Former FC Bayern Munich star Thomas Müller earlier this week signed a contract to play for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Excitement is building for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC thanks to the team signing German superstar Thomas Müller.
Whether the move will pay financial dividends is yet to be seen, but the team is set to benefit from more fan interest in buying tickets as well as merchandise.
The Major League Soccer (MLS) team did not initially release details of Müller’s contract but team CEO Axel Schuster told BIV this afternoon that Müller agreed to what might appear to be an extremely low salary of $600,000 for the remaining part of the season, which would be nine games if Müller starts Aug. 17. The season also includes the second leg of a Canadian Championship semi-final plus a final game if the team advances.
Playoff compensation for players comes through a bonus pool shared by teams that reach the post-season.
Müller made 20.5 million Euros in his most recent season with the German Bundesliga’s FC Bayern Munich.
Some reports have speculated that the Whitecaps would pay Müller $685,000, but Schuster said it was $600,000.
“He said also from the beginning, ‘If it just would be about money, I shouldn’t come to MLS. I should go to Saudi Arabia,'” Schuster said of Müller.
Müller was also attracted in part by the Whitecaps’ winning ways given that they are second in MLS’ Western Conference, with 13 wins and six draws out of 24 games, Schuster said. The star has said in TV interviews that he discussed coming to Vancouver with former teammate Alphonso Davies, who played for the Whitecaps between 2016 and 2018, but this was after his decision to come to Vancouver had been made.
MLS teams are allowed to have up to three so-called designated players, who can earn unlimited amounts but only cost their teams $743,750 each annually toward the league’s mandated $5,950,000 salary cap for all senior-team players.
Schuster said that the team bought out the salary budget of injured player Sam Adekugbe and was able to offer Müller only $600,000 salary in order to stay within its salary cap. Adekugbe remains under contract but is not on the team’s active roster.
The transaction needed league approval, he said, because the league does not want teams to bring in star players and pay them comparatively small salaries for a year or two as non-designated players, and then pay that player a windfall in the following season as a designated player.
Schuster said he is very confident that Müller will return next year, when the team would make him a designated player with a contract that would make him “the best paid player in the history of the club.”