MLS - The League of Retirement

Hola Football, Futbol, Soccer Fans:

Today's major transfer headlines deals with Thierry Henry transfer to the MLS' New York Red Bulls.

This comes to no surprise to me since Henry is reaching the twilight of his wonderful career. However, this is quit sad because it reinforces my notion that MLS is the retirement home for the old and wealthy footballers of Europe and other power house leagues of the beautiful game.

Lets look at the list of once greats that now play their trade in the MLS:
- Juan Pablo Angel, age 34
- Guillermo Barros Schelotto, age 37
- David Beckham, age 35
- Freddie Ljungberg, age 33
- Blaise Nkufo, age 34
- Thierry Henry, age 32

These players have had glittering careers in Europe and South America, but when it came time to call it quites on that career they turned to America and the MLS. These are only 6 players out of many who grace the MLS pitch now; there are many more from all over the globe to name a few more: Daio Sala (ARG), Ryan Smith (ENG), Jamie Smith (SCO), Gino Padula (FRA), and Juan Pera (ESPN).
All these forgein players could not make it in their own home country, because the game there is so much more competitive than the MLS.

Many big wigs in the MLS offices find signing a international star as a big success and the notion that it will help launch the MLS to a competitive league. Here is a quote from Dietmar Beiersdorfer from ESPNSoccerNet about Henry.

"It is without question that Thierry Henry is one of the most successful and recognisable soccer players over the past 15 years.We are thrilled that Thierry has decided to come to New York to help the Red Bulls compete for championships this year and for years to come. His international pedigree is second to none and he is a proven winner."

YES, he was great the past 13 years because he was in his prime. Henry has been sitting on the Barcelona bench for the past two seasons. The whole idea that past superstars can come to MLS and make it great is bollocks; this idea hinders the MLS.

If American soccer fans want to see the game grow and the MLS become a competitive league then we have to stop shining the Hollywood spot light on these so called "Designated Player" nicknamed after Beckham. [This rule allows teams to provide a "international" star player a huge salary cap compared to the rest of the time.] Basically this sounds like a huge social security check for the already rich and famous.

Another point that helps my case is many young and talented MLS players are leaving to play overseas in Europe, especially young Americans like Altidore, Holden, and Kljestan. This goes to show that if these players want to grow as players they need to take their trade to Europe where they can get that competitive experience they crave and need to succeed in this game.

So with many young and talented players leaving the MLS and more older international players coming in one cannot help but look at the MLS like Florida for the elderly.