angeles and New York respectively) are the most popular on a global level due to the nature of their geographic markets only amplifies this portrayal of a DP.

In March, MLS and the Players Union agreed on terms for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which greatly increased the league’s capability to grow and develop. Improved player compensation and increase in the salary cap were some of the main highlights of this new CBA, but there was another change that had the potential to completely change the nature of MLS. A team could now have 2 DPs with the option to buy a 3rd slot for a luxury tax that would be equally allocated to teams without a 3rd DP. Moreover, the new CBA lowered the amount of a DP’s wages that count against the salary cap. Now that teams had the ability to buy multiple DPs with less financial difficulty, the possibilities were endless. Needless to say, these new rules resulted in a very busy MLS summer transfer window with the signings of 8 of the league’s current 13 DPs. This resulted in the creation of a new type of MLS player whose characteristics contradict the original “Beckham” image.

The San Jose Earthquakes acquired former Barcelona and Benefica player Geovanni in August as the club’s first ever DP. While the Brazilian midfielder is not a high-profile name, he is clearly a technically gifted and effective player. In his first MLS start against the Houston Dynamo earlier this month, Geovanni recorded his first assist and goal. It is clear San Jose signed him to be a difference maker on the field and help them push for a playoff spot, not increase their popularity. As owner Lew Wolff put it, “we worry more about improving the quality of the team through a designated player than finding the Tom Cruise of soccer”.

Alvaro Fernandez of the Seattle Sounders is a 24-year-old Uruguayan international who played in 4 matches for his country in South Africa, helping them to a fourth place finish. With a salary of just $300,000 he is clearly not the highly paid player traditionally associated with DPs. Overall, he has been a solid performer for the team. The Seattle Sounders have another interesting DP in Blaise Nkufo who was acquired from Dutch club FC Twente. Apart from the most devout soccer fans, Nkufo isn’t a popular, big name player. After a few bad performances initially, the striker has clearly found his groove. On Saturday night, Blaise Nkufo scored a well-deserved hat trick and showed why he’s still a quality player at 35 years old (the Ryan Giggs of MLS perhaps?). His performance was a good reminder of how he captained Switzerland to a 1-0 victory over World Cup champions Spain in South Africa.

These players clearly do not fit the stereotype of the Beckham DP of MLS whose impact is seen off the field more times than on it. Instead of using these slots for marketing purposes, acquisitions such as Geovanni, Fernandez, and Nkufo show how they can be used for a much more simple task: playing good soccer. Finding a DP player that is a good fit for the team as a whole is much more important than finding one that will yield the most ticket and merchandise revenue.

Twitter: @apatel17

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