Former Chelsea skipper, John Terry is eyeing a MLS move according to reports from The Daily Mail.
The veteran defender is set to leave English Premier League giants Chelsea FC at the end of this season and has set his eyes on the North American League.
Terry’s contract is set to expire and the club have not made move to open talks about an extension especially as they plan on making reinforcements when newly appointed coach in Antonio Conte settles at Stamford Bridge. The 35-year-old centre-half has played for eighteen years since making his debut. The player is planning for life after Chelsea and has told his representatives to find an MLS club.
His former team-mates Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Ashley Cole are all in North America and Joe Cole is set to join them when he leaves Coventry for Tampa Bay Rowdies in the NASL. If no MLS makes an offer for his services due to his ‘designated player’ status, he may be forced to take up a lucrative offer from China or the Middle East.
This would mean central defender Terry, who has been paid over £100,000-a-week at Chelsea, could only earn around £5,000-a-week in America because of the MLS wage cap structure. Each MLS club is allowed to sign up to three ‘designated players’ who fall outside the wage cap, such as former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard who earns about £4 million-a-year at New York City.
The defender is believed to have received an offer from China and has attracted interest from the Middle East. Terry who feels he has played his last game for the club after being sent off in the match against Sunderland might pick up the offer.
However, he has been keen on the idea of following Lampard to America, but MLS clubs only hand out their highly-paid designated player spots to forwards or midfielders. Defenders rarely fall into that category and Ashley Cole took a huge wage cut to move to LA Galaxy on non-designated player status because the club have Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard and Giovani dos Santos as their highest earners.