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MLS will be an exciting presence in the transfer market

By on January 19, 2015

As the English transfer market goes, the past eighteen days have been ominously quiet. The departures of Lukas Podolski and Fernando Torres and the arrivals of Victor Valdes and highly touted youngster Andrej Kramarić count for something, but very little money has traded hands.  David Moyes even found himself a new job in Spain but hasn’t pillaged Everton’s dressing room yet. Only three big transfers have spurred most of the fuss – Wilfried Bony’s move to Manchester City, believed to be worth €32.3 million, Steven Gerrard’s decision to sign for LA Galaxy at the end of the season, and (to a lesser extent) Jermain Defoe’s return to the Premier League. Notice any trends?

If you aren’t an MLS enthusiast then Google Trends will point it out to you – it forecasts the second biggest surge in MLS interest ever, behind only that following the 2010 World Cup. Both Gerrard and Defoe are transfers involving the MLS – Gerrard to the Galaxy and Defoe from Toronto FC to Sunderland, in exchange for Jozy Altidore. In other words, MLS is in the midst of one of its most active transfer windows ever, perhaps only behind 2007, which marked David Beckham’s arrival.  And now the dispersion of top level footballers is even more widespread across the league.

A number of US internationals are returning or debuting in the MLS next season. Following Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey’s high profile returns last summer (along with Jermaine Jones’ move to New England), Altidore, Brek Shea, Maurice Edu, and Mix Diskerud are all sealing permanent moves to Toronto, Orlando City FC, Philadelphia Union, and New York City FC, respectively. Sacha Kljestan is expected to return to the league in the near future as well.

This signifies a big change in mindset. While Jurgen Klinsmann has been strongly urging USMNT players to compete with the best in Europe, many are making the decision that the MLS is better for their futures. If the league cannot even keep the top USMNT players, then it would almost certainly not be able to bring in top European players. Yet now, recruiting these foreign players is apparently becoming easier.

Like Gerrard, another Premier League star in Frank Lampard will be joining the league (NYCFC) for the upcoming 2015 season. David Villa and Kaka are other aging stars coming to the US while Raul is joining the New York Cosmos of the NASL. Scotland international Shaun Maloney is also reportedly close to a move to Chicago Fire from Wigan Athletic.

As more and more top US and aging European stars join the league, some second-tier stars are also fancying the league, including just today, Juventus’ Sebastian Giovinco, still in his prime at the age of twenty-seven, sealing a move to Toronto after struggling to break into the Serie A leader’s starting eleven.

Meanwhile, the US is exporting players to the Premier League as well.  Just this January, top USMNT prospect DeAndre Yedlin officially joined Tottenham Hotspur, and Defoe’s move to Sunderland marked a sour end to his stint in the MLS.  With the MLS becoming a more consistent player in the European transfer market, the league is earning increasing space on the back pages of British newspapers. The next step is to complete a big-money deal for a top level star, which at the current rate of growth only seems a few years away. Even more so than the league itself, watching the MLS’s presence in the transfer market grow over the next few years will be quite exciting.

Photo credit: Pixabay and Wikipedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.