By Ridge Mahoney
Senior Editor, Soccer America
Is Eddie Johnson worth $350,000, plus about $2.5 million in salary? Kansas City and the rest of MLS will find out soon enough.
FC Dallas sent Johnson to the Wizards for a missing-the-playoffs allocation, which according to one source is worth $250,000 this year, and an allocation to replace Preki, thought to be valued as a minor allocation of $100,000.
Under terms of the contract he signed last year, shortly before suffering the big toe injury that sidelined him for much of the season, Johnson is to be paid $875,000 per season for the next three years.
That's a lot of dough. Technically FC Dallas must use those allocations to acquire players yet every year the league is permitting teams to find creative methods by which to use them: ''stacking'' them or ''splitting'' them rather than being forced to keep them intact, and using the money as signing bonuses or other payments to retain players, Carlos Ruiz, for example.
A quirk in the Johnson deal is that if Johnson is sold onto a foreign club before the expiration of his MLS deal, the league has assured the Wizards it will be reimbursed for the allocations they gave up to get him.
If he's sold at anything near the prices that could result if he plays well at the World Cup — $10 million, $15 million, maybe more — the league will make out like bandits.
One of the reasons expressed by FC Dallas general manager Michael Hitchcock for trading such a valuable commodity is the concern he will soon leave MLS for Europe.
But in that case, the team losing him would receive an allocation, which is what FC Dallas obtained in exchange. Ruiz's return forced Dallas to shed salary so it would be salary-cap ($1.91 million per team in 2006) compliant, and jettisoning Johnson saves $350,000 against the cap.
Very high-salaried players, like Johnson and Landon Donovan, will count against the cap for that figure, even though the ''official'' maximum salary is $310,000. But this deal is about more than numbers.
Johnson's disciplinary problems rarely rose into public view last season, but Coach Colin Clarke wasn't thrilled with Johnson's effort at some practice sessions nor his slow recovery from a stress fracture and strained ligaments in that big toe; Johnson, originally injured in late May, didn't appreciate being rushed, in his view, back into action and re-injuring the toe in August.
Late last year, Johnson moved out — or was asked to leave — the home of former Dallas assistant coach Brian Haynes, whose tenure with the team subsequently ended. Haynes, a deeply religious family man, mentored the young star and tried to temper the emotional outbursts that had marred Johnson's first few years as a pro. Now FC Dallas has parted with both of them.
KANSAS CITY SHUFFLE. Coach Bob Gansler has been searching for years to replicate his coup of 2000, when a little-known Danish striker named Miklos Molnar arrived in America, scored 12 goals in the regular season, and notched five more in the playoffs — including the only goal of MLS Cup — to guide Kansas City to its first MLS title.
Also on that team was former Scottish international Mo Johnston. In pursuit of a second title, Gansler has auditioned Russians, Romanians, Argentines, Trinidadians, Ugandans, South Africans and Jamaicans in addition to dozens of Americans. He traded for U.S. forward Josh Wolff in 2003 and has stated his plan is to play Wolff and Johnson together, which would be a potent strike force rarely seen until July, after the World Cup concludes.
As stated, if Johnson leaves for Europe after the World Cup, that pairing won't play more than a few games together, but the Wizards will recoup the allocations.
And Wolff has been on trial with foreign teams the past few years. Might he be bound overseas as well?
Before the Johnson trade came to be, he was rumored to be headed to Kansas City in exchange for Wolff. Gansler has already traded longtime stalwarts Diego Gutierrez and Chris Klein, so there's enough cap room to accommodate Wolff and Johnson by the compliance date of March 1.
NAME CHANGE. Year by year, the league had been slowly shedding its dumb nicknames: Clash, Burn, Mutiny, Wiz, etc. That trend was suddenly reversed last month when 'Houston 1836'' was unveiled.
Reports out of Houston state that AEG held meetings over the weekend and will announce a new nickname in the next few days.
As nicknames go, it's right down there with those vestiges of the league's startup even though it commemorates the official founding of the city of Houston.
Not such a bad thing, except other events occurred that year: the Battle of the Alamo; the subsequent battle of San Jacinto, in which Mexican troops led by General Antonio Lopez Santa Anna were routed by General Sam Houston's army; and Texas' secession from Mexico. The official team logo features Sam Houston on a horse wielding a firearm.
Team president Oliver Luck cited an Internet poll, in which Houston 1836 was the most popular choice, as the reason that nickname was chosen.
Obviously, Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia and many of her constituents didn't like the outcome. Garcia, responding to complaints from the Hispanic community, expressed concern over the nickname and not even Luck's political stature — until joining MLS he ran the local stadium authority — could stem the tide.
Those original MLS nicknames, and the bizarre uniforms that accompanied them, were dreamed up by Nike executives who believed they could market a soccer league with designs and colors favored by skateboarders and surfers.
This time, after abandoning one Hispanic-rich area for another, the league stubbed its toe with that community, again; remember it was former San Jose GM Lynne Meterparel who said her organization really wasn't all that interested in the Hispanic market.
MLS VS. GUATEMALA. Stripped of its New England and Los Angeles players so they can train with their teams in preparation for the CONCACAF Champions' Cup next week, the U.S. plays Guatemala in Dallas on Sunday.
Keepers Matt Reis (Revs) and Kevin Hartman (Galaxy) played the first three games of 2006; with them gone, CD Chivas USA goalie Brad Guzan is slated to get his first U.S. start. The game could also be a last chance of sorts for Houston striker Brian Ching, who since returning from injury late last year hasn't played well in MLS or for the national team. Also expected to start is the only non-MLS player on the roster, left back Heath Pearce, who played the opener against Canada Jan. 22 and gave way to the Galaxy's Todd Dunivant in the last two matches.