Going, Going, Gone: Sockers Sell Zungul : San Diego Will Reportedly Get $200,000 From Tacoma for League’s Leading Scorer

Steve Zungul is an angry and wealthy lame duck soccer player.

While Sockers owner Bob Bell and Coach Ron Newman have mixed feelings about selling Zungul to the Tacoma Stars Tuesday, Zungul has strong sentiments about leaving a championship team that has won 13 straight games.

“I have to be sacrificed for the benefit of the club,” Zungul said. “It hurts. It wasn’t up to me. I wanted to stay. I like this franchise very much, but the club is in financial trouble. Something had to be done to save the franchise. . . .

“We’re a championship team and we only need 12,000 fans to fill the place. Maybe if we had got that many people, I wouldn’t have had to go.”

The Sockers reportedly received $200,000 for Zungul, who despite being sold Tuesday, received permission from Bell and Tacoma president John Best to play his farewell game with the Sockers tonight against Minnesota at the Sports Arena.

It could only happen in the Major Indoor Soccer League.

“Let him get injured,” joked Sockers midfielder Brian Quinn. “That way, he’ll stay for the rest of the season.”

Zungul, the leading scorer in the MISL with 28 goals and 33 assists and the most prolific scorer ever to play the indoor game, received a three-year contract. He got a one-year extension on his San Diego contract and will earn approximately $200,000 a season. The 31-year-old forward also received a signing bonus believed to be at least $150,000.

The transaction with Tacoma, which has been in the works for the past week, will take effect Thursday. Zungul is expected to be in the lineup for the Stars when they play the Dallas Sidekicks Friday night. The Sockers play in Tacoma Sunday afternoon.

“I realize they’ll be a lot of fans who don’t think this is a good decision,” said Bell at a noon press conference Tuesday. “I expect to take the same kind of heat I took when I made the Las Vegas deal. In the long run, this trade will be the best thing for the Sockers.”

After being a part of three straight indoor championship teams, Juli Veee, Alan Mayer and Martin Donnelly were sold by the Sockers to the Las Vegas Americans for an estimated $500,000 two years ago.

“Many times I’ve made player personnel moves which didn’t seem to make sense,” Bell said, “but I think we’ve proven ourselves.”

Once again, money was the key reason the Sockers got rid of one of their most popular player.

“With the salary cap that I think will be in effect at this time next year,” Bell said, “I was faced with reducing our salaries by a few hundred thousand dollars. I think this will be the best offer we receive and the best opportunity to solve our problems. Steve’s salary is such a large percentage of our compensation package.

“As everyone knows, we’re not the wealthiest club in the league. We’ve always been a struggling club in a struggling league in a struggling sport. “

Bell’s players will attest to that. The Sockers have received late paychecks on at least 10 occasions in the past two years. They were only one to four days late, but this is the most successful team in the sport.

Only recently Bell said he would pick up the tab for championship rings for his players. The last time the team played in Tacoma, they flew up on the morning of the game in order to save on meal and hotel costs.

“We’re always trying to save the almighty dollar,” Newman said.

And now, Zungul is sold for less money than most utility infielders earn in a season.

“I had the last say on vetoing the trade and obviously could have stopped the deal,” Newman said, “but believe me, it’s logical. I love Steve, but I think it will be better for the game and for our franchise.”

Throughout the past six weeks, Bell has said that Zungul would not be sold unless he agreed to go. Zungul has a trade approval clause in his contract and was given permission by Bell to negotiate his own deals with either Pittsburgh or Tacoma. On Tuesday, Zungul had a better day as an agent than as a player.

On Monday, when the deal with Tacoma was coming to a head, Zungul went to San Jose to meet with Carl Berg, a minority owner of the Sockers and Zungul’s financial consultant and former owner with the Earthquakes. Zungul also spoke with Bell and Tacoma president John Best.

Best said the teams reached a final agreement late Monday night. Bell said he would meet with Zungul and Newman at 11 a.m. Tuesday and would make an announcement at noon.

At 11:30 Tuesday morning, Zungul walked out of Bell’s office at the San Diego Sports Arena. He was apparently having second thoughts about leaving a championship team and a fun bunch of guys to play cards with.

“Personally, I think Steve wanted to stay,” Bell said. “But he said, ‘Bob, if you want to do it, I want to do it.”’

While Zungul was in the Sockers office, he received a call at the Sockers office from Pittsburgh Coach Don Popovic. Popovic, Zungul’s former coach with the New York Arrows and San Jose Earthquakes, was making a last-ditch effort to try and convince Zungul to come to the Spirit.

Zungul spoke with Spirit officials when the Sockers were in Pittsburgh last weekend. At the time, Zungul said he’d rather play for Pittsburgh than Tacoma, but the Spirit said they couldn’t afford to pay the Sockers what Tacoma was offering.

Moments after returning to Bell’s office Tuesday morning, Zungul walked out into the corridor and put his arm around his good friend and teammate Branko Segota. In an emotional scene, he embraced other members of the Sockers front office and left. Zungul said he did not wish to discuss what had transpired and would not be at the press conference.

“It (decision to go to Tacoma) wasn’t up to me,” repeated a subdued Zungul late Tuesday afternoon.

When asked about the Zungul situation, a source close to the Sockers said: “There are ways to present things and there are ways to present things.”

“I think Steve was backed into a corner,” Quinn said. “I don’t think he wanted to go. It was more of a business decision than a personal decision. I don’t think Bob Bell is crying poor. Bob needs money and Steve Zungul is the most valuable player who can get it for him.

“I think Steve was a little hurt when Bob (Bell) reopened negotiations after the deal with Pittsburgh fell through last month. I think Steve should have stayed, but it was hard for him to turn down that offer. “

Bell said that he would not have sold Zungul if it wasn’t for the impending salary cap of $1 million to $1.1 million per team. With Zungul, Bell said the Sockers’ payroll totals approximately $1.4 million. Bell is also quite aware that a number of players, including Segota, will become free agents at the end of the season.

The players’ union and owners have been hassling over the salary cap for nearly two seasons. However, in a meeting with MISL Commissioner Francis Dale Monday, Bell said Dale told him the salary cap will come into effect at the start of next season. Bell said he has heard from other reliable sources that the cap will definitely be voted in by next season.

Quinn said the San Diego players have discussed the salary cap at three meetings, and he really doesn’t believe it will come into effect.

“There is no way the players will accept the salary cap proposed by the owners,” Quinn said. “It will not come about. Bob is not in the same orbit as the players on that one. “

Could Dale have told Bell there will be a salary cap in an attempt to break up the Sockers and to bring parity to the MISL? After all, Dale has yet to make a ruling in favor of the Sockers.

Bell vehemently denied that theory.

“Obviously, the timing of this move isn’t what we’d like,” Bell said, “but if I didn’t make it, I might have to get rid of a Brain Quinn, Jean Willrich, Jacques Ladouceur or a number of players next season. Right now, Ron and I are convinced that we still have the best team in the league without Steve Zungul and that we will win our fifth straight championship.”