Yeimar Gomez Andrade signs big extension
Alex Roldan, Nouhou and Raúl Ruidíaz also got nice raises during offseason.
The MLS Players Association made their semi-regular salary data dump on Tuesday and in the process broke some actual news: Yeimar Gomez Andrade has signed an extension that basically doubles his salary. Sounder at Heart’s Niko Moreno later confirmed that the contract keeps him under club control through 2026, which basically matches the deal Xavier Arreaga signed in the offseason.
I am told that #Sounders defender Yeimar Gomez Andradre has gotten a new deal that as you can see in the MLSPA salary statement, has nearly doubled his initial base salary.
— Niko Moreno (@ELROLONW) May 17, 2022
His new contract would keep him in Seattle through 2024 and two additional club options after that. pic.twitter.com/QAM9myeo5b
With Yeimar now secured long-term, the Sounders’ entire ideal XI is under club control through at least 2023. In fact, the only player whose contract is due to end without at least a club option in 2023 is Jimmy Medranda.
The salary dump also shed some light on a handful of other deals the Sounders signed in the offseason. Most notable was Raúl Ruidíaz’s extension. The Peruvian striker ended up getting about a 50% pay raise, bringing him up to $3.2 million in 2022. That’s just a bit shy of Nicolás Lodeiro’s salary, which remains the highest on the team.
Other notable raises include Alex Roldan (who signed an extension through 2025 and more than doubled his 2021 salary); Nouhou (whose deal was actually signed last year but never announced); João Paulo (who got a 20% bump but lowered his cap hit considerably after his transfer fee came off the books); and Stef Cleveland (who got about 75% more money to remain as Stefan Frei’s backup).
The biggest new signing of the offseason was, of course, Albert Rusnák, who accepted a significant pay cut in order to join the Sounders in free agency. Despite taking 20% less than he made at Real Salt Lake, Rusnák will still count as a full Designated Player. Free agency rules, however, dictated that this was the maximum he could be paid while switching teams.
Collectively, the Sounders rank as the sixth-highest payroll in MLS — a little higher than they’ve been in recent years — at about $17 million. These salary figures do not reflect total team spend, of course, as transfer fees and an assortment of other expenditures are not included.