Gareth Bale Moves To LAFC, Beckham Who Profits Rp1.11 Billion

Gareth Bale (@lafc)

JAKARTA - Gareth Bale is one of the fantastic new players in the 2022 Major League Soccer (MLS) season. He is a player who came up with an impressive record with Real Madrid.

This allowed Los Angeles FC (LAFC) to bring him in at a low price and, in the process, benefited David Beckham's Inter Miami, which received a compensation of US$75,000 (Rp1.11 billion). How come?

Look, there's a rule in MLS regarding signing players from foreign leagues, called the Discovery List. Quoted from Marca, Wednesday, to sign the Welshman, LAFC used money beyond his salary limit, called Targeted Allocated Money (TAM) to reduce the impact of salary restrictions on various players and not violate the 2022 budget.

However, it should also take into account the Discovery List guidelines, an MLS rule for players who are followed by their franchises in foreign leagues, but are not under contract with MLS or subject to other allocation mechanisms for US leagues.

So, when a team wants to sign a player in the future, it gives him this clause, which serves as a set aside to bring him to MLS over any other team. In Gareth Bale's case, Inter Miami had this clause and LAFC had to pay $75,000 to secure his contract rights.

The purpose of this rule is not to increase player fees due to a dispute between two MLS teams, so it's a good idea to respect applicable salary limits, similar to those applied in the four major US sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL).

How much does Gareth Bale earn in MLS?

The advantage for LAFC is that the Welshman's salary is very low compared to what he earns at Real Madrid. His salary for the 2022 season is set at 1.6 million US dollars (Rp 23.73 billion) because he joined the team as a free agent. So, according to league tabulators, this is a set salary.

If he is listed as a "designated player", his salary will be 3.5 million US dollars (Rp 51.91 billion). If we add up the $75,000, the gross signing fee is far less than the $20.3 million per season that Gareth Bale earns at Real Madrid.