Alistair Johnston

[TOcanadafan]

Soldier.

[canadasoccer20]

This man needs to be in a top 5 league. What a stud.

 

[Shway]

13 minutes ago, canadasoccer20 said:

This man needs to be in a top 5 league. What a stud.

 

Agreed. Still kinda mad he re-signed with Montreal, and didn’t trust himself to get a deal elsewhere.

Eustaqiuo gets his praise, but Alistair has been mr. Consistent

[youllneverwalkalone]

It will be good for both parties to get a transfer fee. He may even get a percentage.

Big 5 leagues spend their brains out on World Cup players.

[BearcatSA]

36 minutes ago, youllneverwalkalone said:

It will be good for both parties to get a transfer fee. He may even get a percentage.

Big 5 leagues spend their brains out on World Cup players.

Usually, the "Costco fever" occurs right after the tourney in the summer window but this year I think the January window will be the sellers market.

[VinceA]

His form for Montreal is why I'm pumping the brakes on transfer talk. What a bad own goal.

[Stryker911]

4 hours ago, VinceA said:

His form for Montreal is why I'm pumping the brakes on transfer talk. What a bad own goal.

A deflection off his back foot from a ball played across goal from 10 ft away is a bad own goal? Or should he have done a better job with the header while laying on his stomach after it bounced off Breza?

[red card]

Nice tidbit about Johnston's family receiving gifts from Athletic article:

Canadian defender Alistair Johnston laughs when recalling how after the January and Feburary window, his parents opened their front door to find a barrage of gifts, chocolates and cards from people throughout their neighbourhood. In the cards, people thanked Johnston’s parents for what he had done, and told them how proud they were to be Canadian as a result of this team’s success.

“My parents were like, ‘What in the world is going on?’ Alistair doesn’t even live here,’” said Johnston.

And Herdman appears to want to leverage World Cup qualification & hosting as Japan did:

“The investment in their technical structure, the investment in their professional game was phenomenal,” said Herdman. “I think they brought in around $28 million from their home World Cup into their federation, and were strategic around the investment. And that was only what the federation brought in. Other parts of the game were able to access funding and commercial opportunities as well as new talent. You get this talent boost because all of a sudden the kid that was going to basketball now is coming to football. I think these are moments that we have to capture. But the beauty for Canada is we’ve got a home World Cup in 2026. This is why we had to qualify, because now we get a double World Cup window. And we can’t get this wrong.”

I have seen slightly differing numbers in what FIFA is doling out to the qualified federations. Some places maybe using Russia figures. Anyway, this article says US$2.5 for making it to the World Cup or prep money. And then US$8 million after playing group stage matches.

https://theathletic.com/3223198/2022/04/05/why-making-the-2022-mens-world-cup-could-be-the-biggest-breakthrough-in-canadian-sports-history/

[Shway]

On 4/2/2022 at 4:37 PM, VinceA said:

His form for Montreal is why I'm pumping the brakes on transfer talk. What a bad own goal.

And this is what I’ve been scared of. His rise has come from him playing a position that he doesn’t on the club level. I personally don’t think he’s great going forward (although he can), his skill set is suited more so for RB vs RWB. But RCB is his best position imo. 

Kinda the reason why we are seeing two different AJs.

[canuckgbp]

 

[narduch]

Had an assist today.

Fotmob gave him a 8.1 rating too.

 

[PegCityCam]

We all know it, but it bears repeating, over and over again: Alistair is not long for this league.

 

[Sal333]

19 minutes ago, PegCityCam said:

We all know it, but it bears repeating, over and over again: Alistair is not long for this league.

 

That was a gorgeous pass from Allstar Johnston

[Mitchryan11]

On 3/31/2022 at 1:00 AM, canadasoccer20 said:

This man needs to be in a top 5 league. What a stud.

 

No he doesn't he needs to stay in the MLS.  Tajon isnt producing, richie isnt playing and either is eusataquio. Allistar wont get meaningful minutes in europe

[Macksam]

10 minutes ago, Mitchryan11 said:

No he doesn't he needs to stay in the MLS.  Tajon isnt producing, richie isnt playing and either is eusataquio. Allistar wont get meaningful minutes in europe

Even though I don't disagree with the staying in MLS part, I have to point out that Tajon, despite not scoring is still playing consistently and playing well. 

[Mitchryan11]

3 minutes ago, Macksam said:

Even though I don't disagree with the staying in MLS part, I have to point out that Tajon, despite not scoring is still playing consistently and playing well. 

Im fine with that but lets be realistic he is playing good not great in the MLS, He's in his early 20's and going over to europe is a high risk to hurting his development he can easily get buried like corbeanu, layera or even jebbison who lit it up in league one and got recalled to sit on the bench in sheffield

[Macksam]

4 minutes ago, Mitchryan11 said:

Im fine with that but lets be realistic he is playing good not great in the MLS, He's in his early 20's and going over to europe is a high risk to hurting his development he can easily get buried like corbeanu, layera or even jebbison who lit it up in league one and got recalled to sit on the bench in sheffield

Again, not disagreeing with him staying in MLS. I agree, he is doing well and should stay, just don't get disingenuous when referencing another player and how he is doing in Europe.  

