CARSON, Calif. — Kate Markgraf, who in 2019 became the first general manager of the U.S. women’s national team, was the highest-paid woman in the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2020 and ranked third on the payroll.
According to tax documents posted Wednesday, the former World Cup defender totaled $518,697, including a $500,000 base salary. She was behind Gregg Berhalter, the men’s national team coach who received $1.323 million, and Earnie Stewart, the USSF’s sporting director at $825,720. That’s about what Berhalter and Stewart made the previous year.
Markgraf’s male counterpart, Brian McBride, who has overseen the men’s program since January 2020, made $369,252 — roughly 30 percent less than Markgraf.
Markgraf, though, is also the USSF’s head of women’s soccer, which calls for regular interaction with the National Women’s Soccer League, Concacaf and FIFA, the regional and global governing bodies. She is also a spokeswoman for the USSF on women’s issues, a federation spokesman said.
Vlatko Andonovski, coach of the top-ranked women’s team, had a base salary of $347,597 in 2020 and received $390,014 overall — the first public record of his earnings since Markgraf hired him in the fall of 2019.
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As part of preparations for Concacaf’s World Cup qualifying tournament this summer in Monterrey, Mexico, the U.S. team will host the seventh annual SheBelieves Cup, starting Thursday in Carson. Andonovski’s contract runs through the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
His predecessor, Jill Ellis, had a base salary of $516,000 in her final year of 2019. After stepping down as coach shortly after winning a second World Cup title, Ellis remained on the USSF payroll in 2020 as an ambassador and collected $442,598. Her responsibilities included growing the women’s game and helping oversee a mentorship program for aspiring female coaches. Her contract expired in March; she is now president of the NWSL’s San Diego Wave.
Players on the U.S. women’s team, who are in a long-standing pay dispute with the federation, received about $255,000 apiece in 2020, including bonuses. In 2019, they earned about $470,000, but that included bonuses for winning the World Cup. (The men’s team’s players have a separate collective bargaining agreement and don’t collect salaries.)
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The tax documents also show the USSF paid $112,606 to John Cone, husband of federation president Cindy Parlow Cone. As a sports science educator, John Cone has done business with the USSF for 17 years, predating his wife’s appointment as the federation’s vice president in 2019 and president in 2020 following Carlos Cordeiro’s resignation.
Cordeiro is challenging her in the March 5 election. It’s an unpaid position.
The federation spent $66,000 on lobbying efforts in Washington — $49,400 in 2019 and $16,600 in 2020 — to help counter claims made by the women’s team in the pay dispute, the tax documents show.
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