LA Galaxy salary figures released

The latest official salary information for the 2016 LA Galaxy roster has been published by the MLS Player’s Union.

A few observations:

-Best value: It’s a tough choice between Sebastian Lletget ($110,000) and Emmanuel Boateng ($100,000), both of whom are young but underpaid.

-Worst value: Dan Kennedy. Not the only Galaxy reserve with an inflated salary, but LA have hardly gotten any value out of the veteran keeper this season.

-Landon Donovan’s $456,000 figure is pro-rated to $152,500 for 2016

-Steven Gerrard is making way too much money.

-Jelle Van Damme’s base salary is $425,000, roughly what Gyasi Zardes makes. Probably still deserves a raise, but how much more TAM can LA make available to the Defender of the Year candidate?

Finally, this is intriguing.

As you can see, former Galaxy defender Dan Gargan is making a cool $145,000 this season, but isn’t assigned to a team.

Officially, Gargan was waived a week before the season opener vs. Real Salt Lake, so the only logical explanation is that the 33-year-old defender was guaranteed pay in 2016 and LA decided to eat his salary in order to pursue free agents such as Jelle Van Damme. Bad for AEG’s bank account, but ultimately good for the club.

In the meantime, Gargan gets to spend time in LA, collecting a paycheck while occasionally appearing on Galaxy broadcasts without actually being listed on the roster. Not bad, indeed.