News that two-time MLS Golden Boot winner Chris Wondolowski has a new contract worth about $600,000 takes one pressure point away from the San Jose Earthquakes, where a litany of injuries has dented the preseason for last year’s Supporters Shield winner.
SI.com’s Grant Wahl had the story Monday night, reporting that the contract is for four years, including three guaranteed.
The Earthquakes had previously had been slow to dive into Major League Soccer’s Designated Player game. Teams are allowed three; the Earthquakes had none on roster before Monday’s announcement. Wondolowski was the team’s highest paid player at a salary of about $300,000, which is below the DP threshold.
(Commanding center back Victor Bernardez, by the way, was surely the bargain of Major League Soccer in 2012, an MLS Best XI defender who made just $100,000 during his first MLS season. The league’s 2012 salaries, listed by club, are here.)
Reports last fall that Wondolowski would demand a salary close to $1 million a year during winter negotiations proved measurably off base. Not that he probably is not worth it.
Last year Wondolowski tied the MLS single season record for goals, hitting 27 times while equaling a record set in 1996 (by Roy Lassiter) during a very different time in Major League Soccer.
No one has come close to matching Wondolowski’s production over the last three years; he has 61 goals in that time.
