Neymar? No thanks. In any case, not like that. So few leaders in world football would afford the luxury of refusing the presence of such a talented and bankable that the Brazilian number 10, the Commissioner of Major League Soccer (MLS, the 1st division of the United States) Don Garber was very unenthusiastic at the idea of seeing the Parisian winger land in his championship at the end career, at least not for the reasons given by the Brazilian. “I really want to play in the United States,” he said on Ronaldo’s podcast, Fenomenos Podcast. At least one season. There, the Championship is short, and you have 3-4 months of vacation, so you can last even longer.
Funny arguments that were not to Don Garber’s taste. “If a player does not come to play and contribute significantly to the development of his club and the league, respecting the championship and the fans, then we do not want him, he declared, in front of the press. . We don’t need big names at the end of their careers just because they’ve decided they’d like to retire from MLS. »
For several years, however, the American championship has had a reputation as a suitable place for the early retirement of aging European stars. David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Gonzalo Higuain, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Villa, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Andrea Pirlo, Kakà, Wayne Rooney, Blaise Matuidi or just recently Xherdan Shaqiri: examples abound over the past fifteen years. “There are a lot of players who came late in their career and were brilliant in MLS, admitted Garber. Beckham is the perfect example. I can’t imagine what MLS would be like today without those kinds of players. »
However, he would like the image of MLS to change: “We would like our history to be that of a league which attracts young players, at the start or at the height of their careers and who would make our league their first choice, he punctuated. You know, when Zlatan left MLS, nobody said he was going to ‘retire’ in Italy, and I honestly felt insulted. I don’t understand why we are seen differently, but that’s how it is. »
Words that make sense in the development strategy of MLS, but which will probably not be enough to dissuade an American club from missing out on the opportunity to sign Neymar.
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