Ernst Tanner admits Kai Wagner could leave the Union this winter

Union sporting director Ernst Tanner acknowledged Friday that star left back Kai Wagner could leave the team this winter, as his contract is up after the season and talks have reached an impasse.

Wagner admitted earlier this month that he’s likely to go. He told reporters after the Sept. 3 win over the New York Red Bulls that “it’s probably my last year in Philadelphia now,” and “it was not my decision, but I have to take it.”

As with all contract talks, either side’s words alone don’t tell the whole story. In a lunchtime news conference Friday at Subaru Park, Tanner said he made an offer in February, and had another conversation before the summer transfer window opened.

“What he said is only half of the truth,” Tanner said as he told his half of it. “I told him [in the summer] that we could improve our offer, and this was not good enough. He could have stayed here if he would have taken the offer, I’d say it like that. But if we don’t come together, it’s the natural way.”

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Wagner, a Germany native, has said for years that he wants to go back to Europe. Every time a transfer window approaches, there’s a widespread expectation that he’ll leave, and every time he doesn’t, it’s surprising. Multiple clubs in England and Germany have had interest, but there was never a deal — not least because some of those offers weren’t good enough.

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help, hammering clubs’ revenues with many games canceled or played behind closed doors.

“It was not like clubs over in Europe were offering like hell for him,” Tanner said. “So I think sometimes you need to be very happy with what you have, instead of looking over to the other side of the river. The grass might shine a little bit brighter, but in reality, in particular if you know what’s going on in Europe right now [financially], it’s not that bright.”

There’s been speculation that Wagner could move within MLS and become a Designated Player elsewhere. But doing so would come with a big hitch. The league’s collective bargaining agreement mandates that if he moves to another MLS team as a free agent, his raise is capped to 15% in the first year, with caps in future years based on what his new salary would be.

That means no other MLS team could offer him a Designated Player salary, or other big sums he might earn in Europe. Only the Union could with a new deal, and Tanner signaled that won’t happen.

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“We are not pretty far away, but we are — and we have some principles,” Tanner said. “It’s basically that the outside back positions are not the highest paid. That’s how it is. He’s an excellent outside back, and that’s what we acknowledged already in what we are paying. And we would have improved [it], but we cannot go to hemispheres where we set the wrong tone.”

Wagner’s current base salary is $630,000, with a guaranteed overall compensation total of $701,000. The base figure is below the DP threshold of $651,250. Next year, the threshold will be $683,750. A 15% raise would pay Wagner $724,500, above the threshold but not by a huge sum.

This all assumes MLS doesn’t change the roster rules this winter. A lot of people hope Lionel Messi’s arrival will spark an overhaul, so more teams can sign big names and build good teams around them.

Tanner said he’s open to changes, but doesn’t want them to be too drastic.

“Everybody’s talking about Messi, and Messi is good for us, I don’t mind that,” he said. “But what we should do is, we should also be strict on the rules. Within the mechanisms we are having, you can spend a lot of money already — that’s not the problem.”

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Tanner has seen too much of the underside of the global soccer transfer market, and hopes MLS stays away from it.

“We should also take care about the clarity [of the rules], and not make the mistakes clubs in China made, clubs over in Europe made, and then they cry for the Super League,” he said. “And maybe some clubs in Saudi Arabia are doing that now. We should not do that. … Consistent growth always takes care about sustainability, and that’s the way to go.”

He added: “You cannot develop something from zero to 100 within two years, and expect that this is going to continue. Nobody in the world has that money that this will continue — maybe the Sheikhs. But they have also maybe not the right location for it.”

On that point, Tanner and Messi might agree. After all, Messi turned down a reported $500 million per year salary offer from Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal when he chose to come to the United States.

As for how he’ll do the next time he plays the Union, well, let’s see if Wagner is still around for it.

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