De Rosario salary question will eventually be answered by the MLSPU

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It’s a safe bet that, for Canadian soccer fans and journalists, wel’ll all have our eyes peeled for the name “Dwayne De Rosario” when the MLS Players Union releases its salary update this spring. The union updates the salary list twice a year and publishes it on its website. Because MLS and its teams do not release salary details, the union creates a bit of a media feeding frenzy (OK, about as strong as a media frenzy can be in North American soccer) whenever it releases the numbers. But, for sure, “what does DeRo make?” will be the first question fans will want answered. De Rosario, the first Canadian ever to be named MLS Most Valuable Player, signed a contract extension with D.C. United Monday, a deal which takes out his current deal, which would have paid him just under US$500,000 this year. For De Rosario, the deal ends a contract odyssey that began pretty well right after he was acquired by TFC ahead of the 2009 season. There were the accusations of broken promises from the TFC front office. There was the 2011 trial at Celtic which De Ro and his agent claimed that the Reds cleared them to do, while the team said otherwise. There were the stalled attempts to renegotiate his deal. And, of course, that 2010 cheque-signing goal-celebration gesture at BMO Field and, since, the rewriting of DeRo’s legacy (somehow changing him from MLS great to selfish malcontent) by a section of TFC fans who just can’t let it go. DeRo was traded twice last year, from Toronto to New York, then from New York to Washington, D.C. — ironically, the deal that sent him out of New York was so the team could make way for Designated Player Frank Rost, a move that backfired terribly. Now, after the epic is done, I would argue that at no time have MLS fans been as curious to what a player makes as they are about DeRo. We know that it’s not a Designated Player contract, yet DeRo will still make more than his DP teammates, Branko Boskovic and Hamdi Salihi. D.C. will use allocation money, those mystical extra dollars that float between GMs as if they were magic coins, to buy down some of the DeRo salary hit. RELATED: Canadian Player of the Year De Rosario wants to put “another star” on D.C. United jersey (CLICK) After Borman move, it’s now De Rosario for Iro and a draft pick (CLICK)