{"id":23585,"date":"2014-01-25T18:46:50","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T23:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=23585"},"modified":"2014-01-27T08:45:44","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T13:45:44","slug":"goncalves-seeking-solution-to-contract-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=23585","title":{"rendered":"Goncalves Seeking ‘Solution’ to Contract Situation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 Following the conclusion of the Revolution’s first\u00a0preseason training session\u00a0on Saturday, captain Jose Goncalves made no apologies for the\u00a0contentious comments he made during\u00a0an interview he gave earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Goncalves, who had the purchase option of his loan deal from FC Sion exercised by the Revolution in November, told the blog A Minute in Sports!<\/em> that the front office did not honor certain promises relating to his contract.<\/p>\n

But on Saturday, Goncalves declined to go into detail about whatever slights he felt from the front office, or what the club can do to put his mind at ease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really need to say (what) kinds of promises have been made,\u201d Goncalves said. \u201cI think it\u2019s something that stays between me and the club. Of course, they know exactly what I am talking about. It\u2019s a situation we tried, in the past, to find a solution (to).\u201d<\/p>\n

It is believed that the promises the Portuguese center back is citing surround his ability \u2013 or lack thereof – to renegotiate the salary figure that was triggered when the Revolution exercised the purchase option.<\/p>\n

The agreement contained a fixed-price salary that was negotiated in advance. The price, which was agreed to by all parties, was based on the a number of factors, including Goncalves\u2019 playing time at Sion (2011-12) and St. Gallen (2011), where a knee injury limited to 22 games during the two seasons leading up to the loan.<\/p>\n

But even though Goncalves originally agreed to the price, he believes that earning Defender of the Year honors and playing every minute of every game last season should allow him to renegotiate his salary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important that I feel that I am welcome here,\u201d Goncalves said. \u201cI am worth it, what I am doing on the field, and also outside the field. That\u2019s something I take very personally, and it\u2019s very important as a player, and as the captain of the club, to feel that.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the MLS Players Union, the Revolution contributed $104,000 to Goncalves’ total salary, which was supplemented by FC Sion. The amount contributed by the Swiss club has not been disclosed. By comparison, Sporting Kansas City center back\u00a0Matt Besler and Los Angeles Galaxy center back\u00a0Omar Gonzalez, who finished second and third in the 2013 Defender of the Year vote, earned $180,000 and $282,000, respectively.<\/p>\n

Besler saw a significant jump in salary after he earned Defender of the Year honors in 2012. After earning $91,700 in 2012, his salary nearly doubled to $180,000 in 2013.<\/p>\n

In August, Gonzalez signed a designated player deal with the Galaxy that made him the richest center back in league history and will reportedly earn $1.5 million in 2014. The salary figures for the 2014 season have not yet been released by the union, and Gonclaves’ salary hasn’t been revealed.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Revolution general manager Michael Burns acknowledged the situation, but didn\u2019t go into specifics about how the cub will address the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aware of the interview Jose conducted, and want to stress that he\u2019s a valuable member of the Revolution,\u201d Burns said in an e-mail. \u201cJose is under contract with MLS and New England for multiple years, but having said that, we\u2019ll continue to have dialogue with his representative regarding his contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burns was not seen at the Dana Farber Fieldhouse during Saturday\u2019s training season.<\/p>\n

It is believed that Goncalves is seeking a deal similar to that of MLS Newcomer of the Year Diego Valeri. The Portland midfielder signed a designated player contract worth $400,000 after the purchase option on his loan from Argentinean side Lanus was exercised by the Timbers. Goncalves finished second to Valeri in the Newcomer of the Year vote.<\/p>\n

In essence, Goncalves wants the ability to\u00a0negotiate a salary commensurate with his contributions \u2013 contributions that helped the Revolution reach the postseason for the first time in four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (would) give me a lot of power to continue and give the best I can to help the club,\u201d Goncalves said. \u201cSo that\u2019s why I said that, and this is something I felt in the last few months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the distraction, Revolution coach Jay Heaps says he\u2019s unfazed by Goncalves\u2019 unhappiness with his contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou read those things and sometimes it\u2019s a part of the game, unfortunately,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to comment on the situation other than to say, \u2018Look, those things happen,\u2019 but we have to move forward and we\u2019re on to the next day and the next session.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Goncalves, he won\u2019t allow the contract impasse affect his efforts during the preseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am here and I am training with the team, and when I am on the field I am very professional, I give my best, 100 percent, and what happens off the field, (stays) off the field,\u201d Goncalves said. \u201cI always bring to the training ground my (complete) focus, because there are teammates who are here to work hard and I always want to do the same and not mess up the training because I am not feeling very well (about the contract situation).\u201d<\/p>\n

Goncalves also confirmed that he would like to return to Europe \u2013 where he \u201calways has a good feeling because things are much easier\u201d\u2013 at some point, but not \u201ctoday or tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope has always been (a goal of) my career,\u201d Goncalves said. \u201cI played there most of my career, my family is there, friends, and I know the league. I have a lot of goals in my career, like playing in the (Portuguese) National Team, and this is one of my biggest goals, and of course you have to have success in the club (first). This is something I was always thinking about, and we will see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, though, Goncalves is unsure about whether he will be able to reach a resolution with the Revolution. He said he hasn\u2019t spoken to Burns at length about it yet, but hopes to soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that, in the next few days, we will sit down and discuss the situation,\u201d Goncalves said. \u201cBut for now, I think that the most important thing is that the group gets back in training. When we find a time to speak about this, then we will do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revolution captain Jose Goncalves spoke to the media about his feelings toward his contract on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[626,190,306,49,1274],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Jose1.png?fit=493%2C261","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23585"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23585"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23599,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23585\/revisions\/23599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}