Pro contracts

have to accept is going to be happening

when you're trying to play a game and

get paid for it there's just so many

players that are trying to do the same

thing as you guys where they're just

trying to follow their dreams like this

is since they've been a kid this is what

they want to do they want to play

professional football soccer whatever

you want to call it and it just creates

such a high demand for players to try to

find clubs where say you don't want to

take this 200 contract there's going to

be someone else that is going to take

that where they're in the position that

they can or desperate enough that they

will so I honestly don't have a huge

issue with clubs offering these types of

contracts because at the end of the day

no one's forcing you to sign anything

there's not a gun being to your head if

you get offered something that you think

is just extremely ridiculous you can

just say no I'm not going to do that and

that's just the end of that story so the

first contract I'm going to talk about

was the one that I was offered this

winter and that's with the Maryland

Bobcats and Nissa now while Nissa is a

pro-sanctioned league in the U.S they

don't have any minimum standards for

salary contracts housing anything like

that so any club in Nissa can

essentially offer you whatever they want

including just nothing in the first big

red flag that I experienced with this

contract offer is just the fact that

when they're emailing the agent that I

was going through that they would keep

saying that something has to be signed

today so they'd send a contract offer

maybe at three o'clock in the afternoon

after we finish training and everything

to my agent and then they'd say hey if

you're going to sign this it needs to be

signed by 5 pm today and it's just

really rare guys that uh Club needs to

have a contract signed at such a timely

manner like that unless you're working

against transfer deadlines or you're

worried about your itcs not clearing in

time or something like that but with a

club that's still in preseason there's

no reason that

by time you get a contract offer that

you should need to sign it within three

or four hours from reading it and the

main reason a club would do this is just

to try to put a little more pressure on

you maybe make a rash decision and sign

the contract without really

you know thinking of all the

consequences of doing that so if someone

does this and again the transfer window

isn't an issue you guys don't stress

about it just do what I did you just

ignore that email come to training the

next morning and

very likely chance just nothing's going

to be said which is what happened I got

this email I think maybe on a Wednesday

Thursday go to training in the morning

go training everything's normal and

we're still just in contract negotiation

like we were before it's not it's just a

fake deadline and just don't fall for

them so here I'll go over the actual

contract offer and just explain why I

didn't feel comfortable signing it

myself so this contract it's pretty long

in general this one's about 11 pages I'm

really just going to be going over the

meat of it but you guys just make sure

that if you're ever in a position to

sign something like this read the whole

thing don't

just go to what you think's important

make sure you read through the entire

contract because you never want to be

signing something where you don't know

100 of what you're agreeing to so you

can see here what the actual salary

would be which I'm sure will shock a

fair amount of you is it was only set

for 200 a month a lot of you might be

wondering is like what on Earth are you

doing trying to sign a contract for only

200 a month and there's a couple reasons

why I was more interested in signing

here for the Maryland Bobcats than I was

with some of our interest I got from

other clubs in the US also where they

were offering a more traditional salary

or something that you'd probably expect

kind of in the lower mid tiers of U.S

soccer so the big one is that this is a

local Club it's a club that I can drive

to from where I'm currently or already

am living I'm around my friends family

everything like that it's just very easy

transition I don't have to move anywhere

I don't have to you know sort out any

new housing issues or anything like that

I I know that when I'm off the field I'm

going to be in a comfortable situation

and again with it being local I have a

lot of good coaching opportunities that

I do when I'm in the DC area where even

getting paid 200 a month from this club

here and being able to coach on the side

I'd be making a lot more money than if I

took a more traditional U.S contract in

another state or city another reason I

was okay with the salary is this was

really only supposed to be about for

three months where I play with the club

for three months and then I was planning

on going back overseas during the summer

transfer window and I was assuming that

if I was offering to play for peanuts

where it wasn't even going to cover my

gas money that I'd have a bit more

leverage saying that okay I'll play for

essentially for free if you just let me

leave when I want to leave over the

summer and I would have a bit more

leverage that way than if I was with uh

Club paying me more traditional salary

where they're actually investing money

in me that sometimes then it's a little

tougher to try to leave however that

wasn't the case at all with this

contract offer where you gotta just

scroll down a little bit farther to the

buyout Clause where it states Club will

immediately release player if an

organization wishes to acquire the

services of the player under contract to

pay the amount as follows to the club so

Nisa USL two two thousand dollars it's

pretty much saying if I want to go to a

nice another Nisa team or usl2 team that

