I just bought a U21 player that plays major minutes for his team...and I see no increase in merch...
Regardless of the salary, any foreign player will lower your merchandise income. I saw this many times... I owned the swiss-NT starting C and as soon as I sold him, my merchandise wet up drastically.
So even if you buy the international LeBron Jordan, in this game this will most likely go hand in hand with lower merchandise.
Größter Knecht aller Zeiten aka His Excellency aka President for Life aka Field Marshal Al Hadji aka Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas aka aka Conqueror of the Buzzerbeater Empire in Europe in General and Austria in Particular