Thierry Henry Is Coming To America
April 27, 2008 by Jyle Dupuis
Filed under N. America - Major League, Thierry Henry
Image details: Deportivo La Coruna v Barcelona – La Liga served by picapp.com
It seems that the rumours of French soccer star Thierry Henry are true – that he will be joining the Major League Soccer Association in 2009. Nothing is iron clad yet but it looks as if Henry will be joining the MLS’ newest team in Seattle. While David Beckham drew lots of criticism for teaming up in an inferior league – undoubtedly Henry will draw more attention to the issue.
Is this going to be a new trend? Normally Europe’s wannabe soccer players come to the United States for a chance to play soccer professionally. Now it seems that there might be a new trend of great Euro-football players flooding to North America to take advantage of the prices they are willing to pay. This might just be a new day for US soccer!
Source: Yahoo Sports
Um, not to burst your bubble, but MLS has always been seen as a sort of retirement home for aging Euro players (Matthaus, Stoichkov), not particularly as a springboard for young Euro talent. Young Latin Americans, yes, but not young Europeans.
As for the “prices they are willing to pay”? I think you’ll find that salaries, Beckham excepted, are not particularly high when compared with even mid-tier European leagues, much less the upper echelons. I worry that if the trend towards Beckham-level wages continues, there won’t be an MLS for very much longer.
The truth is that Americans don’t like soccer. There is no amount of money that they can throw into the league to change that.
Well, I’m an American, and I have a borderline unhealthy obsession with the sport. Where exactly in your blanket generalization do I fit? There are enough of us here with enough disposable income to support a pretty healthy league. I don’t think that anyone expects MLS to be an overnight success story, but as long as we don’t trod too far down the NASL “world all-stars” approach to league-building, we’ll be fine.
man is gonna be great to see beckam and Thierry Henry in the mls