Yardbarker
x
MLS champion L.A. Galaxy feel the pain of enforced league-wide parity
General view of a corner flag bearing the logo of Los Angeles Galaxy. Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images

MLS champion L.A. Galaxy feel the pain of enforced league-wide parity

By Alyssa Clang  |  Last updated Mar 6, 2025 3:40 PM ET

Just twelve days after he was voted the MVP of the 2024 MLS Cup, L.A. Galaxy midfielder Gaston Brugman was gone. Galaxy general manager Will Kuntz traded him to Nashville SC before the confetti was cleaned out of the locker room. Sudden? Cold-hearted? Perhaps. But Kuntz's hands were tied. MVP or no, Brugman's $1,409,000 salary simply made him too expensive for the team to retain. 

Brugman was the first to go for affordability reasons, but he wasn't the last. Midfielder Mark Delgado, defender Jalen Neal and striker Dejan Joveljic all followed suit within the next few weeks. All four players were beloved Galaxy regulars who had earned their spot in the lineup. But all four became unaffordable, and therefore expendable, after their MLS Cup success.

MLS is a league that values parity above all else. Any team can beat any other on any given day. The worst team in the league can bounce back and challenge for a title the following season. That parity keeps MLS competitive and interesting, but it does punish its winners. Each team must work within the same strict salary cap. When a team like the Galaxy wins MLS Cup, well-earned performance bonuses drain that cap away. The result is chaos: successful teams get stripped for parts and forced to rebuild against their will. The Galaxy ended 2024 as the number-one team in America. It's started 2025 as the 29th best out of 30.

"It's not a soccer problem," L. A. Times journalist Kevin Baxter said of the Galaxy's transfer rush and ensuing defeats. "It's a math problem."

MLS roster regulations are labyrinthine and ever-changing, but in 2025, they've got a few key anchors. 

Each team can sign up to 30 players. The first 20 make up the "first team" and their collective salaries can't exceed $5,950,000. (The remaining ten are "supplemental" slots reserved for lower-wage players from team academies and the college draft.)

To get around that limiting $5,950,000 figure, teams can hire up to three Designated Players (DPs.) These DPs can be paid whatever the club can afford—Lionel Messi makes $20 million by himself at Inter Miami—but their "reported" salaries remain fixed at $743,750 and therefore don't destroy the salary budget.

But DPs aren't the only special roster category in MLS: teams can also invest in young players through the league's U-22 Initiative. This program allows each team to sign up to four under-22 athletes, each of whom can make up to $680K per year—but regardless of their actual salary, their "reported" figure remains fixed somewhere between $150K and $200K. Once a player ages out of this category, teams are forced to make a decision: treat them as a regular roster player and take the salary budget hit, convert them to DPs or sell them to another team.

When the Galaxy sold regular roster players Brugman, Delgado and Neal, it was because their bonus-augmented salaries were simply too high. When it sold Joveljic, though—a striker with a 15 goal, six assist season who scored the winning goal in the MLS Cup final—it was because of that U-22 trap. Joveljic aged out of his capped contract and the Galaxy simply didn't have the DP slots or the salary budget available to keep him.

So when you're watching the Galaxy this year, don't shake your head and wonder why a team that looked imperious in 2024 looks utterly broken in 2025. You know the truth: it's not a soccer problem, it's a math problem. The Galaxy paid a frustrating price for MLS's parity, and it'll be a good long while before the team is back to its brilliant best.

Alyssa Clang

Alyssa is a Boston-born Californian with a passion for global sport. She can yell about misplaced soccer passes in five languages and rattle off the turns of Silverstone in her sleep. You can find her dormant Twitter account at @alyssaclang, but honestly, you’re probably better off finding her here

More must-reads:

Customize Your Newsletter

Yardbarker +

Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!