💵 FC Dallas player salaries revealed for 2023

Every spring, the Major League Players Union releases its salary guide. It gives us an honest take on what every club, including FC Dallas, is spending on any given season.

Today is the salary release day for the 2023 season (we’ll get a second release later this fall). And with it comes some interesting numbers for FC Dallas:

Quick notes for 2023:

17th in spending: All things considered, FC Dallas lands just below the middle pack of the league in terms of spending. According to The Athletic, they clock in right after Portland and just ahead of Nashville1.

Top earner: Homegrown DP Jesus Ferreira is the club’s top earner. His base pay only accounts for about 13% of the team’s total spending. A healthy portion when you look around the league and see other DPs earning a third of their team’s total salary charge.

DP spending: The base pay increased a good bit for the current Designated Players: Paul Arriola (base pay went up $400k), Ferreira (base pay went up $300k) and Alan Velasco (base pay increased $100k). FCD has said they can pay down Arriola's budget charge should they sign another DP.

Sticker shock: One surprising one for FC Dallas fans may be Jesus Jimenez, who is making over $1.1 million in his base pay. Toronto will retain a portion of Jiménez’s salary budget charge, which clocked in at $815k last season. No word yet on how much of a salary charge Toronto is picking up just yet but that one would be pretty big to have on the books.

Ibeagha worked free agency: Sebastian Ibeagha only made around $225k last season for LAFC. When he went into the league’s free agency pool in the offseason, it paid off with a nice bump in pay at $520k.

U-22 Signing paying off: In the few years since MLS debuted the U-22 roster slot, FC Dallas has struggled to figure it out until this year. Geovane Jesus has been stellar for the club in 2023, and his salary figure isn’t massive either. Money well spent.

Kamungo’s missing piece: I’m not entirely sure why, but there was no salary figure for Bernard Kamungo.

Tafari’s budget value: You’ll probably see his name pop up on a couple of lists this week with this salary release, but Nksoi Tafari’s value at $240k is very nice. I hope he gets a nice salary bump next season.

Things to keep in mind: These salary numbers also are not the numbers at which players hit a team’s salary cap. Those budget charges also include an annualized portion of transfer or loan fees associated with an individual player.