Chelsea's John Terry must lower demands to sign for MLS club

Posted Monday, May 09, 2016 by ESPN

Chelsea captain John Terry will not be able to command a Designated Player contract if he moved to MLS this summer, according to a league source.

Terry, 35, will see his Chelsea contract expire at the end of the current Premier League season. The former England captain indicated back in January that the club wouldn't be offering him a new deal, and with the Blues still making no move towards offering an extension, Terry had instructed his representatives to find him an MLS club.

The league source indicated via email that some preliminary discussions between MLS and Terry's representatives had taken place over the winter, but no recent talks had been held due to the fact that no MLS teams are interested in signing the defender "at Designated Player levels, which is what [Terry is] looking for."

Terry's former England teammates Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard are all currently contracted with MLS clubs, with Gerrard and Cole playing for the LA Galaxy while Lampard is on the books of New York City FC.

John Terry's Chelsea career appears to be over.

Both Gerrard and Lampard are classified as Designated Players, meaning the bulk of their salaries don't count against their respective club's salary caps, though Cole was signed to a non-Designated Player deal in January.

It has also been reported that Terry is looking at offers from China and the Middle East.

Terry was sent off in Chelsea's 3-2 defeat at Sunderland on Saturday, and the resulting suspension will see him play no part in the Blues' remaining two games. It now seems likely that Terry will finish his Chelsea career having made 703 appearances, scoring 66 goals, while winning four Premier League titles, five FA Cups, three League Cups, two FA Community Shields, one UEFA Cup, and one UEFA Champions League.

At international level, Terry made 78 appearances for England, scoring six goals. He played at both the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups, as well as the Euros in 2004 and 2012.