The Designated Player Rule, also known as the Beckham Rule, remains in effect as the league enters its 24th season. The rule allows teams to sign up to three players that are considered outside the team’s salary cap ($4.035M in 2018).
In essence, this allows teams to compete for star players in the international market (like how the LA Galaxy started this whole rigamarole by signing David Beckham to a five-year contract worth $6.5M annually back in 2007).
Footballers given the Designated Player tag that are over the age of 23 carry a salary budget charge of roughly $481K. DPs between the ages of 21 and 23 count as $200K against the cap, and DPs 20 and younger count as $150K.
If we wanted to, we could now talk about Targeted Allocation Money — the $4 million of spend that the league gives to teams to drop on players that earn more than the maximum budget charge ($481K) but less than $1.5M — but let’s not.
2019 MLS Designated Players
All contract numbers taken from the MLSPA 2019-20 Player Salaries Guide.
Atlanta United
Josef Martinez — $3.1M
Ezequiel Barco — $1.4M
Pity Martinez — $900K
Chicago Fire
Bastian Schweinsteiger — $5.6M
Nemanja Nikolic — $1.9M
Aleksandar Katai — $1.4M
FC Cincinnati
Fanendo Adi — $2.0M
Allan Cruz – $333K
Colorado Rapids
Tim Howard — $2.5M
Columbus Crew
Gyasi Zardes — $2.3M
Pedro Santos — $865K
Milton Valenzuela — $321K
D.C. United
Wayne Rooney — $3.5M
Paul Arriola — $707K
FC Dallas
Bryan Acosta — $650K
Santiago Mosquera — $591K
Pablo Aranguiz — $467K
Houston Dynamo
Alberth Elis — $650K
Tomas Martinez — $387K
LA Galaxy
Zlatan Ibrahimovic — $7.2M
Jonathan dos Santos — $2M
Romain Alessandrini — $1.9M
Los Angeles FC
Carlos Vela — $6.3M
Andre Horta — $1.3M
Diego Rossi — $1.1M
Minnesota United FC
Darwin Quintero — $1.8M
Jan Gregus — $667K
Angelo Rodriguez — $657K
Montreal Impact
Ignacio Piatti — $4.4M
Saphir Taider — $1.4M
New England Revolution
Carles Gil — $2.3M
New York City FC
Maximiliano Moralez — $2M
Jesus Medina — $871K
Alexandru Mitrita — $500K
New York Red Bulls
Bradley Wright-Phillips — $1.4M
Kaku — $800K
Orlando City
Nani — $2.5M
Dom Dwyer — $1.5M
Josue Colman — $450K
Philadelphia Union
Marco Fabian — $2.3M
Alejandro Bedoya — $1.3M
Portland Timbers
Diego Valeri – $2.4M
Sebastian Blanco — $1.4M
Brian Fernandez — $1.3M
Real Salt Lake
Albert Rusnak — $2M
Sam Johnson — $719K
Jefferson Savarino — $499K
San Jose Earthquakes
Vako — $1.6M
Chris Wondolowski – $800K
Seattle Sounders
Nicolas Lodeiro — $2.5M
Raul Ruidiaz — $1.8M
Xavier Arreaga — $501K
Sporting KC
Felipe Gutierrez — $1.7M
Roger Espinoza — $800K
Yohan Croizet — $730K
Toronto FC
Michael Bradley — $6.4M
Jozy Alitdore — $6.3M
Alejandro Pozuelo — $3.8M
Vancouver Whitecaps
Fredy Montero — $968K
Inbeom Hwang — $655K
Joaquin Ardaiz — $273K
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