? For Soccer fans

[Cribbs]

I am 41 and never been a soccer fan or played so I know next to nothing about the sport. However, I've really been getting into watching the national teams play((especially USA) over the last couple of years but can't get into any other leagues.

My question would be where does MLS soccer rank amongst all the other leagues in the world? Is it comparable to the Premier League or would MLS be considered minor leagues compared to others? Thanks for any insight.

 

[Rishi]

Definitely would be considered Minor Leagues.

If MLS was in Europe it would rank behind at least the following (IMO):

England
Spain
Germany
Italy
France
Portugal
Netherlands
Russia
Belgium
Ukraine
Turkey

Above list is not in any particular order.

The biggest thing about MLS is that there is no cohesion on D. A lot of teams are pretty good going forward, but you see a lot of bad goals IMO in MLS because of how poor the team Ds are. Some talented individuals, but not much when it comes to team D. GKs are also a weak point in the league. Very inconsistent from game to game. Even the better GKs give up "howlers" at a much higher rate than you'd see in any of the leagues I listed above.

MLS does have better drawing power than some of the leagues listed above due to the fact that MLS is much more financially stable that the smaller Leagues in Europe and hence can pay for guys like David Villa to come in for a last paycheque. Unfortunately, not many players like Sebastian Giovinco who are still in their prime will leave Europe to come to MLS (for those who want to see quality players perform in North America).

I'm sure others on here will add some more thoughts that hopefully you'll find helpful.

 

[Cribbs]

Definitely would be considered Minor Leagues.

If MLS was in Europe it would rank behind at least the following (IMO):

England
Spain
Germany
Italy
France
Portugal
Netherlands
Russia
Belgium
Ukraine
Turkey

Above list is not in any particular order.

The biggest thing about MLS is that there is no cohesion on D. A lot of teams are pretty good going forward, but you see a lot of bad goals IMO in MLS because of how poor the team Ds are. Some talented individuals, but not much when it comes to team D. GKs are also a weak point in the league. Very inconsistent from game to game. Even the better GKs give up "howlers" at a much higher rate than you'd see in any of the leagues I listed above.

MLS does have better drawing power than some of the leagues listed above due to the fact that MLS is much more financially stable that the smaller Leagues in Europe and hence can pay for guys like David Villa to come in for a last paycheque. Unfortunately, not many players like Sebastian Giovinco who are still in their prime will leave Europe to come to MLS (for those who want to see quality players perform in North America).

I'm sure others on here will add some more thoughts that hopefully you'll find helpful.

Thanks for the insight Rishi. I found this article that has MLS ranked #8. Didn't read too much on how they came about their rankings so not sure about their criteria or credibility.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndic...tertaining-leagues-in-world-football.amp.html

 

[seminoleed]

Rishi pretty much nailed it. To give you some perspective, Dwyer's transfer fee to Orlando City was a RECORD $1.6 million. A player in England who commanded that kind of transfer fee would be headed to playing for someone like Rushton and Diamonds.

MLS, however, is a very balanced league, and is slowly catching on. If it can get more teams to market themselves like Atlanta United has, it'll only get better. An expansion team that hasn't failed to sell out a match yet, averaging better than 45,000 every game, is not to be sneezed at. Their supporters here are partially responsible for their success. Georgia Tech football fans wish their stadium could get that loud when they play.

 

[fsugrad06]

Rishi pretty much nailed it. To give you some perspective, Dwyer's transfer fee to Orlando City was a RECORD $1.6 million. A player in England who commanded that kind of transfer fee would be headed to playing for someone like Rushton and Diamonds.

MLS, however, is a very balanced league, and is slowly catching on. If it can get more teams to market themselves like Atlanta United has, it'll only get better. An expansion team that hasn't failed to sell out a match yet, averaging better than 45,000 every game, is not to be sneezed at. Their supporters here are partially responsible for their success. Georgia Tech football fans wish their stadium could get that loud when they play.

That's not even remotely true, unless that is the Orlando record (which it could be for how young that squad is). Bradley is the highest transfer at $10 million from Roma to Toronto, and the highest out was Altidore from NYC Red Bulls to Villarreal for $8 million almost a decade ago.

 

[seminoleed]

I'm only going by what MLS itself said: "The US national team striker was traded to Orlando for $400,000 in General Allocation Money, $500,000 in Targeted Allocation Money, and $700,000 in future allocation money based on performance. In total, the trade package could reach $1.6 million in allocation monies, a new record for MLS.

The previous the record set when Orlando dealt Kevin Molino to Minnesota United FC before the season for $450,000 in General Allocation Money and $200,00 in Targeted Allocation Money."

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/07/25/dom-dwyer-traded-orlando-city-sc-record-deal

 

[fsugrad06]

I'm only going by what MLS itself said: "The US national team striker was traded to Orlando for $400,000 in General Allocation Money, $500,000 in Targeted Allocation Money, and $700,000 in future allocation money based on performance. In total, the trade package could reach $1.6 million in allocation monies, a new record for MLS.

The previous the record set when Orlando dealt Kevin Molino to Minnesota United FC before the season for $450,000 in General Allocation Money and $200,00 in Targeted Allocation Money."

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/07/25/dom-dwyer-traded-orlando-city-sc-record-deal

That's allocation money, not transfer fees. MLS is very convoluted when he comes to roster spots and money. For example, teams only have X amount of roster positions for international players. Teams use the allocation money for different things as well. Targeted money is only a couple years old and is used for teams to pay players over budget. Each team is only allowed so much, so, if they want to over-spend, they need to acquire more funds via trade.

 

[seminoleed]

They can call it moonshine whiskey and corn dogs, it's money that passed hands for a transfer.
Semantics be damned.

 

[Rishi]

They can call it moonshine whiskey and corn dogs, it's money that passed hands for a transfer.
Semantics be damned.

That's probably the record within the league (i.e. SKC to OCSC) rather from outside the league like the Bradley to TFC and Altidore from MLS to La Liga deals that were mentioned above.

I can't think of any bigger deals involving teams within MLS off the top of my head.

 

[seminoleed]

Good point, Rishi. Very likely.