club would have to pay two thousand

dollars to be able to acquire me

Uhl Championship six thousand dollars

and honestly guys

no one's buying me for six thousand

dollars right now it's just not

happening and then this is the part

where it's just it just makes no sense

he goes MLS and other any top three

professional leagues associated with

FIFA

it says eight dollars but it really

means eight thousand dollars and that's

also something else definitely a red

flag is there should not be typos and

contracts like this and really none of

these numbers really make any sense

especially because coming in to the

preseason into the trial I was up front

where I said I only want to be here for

three months I want to dip in the summer

and let alone the fact that No One's

Gonna Pay eight thousand dollars for me

just asking for that much money off of

what would have been a six hundred

dollar total contract is pretty

ridiculous but it's also just the way

this is written it makes no sense at all

the way it's any top three professional

leagues associated with FIFA that's

essentially saying that Manchester

United

EPL has to pay a thousand dollars in a

third tier team in Sweden has to pay

eight thousand dollars there's just no

there's no logic to it and that's

something if you see something in a

contract it just doesn't make sense like

this you definitely just be really wary

of it because there could be other

things in it too that you know are going

to give you troubles in the future so

pretty much what this contract is saying

is that I would be playing for 10 months

for 200 a month and the only way I can

make it overseas like I was planning on

doing this summer would be if some Club

buys me for eight thousand dollars after

two months of playing in Nissa and it's

just like I said it's not happening so

this hundred percent the way this is

written is I would be stuck

with the Bobcats for 10 months that's

just how it would be which is not what I

was planning on doing which is why when

I first got this contract I immediately

said no you need to get rid of the

buyout Clause because

from day one I'm just saying I want to

come in help you guys out for as much as

I can for three months and then I'm

leaving for Europe in the summer so an

attempt to get rid of the buyout Clause

is I just said fine let me just I'll

play for free you guys don't have to pay

me anything just let me leave in three

months and verbally they would say well

talking with my agent that sure yeah

that's no problem and then

for whatever reason they just wouldn't

put it in writing in the contract that

I'd be allowed to leave and that's also

huge red flag guys never sign something

where someone's verbally telling you

something different that's written on

paper because at the end of the day if

they change their mind or ownership

changes the club something else happens

you never know

whatever is written on that contract

that you signed is what you're going to

be legally obligated to do so

just because someone says yeah don't

worry like we'll let you leave in two

months three months that's fine but just

sign this

the contract says that you still can't

but don't worry we'll let you do it just

don't sign that do not sign that you got

to make sure that whatever you want or

whatever your demands are that you only

feel comfortable doing are actually

signed on paper so at the end of the day

they officially wouldn't put it in the

contract that I could leave whenever I

want or just sign a three-month contract

something like that so decided it was

best that I can find training I can just

keep myself busy until the summer and

that was pretty much that like at this

point in my career that contract didn't

make sense for me to sign but it could

have some value to maybe some other

players maybe you're right out of

college you're lucky enough that you can

live with your parents where you're not

paying rent for that first couple years

out of college it is technically a

professional league and maybe that 200

you know you're more interested in the

experience than the money trying to make

a name for yourself in one of these

leaks maybe get noticed by a USL

championship team something like that

and then you can start making a bit

better money and like I said at the

beginning into the video morally I don't

think

it's a huge problem that they're

offering these types of contracts you

see it all over the world I do think it

was pretty stupid that we couldn't come

to an agreement here where apparently me

asking to play for free but I can just

leave in three months was somehow me

asking too much out of them but you know

it is what it is they have their goals I

have mine and we just couldn't meet on

the same page for this certain situation

and at the end of the day I think they

did find kind of that what I was saying

before they found a young keeper who

lives in the area maybe you can grab

some minutes get some film and hopefully

for him he can progress onto bigger and

better things later on next season

however this next contract I'm going

over which I was offered in 2018 is

nothing more than just a cheap coaching

ring fronting as a football club so this

was a club called the Philadelphia

Theory and some unsatient lead called

the ASL and this contract really is one

of the most ridiculous us ones that I've

ever seen personally so the contract

starts out decent where it looks like

your basic salary is a thousand dollars

a month plus accommodations which at the

time meant I think you had four players

to an apartment two would each share a

room so you don't have your own room you

share room with somebody and then you

have an apartment somewhere in New

Jersey however outside of trading you

were also required to coach for 15 hours

per week for free pretty much the club

would be renting out these coaches or

