As soccer fans, we love to watch our favorite players score goals and make jaw-dropping plays on the field. But have you ever wondered how much these players earn for their skills and hard work? If you’re a Sporting Kansas City fan, you’re in luck, because we’ve got the inside scoop on the team’s salaries for the upcoming 2023 season.
So, what can we expect from the Kansas City payroll this year? According to the latest data, the average base salary for a Sporting KC player is an impressive $497,760, with an annualized guaranteed compensation of $515,144. But that’s just the average – there are some players who earn much more than that.
So who’s the highest-paid player on the squad? It’s none other than the gifted Alan Pulido, whose base salary and guaranteed compensation total a cool $2,200,000. That’s a lot just in one player, but what does it mean for the rest of the team? And how does Sporting KC’s payroll stack up against other MLS teams? We’ll break it all down for you in this article, so keep reading to discover all the juicy details.
Table of Contents
- Sporting Kansas City Salaries
- The proportion of spending on the Highest Earners
- Sporting Kansas City Salaries Compared to Other MLS Teams
- Funding: Where Is The Money Coming From?
Sporting Kansas City Salaries
Here is a breakdown of Sporting Kansas City players’ base salary and guaranteed compensation.
Top 3 Highest-Paid Players
The players with the highest compensation for Sporting Kansas City are:
- Alan Pulido – $2,200,000
- Erik Thommy – $1,656,250
- Nemanja Radoja – $1,530,000
1. Alan Pulido – $2,200,000
Born on March 8, 1991, in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, Pulido has represented his country in international competitions such as the FIFA World Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup. He has also had a successful club career, having won multiple titles with C.D. Guadalajara and being named the top scorer of the Liga MX in the 2019 Clausura season.
The Mexican soccer player joined Sporting KC in December 2019 after the team paid a club-record transfer fee of $9.5 million to his former team, C.D. Guadalajara. The announcement of his transfer was met with excitement from Sporting KC fans, who were eager to see the talented striker join their team.
His compensation for the 2023 season is estimated at $2.2 million, the highest on the team. According to Transfermarkt, his current market value is estimated at €3 million. Despite being far from his all-time highest of €9 million, Pulido’s market value is still impressive at 32 years old.
2. Erik Thommy – $1,656,250
Born on August 20, 1994, in Ulm, Germany, Thommy has played for several clubs in Germany, including VfB Stuttgart, Fortuna Düsseldorf, FC Augsburg, and Jahn Regensburg.
Thommy joined Sporting KC during the transfer window of the summer of 2022 on a free transfer after the German finished his contract with VfB Stuttgart. Thommy signed a contract to stay with the team of Kansas City until the end of the 2024 season.
He is also the second highest-paid player in Sporting Kansas City. According to recent reports, his compensation for the 2023 season is estimated at $1,656,250. So far, his market value of €1.8 million hasn’t change after joining Kansas City from VfB Stuttgart. His all-time highest market value was €6 million at the age of 25 while playing for VfB Stuttgart.
3. Nemanja Radoja – $1,530,000
Nemanja Radoja was born on February 6, 1993, in Novi Sad, Serbia. He has played for several clubs in Europe, including Celta Vigo and Levante in La Liga.
Radoja signed with Sporting Kansas City in January 2023 as a free agent to a three-year contract, after spending the 2021-2022 season playing for Levante. According to a report by The Kansas City Star, Sporting KC head coach Peter Vermes praised Radoja’s experience and work ethic, saying that he was “a player that we think can help us in a lot of different ways.”
Radoja’s current market value, according to Transfermarkt, is estimated at €1.5 million. This is slightly lower than his all-time highest market value of €8 million, which he achieved in 2017 while playing for Celta Vigo.
Despite the decrease in his market value, Radoja is still considered a valuable addition to the Sporting KC roster. In fact, he is the third highest earner of the team with $1.5 million in total compensation. His experience as a defensive midfielder and his ability to control the midfield have made him a key player for the team.
The proportion of spending on the Highest Earners
The designated players for Sporting Kansas City are Alan Pulido and Gadi Kinda. Both of these players account for 20% of the team salary. By no means this is a signifcant proportion compared to other teams in the MLS where designated players account between 40% to 50% in average.
There are a few reasons for this surprisingly odd fact. One of them is Sporting Kansas City hasn’t used the 3 spots available for designated players. If there were three designated players on the team, this ratio would automatically increase.
Despite that, the ratio is still low, being under 20%. Another insteresting factor is designated players are typically the highest earners of the team.
This partially applies for Sporting Kansas City as Alan Pulido is the highest earner. However, Gadi Kinda is not even in the top five highest paid players in the team. He is the sixth best paid on the team, fact that I found odd after having analyzed dozens of MLS teams payrolls for the 2023 season.
Further analysis, the top earner of the team, Alan Pulido, accounts for 14% of the whole team salary. This is an important percentage. However, by no means shows a massive disparity between top earners and other players of the team. Other teams like Toronto FC show the opposite: a significant percentage of the team salary on the top earner, Lorenzo Insigne, representing almost 30%!
Sporting Kansas City Salaries Compared to Other MLS Teams
Sporting Kansas City has a total payroll of $15.4 million sitting around the middle of the table when it comes to MLS teams’ payroll ranking from most expensive payroll to least expensive.
Despite sitting half way on that ranking, the difference between the highest payroll, Toronto FC, and Sporting Kansas City is a little over $10 million.
On the other hand, the difference between Sporting Kansas City and the least expensive payroll of the MLS, CF Montreal, is $5 million. While these differences at first might sound a big gap, the reality is that is not that big of a gap.
If any of the teams decides to invest in a high profile experienced player paying a salary of roughly $3 – $8 million, as that’s the total compensation range of the top-25 best paid players in the MLS, you will soon realize that the difference between highest and lowest payrolls could be of one highly compensated designated player.
Funding: Where Is The Money Coming From?
The team’s ownership group includes several prominent businessmen and entrepreneurs, such as Neal Patterson and his family, Cliff Illig, Pat Curran, and even top NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes. If combining the net worth of billionares Neal Patterson and Cliff Illig totals roughly $2.5 billion, this should give you a hint of the team access to significant financial resources.
One of the primary ways that the ownership group has invested in the team is by building a state-of-the-art training facility, Pinnacle National Development Center. The facility is one of the most advanced in the MLS and includes multiple fields, a weight room, a hydrotherapy area, and other amenities. The ownership group’s investment in the training facility demonstrates their commitment to building a competitive and successful team.
Another source of revenue for Sporting KC is their stadium, Children’s Mercy Park, which is widely considered one of the best soccer-specific stadiums in the country. The stadium has a seating capacity of 18,467 and regularly sells out for home games, which generates significant revenue for the team.
In addition, the stadium hosts a variety of other events throughout the year, such as concerts and corporate events, which also contribute to the team’s bottom line.
Sporting KC has a variety of corporate sponsors and partners, which provide additional revenue for the team. Some of the team’s major sponsors include Compass Minerals, Price Chopper, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City.
These sponsors provide financial support to the team in exchange for advertising and branding opportunities, which helps to offset the costs of player salaries and other expenses.
