Beckham's salary revealed; Reyna top U.S. earner

According to data released Friday by the league's players' union. Here is a breakdown of what key MLS players are making.

David Beckham will receive more than double what any other player in MLS is getting this year and more than 50 times the average salary. Beckham, the former English captain who joins the Los Angeles Galaxy this summer, has $6.5 million in guaranteed income that includes a $5.5 million base salary this year, the union said. That's 10 times more than what any player is getting outside the top six.

Mexican forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who is joining the Chicago Fire this summer, is second with $2,666,778 in guaranteed income, including a base salary of $2,492,316. Colombian forward Juan Pablo Angel, who signed with the New York Red Bulls, is third with $1,593,750 in guaranteed income, including a $1.5 million salary.

Former U.S. captain Claudio Reyna is the top-paid American in the league. The midfielder is guaranteed $1,250,008 with the Red Bulls, including $1,000,008 in base salary.

Galaxy forward Landon Donovan is fifth at $900,000, all of it base salary, followed by Kansas city forward Eddie Johnson at $875,000 ($750,000 base salary) and Real Salt Lake midfielder Freddy Adu at $550,000 ($300,000 base salary).

Thirty-two players earn the league minimum of $30,000, and developmental players get even less: 35 make $17,700 and 56 get $12,900. Only the top six players in the league have salaries above the major league baseball minimum of $380,000.

The average guaranteed salary for the 356 players listed is $115,478 and the median -- the point at which an equal amount make above and below -- is $52,965. Seventy four percent of the players have base salaries of $100,000 or less.

Red Bulls get a new striker...

MLS and Aston Villa have agreed on a transfer fee for Colombian forward Juan Pablo Ángel to join the Red Bulls if he and the club can agree on compensation, according to Soccer America.

Ángel started playing professional soccer at Atlético Nacional in his home city of Medellín, Colombia. Ángel was sold to River Plate, Argentina, where he was considered one of the best players.

Ángel was Aston Villa's record signing from Argentinian side River Plate at £9.5 million, an increase of £2.5 million on the previous record, set by Stan Collymore. He was reportedly Villa's highest earner on £40,000 per week. After an indifferent start to his Aston Villa career, he settled down and started to produce the form that persuaded Doug Ellis to shell out the massive transfer fee. He was the club's top scorer in the 2003-04 season with 16 goals in the FA Premier League, but slipped to 7 goals in 2004-05.

Since the departure of Darius Vassell to Manchester City the summer of 2005, Ángel has been heaped with pressure to score more goals. In August 2005, Milan Baroš was brought in however, in an attempt to take off some of the burden. However, Baroš seemed to find scoring as difficult as Ángel, and was sold to Olympique Lyonnais in the January 2007 transfer window. Despite early promise, Angel later fell out-of-favour with manager David O'Leary, and spent most of the season either as a substitute or watching from the stands.

Martin O'Neill's appointment as Villa manager has resulted in a huge turnaround in Ángel's Villa career. He is now first choice striker again and is rewarding his manager with goals.

For Colombia, Ángel has appeared over 30 times, averaging a ratio of nearly a goal every 3 games. For Villa he averages a goal every 3rd game.

Here is Ángel's club history:

Senior clubs
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1993-97 1997-00 2000-	Atlético Nacional de Medellín River Plate Aston Villa	057 0(9) 091 (45) 175 (44)

Here is Ángel's national team history:

National team
1996-	Colombia	33 0(9)