players and they would rent them out to

other clubs to coach and 15 hours a week

is a decent amount of hours for coaching

if you're also going to be playing and

training in the morning you'd only have

a couple hours after that and then you'd

have to go out and coach for about three

hours a day which

it's a pretty heavy workload and for a

thousand dollars a month it is really

just absurd I'm pretty surprised at this

contract actually is legal because what

that really comes down to if you just

forget the whole playing part like

pretend you're not even training if

you're working

60 hours a week for a thousand dollars

it's 16 an hour and 16 an hour is just

so absurdly low for coaching I mean even

on the low end like 40 50

is still going to be a bit low but 16 is

just

I mean it's really just a front what I'm

guessing was going on is they would pay

these players like 16 an hour for their

coaching they'd kind of right off the

training would be free because you're

not really getting paid for that and

then they might probably charge these

clubs maybe 50 60 an hour and they just

pocket all that money that they're

getting there and then if you work more

than 15 hours they increase the rate to

where you now you make 30 an hour for

those extra coaching sessions but I

don't even know who would have time to

fit that into their schedule there to

work more than 15 hours coaching while

doing training travel all of that stuff

so really like I said this contract it's

it's just a front this isn't they're not

trying to build a club here they weren't

trying to build a club this is obviously

just players being taken advantage of

like the Bobcats it's different if you

don't want to pay someone to play on

your team or if you want to just pay

them a couple hundred but you cannot

you cannot be like almost as tricking

these people into coaching to you for

essentially free and this contract gets

even sketchier once you scroll down to

where you're actually supposed to sign

where all of a sudden the number of

hours you're required to work changes

from 15 to 18 hours and you can bet

which is kind of how sketchy this whole

contract is they're going to make you

work those 18 hours they're going to say

that was closest to where you're signing

that's what it is there's no chance

you're going to end up being able to say

well I actually thought I signed for

only 15 hours like I said with the

Bobcats contract with their typo you

really need to be careful signing

anything with any sort of typos or

discrepancies it's never a good sign for

when signing a contract and I do want to

make it clear even though these two

contracts are in the same video going

over the same topic I don't

really compare the Bobcats contract with

this at all at least with the Bobcats

you know you're not making any money on

the field but you can get off the field

earn some money and be able to you know

support yourself with this

with the Philadelphia fear I mean this

is like essentially just being an

indentured servant where they're saying

we'll give you housing we'll give you

enough money for food and you're just

going to be working for us this entire

time you're not gonna have any money to

spend on it yourself you're gonna be

spending all your own gas money which is

going to eat into that thousand dollar

monthly

pay just immediately especially if

you're driving from field to field

everywhere because these were pretty

spread out I know some guys are driving

20 to 30 minutes to go coach when I was

there just on trial for that short week

and really nobody should be signing this

contract if they knew what they're

getting into from the start I think it

was just a lot of kids right out of

college maybe they underestimate

how many hours it actually is or they

don't know how much coaching actually

pays they probably also had an agent I

think it was just kind of One agent like

setting all these up where he was just

trying to find players to bring in here

maybe he got it cut but he was telling

me if I come play for the fury for a

year that he'll be able to get me a

hundred thousand dollar contract in

Poland and my response was just if

playing a year in this unsanctioned

I guess technically Semi-Pro but amateur

league is you're gonna be able to pick

me up a hundred thousand dollar contract

in Europe right away after that why

can't just just find me a twelve

thousand ten thousand dollar contract

over in Europe right now and I can try

to build up from there and of course

he's telling me that's not how it works

but it's really there's no chance

there's no player that would have gone

from this club and all of a sudden be

earning that kind of money so if

someone's telling you something like an

agent that seems too good to be true it

probably is don't buy into the hype of

someone talking your ear it's almost

always just talk so that's more or less

the video guys I just wanted to go over

these two contracts I think it's

something that's not really talked a lot

about in this space because people don't

like really sharing how much they're

being paid how much they're being

offered because

you guys will find out once you start

getting into the pro ranks or pushing

for the pro ranks it's a lot less than

you think it is there's really not a lot

of money in football and the funny thing

is is the most of the money is actually

just in coaching and for you guys

thinking of signing your first contracts

like I said this Philadelphia Fury one

you would never want to touch out with a

10-foot pole Maryland Bobcats there's

definitely certain situations where

maybe that could work out for you try to

make a name for yourself trying to get

some minutes you have a good setup in

the area where maybe the pay isn't that

important to you and you're really

looking for that experience and exposure

at the time