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MLS Transfer Fees
Just how much money has the MLS made selling players to clubs in Europe and beyond? The league is now heading into its 14th year, so it should be able to develop players and then funnel those players to other leagues to generate revenue. However, it has been a bit slow going, with a few big transfer fees coming in but not as many as you might expect for a league that's been around this long.
For the the individual MLS teams, they receive two-thirds of the transfer fee, which can go a long way in building a team. One team, Real Salt Lake, who just won the MLS Cup, may have had some success since they sold Freddy Adu a few years ago and could then free up that money to buy three or four strong players. But I think it goes a bit deeper than that and isn't the main reason they won the MLS Cup title.
It looks like three MLS clubs have had the most players sold to European clubs and earned money with transfer fees, those teams are Kansas City (3 players), Colorado (3 players), and then the New York Red Bulls and New York Metro Stars (7 players). Let's take a look at what players have earned their former MLS teams and the league some coin.
| Player |
MLS Club |
New Club |
Transfer Fee |
| Jozy Altidore |
New York |
Villareal |
$10,000,000 |
| Eddie Johnson |
Kansas City |
Fulham |
$6,000,000 |
| Maurice Adu |
Toronto |
Glasgow Rangers |
$5,000,000 |
| Clint Dempsey |
New England |
Fulham |
$4,000,000 |
| Tim Howard |
New York |
Manchester United |
$3,600,000 |
| Stern John |
Columbus |
Nottingham Forest |
$3,000,000 |
| DaMarcus Beasley |
Chicago |
PSV Eindhoven |
$2,500,000 |
| Freddy Adu |
Real Salt Lake |
Benfica |
$2,000,000 |
| Damani Ralph |
Chicago |
Rubin Kazan |
$2,000,000 |
| Eddie Lewis |
San Jose |
Fulham |
$1,900,000 |
| Brad Friedel |
Columbus |
Liverpool |
$1,700,000 |
| Brad Guzan |
Chivas U.S.A. |
Aston Villa |
$1,500,000 |
| Brain McBride |
Columbus |
Fulham |
$1,500,000 |
| Bobby Convey |
D.C. United |
Reading |
$1,500,000 |
| Shaun Bartlett |
New York |
Zurich |
$1,300,000 |
| Tory Perkins |
D.C. United |
Valerenga |
$750,000 |
| J.P. Peguero |
New York |
Brondby |
$700,000 |
| Mamadou Diallo |
New York |
Al Ahli |
$600,000 |
| Nat Borchers |
Colorado |
Grenland |
$300,000 |
| Onandi Lowe |
Kansas City |
Rushden |
$300,000 |
| Josh Wolff |
Kansas City |
1860 Munich |
$191,000 |
| Marcus Hahnemann |
Colorado |
Fulham |
$150,000 |
| Giovanni Savarese |
New York |
Viterbese |
$100,000 |
| Michael Bradley |
New York |
Heerenveen |
$100,000 |
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