Category: MLS Soccer

• Messi’s salary more than the payroll of 21 MLS teams

• Complete MLS salary figures released on Wednesday

Lionel Messi is the highest-paid player in Major League Soccer for the third straight year with total annual compensation of $20,446,667 – an amount greater than the entire payroll of 21 MLS teams.

Messi’s base compensation is $12m the Major League Soccer Players Association said on Wednesday. His total figure covers his MLS deal, which runs through the 2025 season, including any marketing bonus and agent’s fees. They do not account for any additional agreements with the team or its affiliates, or for any performance bonuses.

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• Argentine’s 68th free-kick goal secures three points for Miami

• Win is MLS’s first in expanded Club World Cup

• Palmeiras tops Al Ahly in other Group A match

Lionel Messi connected on a free kick in the 54th minute to propel Inter Miami to a 2-1 victory over FC Porto in a Group A match of the Fifa Club World Cup on Thursday afternoon.

After Porto struck first on Samu Aghehowa’s penalty kick in the eighth minute, Marcelo Weigandt assisted on Telasco Segovia’s game-tying goal in the 47th.

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San Jose Earthquakes owner John Fisher has hired an investment bank to sell his MLS club, according to multiple people familiar with the billionaire’s plans. An official announcement is expected sometime on Wednesday. Fisher, who owns and recently relocated MLB’s Athletics from Oakland, has retained Moelis & Co. to run the process. The move comes …

The league will relish the long-awaited chance to go toe-to-toe with the world, but they may not love the result

• Tell us what you’re looking forward to (or not) at the Club World Cup

The beach clubs of Dubai and Ibiza may be a little quieter this summer, at least when it comes to their headcount of European soccer stars. The off-season has been intruded upon by the Club World Cup with the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Inter in the United States for this summer’s expanded tournament, which kicks off this weekend. Wayne Lineker and Salt Bae may get lonely.

European enthusiasm for Gianni Infantino’s latest harebrained scheme is low. The $131m bounty for winning the tournament has incentivised clubs at boardroom level (see Real Madrid spending many millions extra to sign Trent Alexander-Arnold in time to play), but players may not be as driven on the pitch. European fans may not even watch – the tournament is being broadcast in the UK on Channel 5, a network known more for daytime reality TV repeats than live soccer. It’s being streamed worldwide on DAZN, a platform with wildly varying adoption levels across the globe.

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Would you blame the kid if he thought he could help the D.C. United this year?

Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros give us their MLS midseason awards including team of the season, MVP, Newcomer of the Year and more! Does Messi deserve MLS MVP so far? Christian and Alexis finish up their MLS midseason awards. Who is their Young Player of the Year? Have the LA Galaxy or Atlanta United been the bigger disappointment so far? Later, Christian and Alexis react to the latest USMNT roster change that sees Sergiño Dest join a group of USMNT stars that will be missing this Gold Cup.

Sounders players are protesting a policy that prevents them from making more than $1 million, to split, from the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup.

• The $650m project will anchor an incoming development

• Stadium would be the 22nd soccer-specific venue in MLS

This Chicago Fire on Tuesday announced plans to build a $650m, soccer-specific stadium in the South Loop of Chicago – a venue that will be part of a large development project called “The 78.”

The club aims to open the stadium in the spring of 2028, with the building of the venue itself requiring no public money, according to an announcement by the team’s owner, Joe Mansueto. It is planned to hold 22,000 spectators.

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Sounders players wore 'Club World Cash Grab' on t-shirts on Sunday amid demands for their share of the nearly $10 million promised per MLS team.

• A 115th-minute winner from Denis Bouanga sealed it

• LAFC opens the Club World Cup v Chelsea on 16 June

Denis Bouanga scored an extra-time winner to lift Los Angeles FC to a 2-1 victory over Club América in a Club World Cup qualifying playoff match at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The winger, who had orchestrated much of LAFC’s attacking output in the match, scored the winner in the 115th minute after unleashing a shot that took a wicked deflection on its way into the net.

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LAFC is headed to the Club World Cup. And Club América is going home.

• 33 fans banned after upper-deck brawl at Snapdragon

• San Diego FC vow safer matchdays after violent fight

• Club cites ‘no place for violence’ as probe continues

San Diego FC have issued indefinite bans to 33 people who apparently participated in a violent brawl after the club’s match against the LA Galaxy at Snapdragon Stadium last weekend.

The expansion San Diego club announced Friday that the fans are prohibited from attending home and away matches. The club will work with law enforcement and Major League Soccer to enforce the bans, and further action could be taken.

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Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros preview the Champions League Final between Inter Milan and PSG this Saturday. Who has the advantage? Who do the boys think will come out on top? Christian and Alexis then give team perspectives for all 20 premier league teams ahead of next season. Are we seeing the fall of Manchester United’s empire? Later, Christian and Alexis recap the midweek MLS games. Also, the Galaxy lose again and make history in a bad way, tying the record for a winless streak in Major League Soccer.

Bruce Arena and Dave Sarachan will be back at Dignity Health Sports Park for the first time Wednesday when the San José Earthquakes take on the Galaxy.

Kinda, who played four seasons for Sporting Kansas City, died after being hospitalized with a ‘complex medical battle’

Former Sporting Kansas City midfielder Gadi Kinda died, his club Maccabi Haifa FC announced on Tuesday. He was 31.

Kinda was hospitalized while “going through a complex medical battle in recent weeks,” Maccabi Haifa announced two weeks ago.

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