[rydermike]

I see him staying a couple of more years in MLS. Until this year he was making $73,000 a season (salary for this year hasn't been released, but he did get a new contract). He'll earn a higher salary here than in Europe and he deserves to set himself up for the future earnings-wise. This is a sport where one bad injury can end your career. I can see him staying here to earn 300-700k a season for a few years (not sure what the going rate for a defender of his level is) rather than to head to Europe for 100-250k (again I don't know what the going rate would be, I'm just speculating that it'd be less due to supply and demand). That's the reason why I believe  (my speculation) Osorio re-signed with Toronto instead of heading to Europe on his last contract (life changing money deal to stay)

Edited April 18, 2022 by rydermike

[Bison44]

Osorio was 876K last season, it had been coming for awhile and staying in his hometown he prob gets some endorsement money here and there.  I dont know if Johnston is quite there yet, but ZBG made 200+, Piette was on 450K, my guess is between 300-500k for Johnston.  Nice payday for a 23year old with only 2 years in the league.  

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, Bison44 said:

Osorio was 876K last season, it had been coming for awhile and staying in his hometown he prob gets some endorsement money here and there.  I dont know if Johnston is quite there yet, but ZBG made 200+, Piette was on 450K, my guess is between 300-500k for Johnston.  Nice payday for a 23year old with only 2 years in the league.  

I'd be surprised if he's on more than 175k this. year. As high as 225k?

That is the sort of salary you could pull as an outside back in top flight Norway, we are not talking about anything over the top.

 

[Obinna]

I agree with @Bison44 and I think he probably has the pay range correct.

Will be interesting to see what the actual numbers are when they come out. 

My guess is that he comes in slightly above or below the 300k mark. 

[Obinna]

8 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I'd be surprised if he's on more than 175k this. year. As high as 225k?

That is the sort of salary you could pull as an outside back in top flight Norway, we are not talking about anything over the top.

 

Adekugbe is only on 390k (euros) at Hatayspor and I am pretty sure he got a very nice pay raise compared to his contract with Valerenga. I don't know what Sam was making in Norway, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was sub 225k. 

[Infernal]

20 hours ago, Macksam said:

Even though I don't disagree with the staying in MLS part, I have to point out that Tajon, despite not scoring is still playing consistently and playing well. 

Literally. Guy is doing everything but score. 😆

[InglewoodJack]

On 4/18/2022 at 9:50 AM, rydermike said:

I see him staying a couple of more years in MLS. Until this year he was making $73,000 a season (salary for this year hasn't been released, but he did get a new contract). He'll earn a higher salary here than in Europe and he deserves to set himself up for the future earnings-wise. This is a sport where one bad injury can end your career. I can see him staying here to earn 300-700k a season for a few years (not sure what the going rate for a defender of his level is) rather than to head to Europe for 100-250k (again I don't know what the going rate would be, I'm just speculating that it'd be less due to supply and demand). That's the reason why I believe  (my speculation) Osorio re-signed with Toronto instead of heading to Europe on his last contract (life changing money deal to stay)

While the difference between a 100-250k salary and a 300-700 range salary is life changing for most people, I don't know that the extra few million he'd earn over the next few years is enough to make a difference for him long term, if say, something happens and the money is no longer there for him in a few years. Especially considering the cost of living in Canada now, even making 700k for a couple years isn't enough to be "well off", or at least significantly more than if he spends the next 7 years in europe making like 250 or whatever the going rate for this type of player is. Talent and preparedness for the next big jump aside, I don't think money should be a factor in deciding to stay in North America or not. 

That said, what would the potential for endorsements look like for Johnston if he did somehow end up in a top-5 league, or at the very least, somewhere in the next tier below (Turkey, Belgium, EFL, Netherlands)? That would likely put him on the same level as Buchanan, Larin or Eustaquio in terms of canadian football notoriety ie one of the biggest names in the program. While those guys don't have signature shoe deals by any means, I'm sure they're still getting some cheques on the side, either from Canadian companies or locals where they play. 

[shorty]

AJ strikes me as the type of guy who would be doing just fine financially and professionally even if football hadn't worked out.  Maybe not half a million a year fine, but fine. 

Given that, I'm not sure I agree with the notion that ~700K isn't enough to be well off.  Sure, athletes are front-end loading their income, but it's not as though he will have $0 income beyond his footballing days.  Plus, even if he only got $700K for three years, that's equivalent to 20-25 years worth of teaching at the top of the grid in only three years; equivalent to almost 8-10 years as an assistant deputy minister in some Ministries.