Trade of Wynne was total Bull
By: SIMON SAMANO - Staff Writer | ∞
Marvell Wynne is still flabbergasted but not fazed, his mind instead focused on maximizing this opportunity to shine.
After a training session with the New York Red Bulls a few weeks ago, Wynne went about his business as usual. He took a shower and was busy changing near his locker when Red Bulls coach Bruce Arena approached him and requested his presence in his office.
Though it was far from routine to be summoned this way, Wynne, a UCLA and Poway High product, didn't think much of it. He finished dressing before heading to Arena's office, where the coach and his assistants were waiting. The assistants were standing, Arena was sitting at his desk, and there was an open chair with Wynne's name on it.
Still, Wynne didn't think the meeting would be a big deal, let alone alter the course of his MLS career.
"I was expecting (Arena) to say something about what he wanted me to do better on the field," Wynne recalled in a phone interview last week. "Maybe something drastic and maybe he didn't want to tell me in front of the other guys. (Instead) he says: 'I don't have good news for you. You have been traded.' "
Wynne was shipped to the expansion Toronto FC two weeks ago, an odd decision when you consider it was just last year that the Red Bulls ---- then known as the MetroStars ---- selected him No. 1 overall in the MLS SuperDraft.
It was Arena who decided to trade Wynne, which was foreshadowed in the previous match when Wynne sat on the bench while Hunter Freeman started at right back.
The trade also came on the heels of the team's acquisition of Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel from Aston Villa. The arrival of Angel meant financial space needed to be cleared for his $1.5 million salary. Apparently, Wynne's paycheck was viewed as the fat that had to be trimmed.
"I knew they were signing Juan Pablo, but I had no idea I would be traded," Wynne said. "It was very surprising ---- completely out of the blue."
It was all the more surprising because he was the most coveted player coming out of college just last year. Scouts drooled over him at the MLS combine, where he displayed the kind of attributes expected of a football running back: blazing speed and imposing strength. Combine that with a physical frame that earned him the nickname "Man-child," and it's no wonder Wynne was considered the best prospect in last year's draft. That's why New York moved up from No. 4 to draft him.
Though he was stunned by the trade to Toronto, Wynne hasn't taken it personally.
"I understand that, being a professional athlete, in the end you are just a product," Wynne said. "It's a business. You want one thing; you give away something else. Bruce explained to me the reason for the trade."
So Wynne, who turns 21 on Thursday, finds himself living and playing for an expansion team in a country he had never visited before being traded.
But with the uncertainty of a new environment comes the familiarity of an old mentor, as the move reunited Wynne with former New York coach Mo Johnston, who values his talent and sees the benefits of honing his raw technical skills.
The fact that Wynne was a work in progress likely made him expendable in the eyes of Arena.
The short time back with Johnston, who is known for working with his players individually, already has made a difference to Wynne.
"I'm getting better. I can feel my touch getting better," Wynne said. "Maybe Bruce doesn't have time to work with me. Mo has time."
Wynne figures to benefit greatly from the trade in the long run, playing in a system he's familiar with and for a coach who cares enough to work with him personally. That would explain why he's so upbeat about something he has every right to feel insulted by.
"I never looked at this trade as a negative in any way," Wynne said. "Now that I'm here, I'm sure it isn't."
Contact staff writer Simon Samano at simon_samano@yahoo.com. Comment at sports.nctimes.com.
Soccer rail
It figures
Major League Soccer's players voted unanimously last week to make their salaries public last week in hopes of embarrassing the league into fixing substantial disparities.
The most startling fact: 26 percent of MLS players (93 of 359) make less or barely more than a minimum-wage worker in California could earn in a year. Paid $7.50 an hour for 40 hours a week, a California minimum-wage employee would make roughly $15,600 in a year. That's more than the 57 MLS players who earn the league minimum of $12,900 for development rosters and only slightly less than the 36 players who earn $17,700. The league minimum for players on senior rosters is $30,000, hardly adequate to live comfortably in MLS cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Washington.
"It's a big, big problem," Bob Foose, executive director of the players' union, told the Los Angeles Times. "A third of the league has to ask their parents for money to pay rent."
There could a bright side, though. With television contracts and jersey sponsorships strengthening the league's financial picture, MLS should ---- and better ---- be able to correct matters.
---- Simon Samano
Highest-paid players in MLS
1. David Beckham, Los Angeles Galaxy, $6.5 million
2. Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Chicago Fire, $2.6 million
3. Juan Pablo Angel, New York Red Bulls, $1.59 million
4. Claudio Reyna, New York Red Bulls, $1.25 million
5. Landon Donovan, Los Angeles Galaxy, $900,000
6. Eddie Johnson, Kansas City Wizards, $875,000
7. Freddy Adu, Real Salt Lake, $550,000
8. Carlos Ruiz, FC Dallas, $435,000
9. Clint Mathis, New York Red Bulls, $410,000
10. Taylor Twellman, New England Revolution, $350,000
Source: Major League Soccer players' union
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Patrick wrote on May 7, 2007 11:35 AM:You want to make more money? Find a real job. You have the incredible privelage to play a game and get paid for it. No athlete has an inalienable right to make an amount of money arbitrarily decided by a sports writer with an ax to grind. You have a responsibility to find a job and earn a wage that allows you to meet your responsibilities. Childishly demanding that you are entitled to (fill in the amount) points out naivete and an abscence of maturity. Spare me the whine that claims these rich owners are exploiting these poor athletes. This is absurd, and factually inaccurate on every level. The owners have accepted the considerable fiduciary responsibility an risk of investing in a professional sports team. Almost without exception, every player in the league comes from and still lives in the middle class. Most of them have college degrees. So you can't get paid enough playing in MLS? Then go out and get a real job like the rest of us.
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