Signing Players Like de Guzman Hurts MLS, And Here's Why

by Jason Davis - Match Fit USA

Toronto FC has sauntered up to the vault, inserted their key, opened the door, wheeled in a cart, loaded it up with gobs of cash, and slammed it right into the available arms of one Julian de Guzman.


The Canadian international is the team's first Designated Player target, a hometown boy with European experience, quality to spare, and a marketable name to sell to TFC's football mad fan base. $7 million per year for two years (the assumption is that it's USD) is the rumored offer, and it would make the midfielder the highest paid player in MLS.

I'm not a TFC fan, and I certainly don't speak for any, but I have a few reservations.

Whether de Guzman accepts the lucrative deal isn't really what concerns me. TFC would certainly be better off with him in the fold, and his class is undeniable. There's no reasonable soccer fan that would lament their team doing what the Reds are doing. But as a fan of MLS the enterprise first and foremost, and as someone who roots for the league's ultimate success over all else, I have to wonder: Is this the path that MLS clubs should really be taking to relevancy?

Toronto FC must really, really want de Guzman. MLSE's massive offer is said to dwarf any he might receive in Europe, and there's an obvious reason for that; simply put, it will take that kind of cash to lure a player in his prime away from the brighter lights of the continent to the much weaker MLS. TFC should be applauded on the one hand for doing what it might take to bring a player of solid pedigree and who lacks the "over the hill" tag into a league with none of the cache of Europe's top competitions. Yet, and this isn't about the dollars involved, or MLSE's bottom line, I get the feeling that this type of move is exactly what MLS clubs should try to avoid as they push on into a future that includes the "Beckham Rule".

I'm not really a "slow and steady growth" kind of guy. I'm as impatient as the next fan, and I'm desperate for MLS to raise the salary cap significantly so clubs have more ammunition to go after better players. But, and even though it may seem counter-intuitive, the DP rule runs counter to my hopes for the league; the larger the disparity between the top paid guys and the squad players, the more inconsistent quality will be and the more frustrating it will be for those high-talent stars who do make the leap. If you're a giant fish in a tiny pond, you tend to get bored and disillusioned rather quickly; the recent hubbub over David Beckham's time with the LA Galaxy and his "lack of commitment" is exactly the type of problem that the league faces whenever the DP rule is utilized to lure players like de Guzman here.

I'm all for more money being spent. I just want it to be spent across the board, even-handed, and on a number of players that can actually make a marked difference. It's not always enough to throw money at a problem; it's often necessary to be discerning with that money, to make sure to focus it in a way that doesn't do more harm than good. Julian de Guzman deserves whatever he can get and MLSE has the right to spend whatever they choose in whatever way the rules allow. But it's hard for me to ignore what the offer represents, what it might mean for the development of MLS, and how high-profile signings like de Guzman could ultimately restrict the growth of the league.

I know, I'm probably judging de Guzman prematurely and unfairly. He could very well be happy ending up at BMO Field, doing his best to push TFC towards glory, and aiding in raising the profile of his club even further than it's already gone. Faultless too is TFC, for whom the Designated Player rule is something to be exploited; with a talented player of de Guzman's background (i.e., Canadian) available, money to burn, and a fan base desperate for a big splash move, it would be folly of them not to explore the possibility of obtaining his services. He's the Golden Goose, there for the taking, the player that might possibly put them over the top while instilling civic pride in the local populace at the same time.

But what MLS needs is a solid group of mid-level talents, not one or two guys for whom MLS is a step down. For every de Guzman, there's twenty bench players, barely scraping by on wages many of us would scoff at, doing their best to live out their footballing dreams while lining up alongside guys who could buy and sell them fifty times over. It's this disparity that I find distressing, and what TFC's offer to de Guzman thrusts into my MLS observer's consciousness. The league's long-term future will be built on the median level of its talent, not on splashy contracts given to players that would certainly be plying their trade elsewhere if the money was equal. The rules, as they currently exist, hold the league back from true respectability rather than pushing them forward as those that set them obviously believe.

De Guzman. Right for Toronto FC, wrong for Major League Soccer. Rather, it's what de Guzman represents that's wrong for the league, and you'd be hard pressed to convince me otherwise.

Jason Davis pens a weekly column for MLS Daily every Friday. He can be found seven days a week at his very own site, Match Fit USA - Examining The State Of American Soccer.