Julian Gressel Saga Shows Why MLS Should Give Players Trade Approval Powers

Julian Gressel knows he may find his life on and off the field improved by his move earlier this month from D.C. United to the Vancouver Whitecaps. Even so, he told The Athletic that the trade — which did not require his consent — caught him by surprise and left him with a sour taste for how it was handled by his former club.

For followers of major North American sports, Gressel’s comments may sound like frustration with a profession he willingly signed up for. Major pro athletes in the United States and Canada get traded all the time without their input. It’s part of the job description.

But it’s a different story across the soccer world, where players in most major leagues have the right to refuse a transfer to another club if they can’t agree to personal terms, or to turn down a loan move. And if Major League Soccer is serious about becoming a league of choice for more than just the flashy stars who come here later in their careers, they should remove clubs’ ability to make moves like the one that sends Gressel to the Cascadia region without the player’s approval.

Allocation Money Leaves Players Exposed

The most important reason to do this — if not most persuasive to MLS power brokers — is that the league in recent years has actually set up something akin to a parity-driven transfer system rather than a standard North American trade market. The transaction that sent Gressel to Vancouver more closely resembles an intra-league European transfer than a deal at the upcoming MLB trade deadline.

Instead of draft picks, D.C. received up to $900,000 of allocation money from the Whitecaps for the remainder of Gressel’s MLS contract. That kind of deal leaves players in MLS more exposed to a trade than in MLB, the NBA, NFL or NHL, because theoretically any club can have the player in question if they meet the club’s allocation money demands. (Allocation money can also be traded for international roster spots, discovery rights and draft picks, or be used to pay portions of player salaries not counted toward the salary cap.)

Generally speaking, trade partners in other leagues have to possess a more unique set of matching assets, i.e. other players or draft picks. Teams in the NBA and MLB can trade players for cash, but there are limitations on how much money can be exchanged without commissioner approval. Almost always, cash considerations are supplemental rather than the primary drivers of a trade.

The Burden Of Being Traded Is Harder In MLS

Another issue is the relative hardship a trade imposes on an MLS player and his family, which is arguably considerably greater than trades in those other previously mentioned leagues.

The MLS regular season is the longest in major North American sports, more in line with the long seasons of other leagues around the globe. For a player making an early- or mid-season move, a trade means a longer portion of a given year spent in a new city than in another sport.

Further, the MLS schedule of one or two games a week means a player enters the season expecting to spend a greater portion of the season in his club’s home city. Baseball players are already traveling half the season. Basketball and Hockey players spend nearly that much of the season on the road as well.. So when an MLS player suddenly is shipped to a different club, he is losing more days he anticipated spending in his former home city than those colleagues.

And in terms of handling the financial and logistical costs of a trade, it’s far harder for the average MLS player. According to data from the MLS Players Union, the average MLS salary is just shy of $500,000 per season (with the median salary a good deal lower). That is beneath the minimum annual salary for a player in any of the four other major leagues. And while $500,000 is certainly a well-above-average income compared to the general population, it’s small enough that navigating a cross-country move will eat a significant portion, especially if the relocation of a partner, children or other family are involved.

It’s Just Not Worth It

Maybe most importantly, MLS clubs should ask themselves what benefits they are retaining by holding the right to trade a player without his consent. The answer is almost certainly not all that much.

Players generally want to play where they are wanted. To go back to our recent example, for all Gressel’s frustration with how D.C. handled his trade, he wasn’t upset to be joining Vancouver. He understood he also might not be a good fit for new manager Wayne Rooney’s four-back system in D.C. Most likely, getting Gressel’s consent on the deal would’ve required D.C. take a bit more time. But not a lot.

Additionally, most MLS players don’t have the contract security Gressel held on a guaranteed multi-year deal. Those kinds of players are unlikely to refuse moves that will allow more playing time unless they have very specific reasons. Players who are bigger stars than Gressel — who is arguably the best at his right wingback position in MLS — generally have no-trade clauses in their contracts already.