Two US football stars, who play for Major League Soccer (MLS), reportedly make more than the total payroll of 15 out of the 19 American league clubs.
Clint Dempsey, who returned to MLS from the English Premier League in August, is making 6.695 million dollars in guaranteed salary for the Seattle Sounders this year followed by Toronto FC's Michael Bradley, who makes 6.5 million dollars.
According to the Mashable, both the players' individual salary is more than the entire payroll of 15 of the 19 MLS teams.
They are followed by Los Angeles Galaxy's Landon Donovan, making 4.6 million dollars, which is higher than 12 teams' payrolls.
The three players are reportedly the only US Men's National Team (USMNT) members among the league's 10 highest-paid players.
Although the MLS reportedly has a hard salary cap of 3.1 million-dollars per team, it has a 'designated player rule' that allows teams to sign up to three players whose salaries do not count against the cap.
The idea behind the 'designated player rule' is that it will help the league increase its talent level, even though it still maintains some competitive balance, the report added.