D.C. United midfielder Perry Kitchen had two goals in the club’s 2-2 draw with the New York Red Bulls on Saturday (Image Credit: Simon Heseltine/Wikimedia Images)
Should I stay or should I go?
This is the decision that D.C. United midfielder Perry Kitchen is currently grappling with as it has been rumored that he is drawing interest from clubs in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. It is an enviable position that he finds himself, being wanted by clubs from some of the top leagues in the world. But at the same time it is not one where an easy decision can be made.
While many players have made the jump from Major League Soccer to Europe over the past 20 years, Kitchen is unique because of his experience, age, and pedigree. At just 24 years old, he already has 140 caps with D.C. United. He, along with goalkeeper Bill Hamid, was directly responsible for United’s stifling 21 goals allowed last season and helped rejuvenate a lagging club.
So why leave now? Why leave when D.C. United appear to be close to reaching peak form? There is no real one answer to point to when looking at this conundrum. It could be anything from salary to wanting to play in Europe to looking to enhance his spot in the United States Men’s National Team. All appear to be plausible explanations but there still seems to be something missing.
The cog missing in this line of thinking is the acknowledgement that Major League Soccer is a seller’s league. In world football there are essentially two types of clubs: buyers and sellers. Buyers are the major footballing powers who can purchase any player that fits their fancy. The likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City fit this model. Meanwhile, sellers are clubs that cannot afford to keep up with the bidding wars against the major powers so they deal away their top players for large sums.
For all of the progress that Major League Soccer has made in the past 20 years in changing the quality of the product on the pitch. It is still very far behind the dominant European clubs in terms of revenue, salary, and player personnel. The proof is in the salaries. According to a report released by the Major League Soccer Players Union, the Toronto FC had a base salary of $15.6 million in 2014. Not a cheap dollar figure. However, if one were to put that team in England then the Sounders would have the 45th highest salary in English football.
Now it is not all doom and gloom for being a seller team. If the club can sell the player and use the transfer fee to invest in their future then the deal will pay off in the long run. United has already done this in the past with both Bobby Convey and Andy Najar, turning both of their young prospects in for significant transfer fees. United even received a $50,000 bonus for Najar’s appearance in the 2015 World Cup for Honduras.
If United can sell Kitchen to a European club in all likelihood that means they will earn a transfer value. While $1.7 million might not sound like much for a club like Real Madrid for D.C. United it is a godsend. Assuming that the club is willing to spend that $1.7 million and not pocket it that is a significant victory for the team.
Now the question for D.C. United and the rest of Major League is if it is to possible to change from sellers to buyers. It is certainly possible for United to become buyers within MLS, given the addition of their new stadium in 2017 no longer having to pay $12 million a year in rent for RFK Stadium. Typically United have been pretty dreadful in terms of making major free agent signings.
Anything beyond that is a bit difficult to forsee. D.C. United and MLS operate within a very different set of rules than the rest of the world. The single-entity model in MLS, where the league negotiates player contracts and tightly controls movement, simply does not exist in other parts of the world. If Real Madrid were unable to sign a major player because they were #12 in an allocation order that may very well cause chaos in the streets of Madrid.
Compromise seems to be the best course in remedying this situation. While many would see the recent round of labor negotiations between the players and owners as a failure, that the owners were willing to budge on free agency indicates that it was anything but. In order to preserve the league ownership recognized that they would have to give players some rights. In politics this is referred to as the science of muddling through, where two actors engaged in negotiations are trying to achieve their goal by avoiding giving up as much of their stuff as possible. It may not be the huge windfall that will lead to a free-flowing European market but it is a start.
Whether or not Perry Kitchen will move is anyone’s guess. But his situation is a further reminder of the disconnect that exists between what MLS and US Soccer puts out in terms of hype and the cold, hard truth of where the league stands in the footballing world. There is nothing wrong with being a seller’s league; but there is something wrong with being ashamed of it.
