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Former Barcelona star Jordi Alba to sign with Inter Miami, reunite with Messi, Busquets
(www.miamiherald.com)
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this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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In general, yes; however, that leg up in most of our sports leagues is through player drafts. Since most good players in soccer don’t go through US college athletics, that usual leg up doesn’t mean nearly as much.
And yeah, you’re right on the money on the teams vs leagues thing; the leagues in most US sports tend to wield quite a bit of power over franchises, and negotiate labor contracts directly with player unions. MLS is a wonky outlier in many ways (largely because America doesn’t have a near-monopoly on top talent like it does in some other sports), but the league itself is definitely seen as a priority over any one club.
To add on, MLS is even more league-centric than other American sports leagues. Many other leagues in the States utilize salary caps and luxury taxes along with other mechanisms to try to maintain parity and competitive balance.
MLS, however, operates under a single entity model. As per Wikipedia:
So this sort of structure definitely incentivizes stuff like setting aside all sorts of existing rules to let Messi and his buddies team up. A rising tide lifts all boats and whatnot. As an MLS fan (Sounders), I have to say that I'm actually ok with it - if it grows the league and the sport in our country, so much the better!
(Also I think that Miami is still going to struggle even with this new core, but we'll see!)
As an MLS fan you probably know how the league works better than me — but how are they gonna fit all their DPs in? These three would presumably each take one and they already have 2. Would it be selling people or...?
The Athletic is reporting that Jordi Alba won't take up one of the DP slots:
Inter Miami actually had three DPs already before the Messi deal was announced: Gregore, Rodolfo Pizarro and Leonardo Campana. Inter Miami also has a history of salary cap violations and being fined for paying players outside of the cap (they were functionally carrying 4 DPs by compensating Blaise Matuidi without reporting it). With that said, there have been a number of head-scratching moves in MLS historically where players have seemingly signed for much less than their value (see Gareth Bale to LAFC), and the arrangents for these contracts are not very transparent.
For Miami, It seems like it will probably need to be some combination of moving their existing DPs and using accounting mechanisms to reclassify existing DPs. MLS has a complicated "allocation money" system wherein teams receive general allocation money (GAM) and targeted allocation money (TAM). This money can be traded, eg in return for additional international spots or players, and Inter Miami has accumulated a good bit over the last several years. (Their sporting director, Chris Henderson, used to work for the Sounders and is very good at his job).
Miami can use this allocation money to buy down the cap hit of players so that they are no longer DP players, but instead are "TAM-level" players (players who make more than the maximum salary for non-DP players under salary cap rules, but less than a DP - they can be paid with targeted allocation money). That would free up a DP slot.
My guess is that Miami will probably use allocation money to move Gregore to a TAM position, as he has the lowest salary of their current DPs. They may try to trade Campana and/or buy out Pizarro (who doesn't have much time left on his contract) to free up the other. Then the three DPs are Messi, Busquets, and Campana/Pizarro. A Miami fan may have a better idea. The Athletic also had a good rundown.
How are they getting Alba on a non-DP contract? I have no idea. With that said, my guess is that MLS is very willing to get creative with some of the rule interpret to make this Miami-Barcelona reunion happen, and because of the single entity nature of the league most other teams (and many of us fans) won't really care.