Why America isn't a World Power in Soccer and How we can Become One.

It's no secret that American sports fans are spoiled with options of which sport they choose to watch. If you're like me, you'll also enjoy playoff baseball all weekend, while watching football games on Sunday, and may even catch a glimpse of preseason basketball and hockey of your favorite teams as they get ready for their upcoming seasons. While all this is going on, a majority of Major League Soccer (MLS) games have been ignored by many sports fans. Even people who live in America and watch European soccer aren't fans of MLS. After now 20 years of existence, MLS is still struggling to gain respect from the American sports world and the World soccer world. The goal eventually for MLS is to be as prestigious as the Barclays Premier League, La Liga, and Bundesliga. Although it may be difficult for to be considered a top league around the world there still reason for improvement across the board.
If you look at the new trend for aging European soccer superstars they seem to all be coming to America and playing in the MLS to finish their careers. This trend started when English superstar and former player of some the biggest European clubs like Manchester United and Real Madrid, David Beckham came across the Atlantic and started a playing career in MLS for the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007. The immediate outcome of Beckham coming to MLS was a big success financially for LA Galaxy and MLS, this then lead to other MLS clubs doing everything they can to bring a European superstar to give their team a boost in revenue. So players like, Ricardo Kaka, Andres Pirlo, and Steven Gerard followed in Beckham's footsteps and came to America. Even after quality players came to America, MLS still struggles to be a high profile league. Yes fans in America now have the opportunity to see generational soccer stars but it's easy to see that those player's aren't of high quality anymore.
This now begs the question 'What can be done to improve the quality of players in MLS?' There's a simple answer to the question but there are many factors that complicate it.
1. The quality and style of soccer players start off when players are young. Kids that play probably need a coach that has a European style of play to influence the kids This part of the plan has been successful you can even say it's too successful because now instead of bringing these higher quality players into MLS, these kids leave to join European academies (read last blog post to catch up on academies). An example of this is 17 year old Christian Pulisic of Borussia Dortmund, who instead of being high school senior getting ready for prom while practicing for an academy in America he was such a highly sought out talent that at 17 Pulisic is scoring goals for the United States National Team and Borussia Dortmund of the Bundesliga.
2.  In order for this plan to improve quality to be successful, something needs to be done to counter what could go wrong in the first step. MLS needs to keep their young potential stars, Pulisic isn't the only example of a teenage kid leaving to go to Europe. In order to stop that, all MLS teams must commit to their youth and reward their youth with some incentive to stay a pursue a career at home. Obviously teams can't stop all youth players from leaving abroad but just an extra attempt or incentive could persuade a teenager to stay. Once MLS can keep a consistent amount of players that alone will improve the quality of the league in general.
This plan laid out seems simple enough to achieve, but at the end of the day this needs to be completed to see a growth in quality all around the MLS. Young American players leaving to Europe isn't necessarily a bad thing, because improving individuals helps improve the national team, which would have an effect and improve fan interest and if fan interest for the national team can improve then interest in MLS will improve. Every action has a consequence, and many more actions need to be done to make the MLS a top tier league around the world. Right now it seems impossible to think that MLS could become a top league, but like the saying goes "Rome wasn't built in a day." And neither is the MLS but in the next 10 years if player development continues to grow don't be surprised if MLS becomes a regular event that sports fans take time out of their day to watch.