Paris, London, Madrid … Vancouver?
With no lack of eminent soccer cities across the globe that boast powerhouse clubs, it’s no simple task trying to win over high-profile players in the sport, let alone in North America for MLS‘ mid-to-small markets in the United States and Canada.
Looking across the league, there’s a clear advantage for metro areas like Miami, New York and Los Angeles when it comes to enlisting luminaries like Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and David Beckham. In the past and the future, teams from those major regions will have no trouble convincing marquee stars to don their jerseys.
But what about the rest? Asking around the league, on-the-field factors are unsurprisingly the most significant variable for smaller-market clubs when it comes to their sales pitch. Job relocation is no simple task, even for star athletes, and they’ll want to make sure the adaptation to their new place is a successful one.
Up north in Canada, that’s exactly how the Whitecaps made headlines last week when they convinced Bayern Munich legend Thomas Müller to make the move to Vancouver. According to Whitecaps sporting director Axel Schuster, in a recent conversation with ESPN, “More than 80%” of the discussion with the World Cup winner was spent on “playing style, where would he play, how would we adjust, [and] how can we bring him in positions where he can help most and perform well.”
Of course, that’s just part of the pitch (no pun intended) for these clubs. With additional off-the-field variables such as a city’s lifestyle, weather, training grounds and even personal branding on the line, plenty is going on behind the scenes before your soccer idol commits to play for your local MLS team.
– How Inter Miami signed De Paul, fit him in MLS roster rules
– Explaining MLS’ Discovery Rights: What were Müller’s extra steps to Vancouver?
– The legend of Son Heung-Min that is now headed to MLS, LAFC
Chasing the next Müller, what do those conversations all look like? Through interviews with a handful of people in and around MLS, let’s take a deeper dive into what the sales pitches are like from clubs in mid-to-small markets.
‘Sunny blue skies’
Schuster was adamant that first and foremost, Müller was convinced by the sporting project alone for the Whitecaps, noting that the important factor was a “45-minute purely tactical soccer talk” with the club’s head coach. But that doesn’t mean that the team’s scenic surroundings don’t play a role either, especially for other signings.
“We are Vancouver, we have mountains and Pacific beaches,” the sporting director said. “We always say: don’t ask us, don’t listen to us, just go on Google and look at the 10 most livable cities in the world … Vancouver pops up.”
Far down the coast in California, similar conversations are had by expansion side San Diego FC, who have a new $150 million training facility tucked into an idyllic southern California valley that’s dotted by palm trees.
“Seeing the players’ faces on day one whenever they got here, even [Mexico international] Hirving [Lozano], right? Hirving’s a guy that was at Eindhoven, but the fact is that you’ve got sunny blue skies here, you’re surrounded by mountains,” sporting director Tyler Heaps told ESPN about the club’s picturesque facilities. “You also have these unbelievable pitches.”
Sporting project aside for the league’s newest franchise — one that’s currently at the top of the Western Conference standings — the location of the border-town club was also key for bringing in a megastar like Lozano from a soccer career across the Atlantic.
“We’re so close to Mexico,” Heaps said. “That was also a big draw for him and his family, getting him back closer to home after a long period in Europe.”
For Anders Dreyer, fellow Designated Player and member of arguably the league’s most clinical attack, strings were pulled with finding commonalities through other Danish players that had already signed for San Diego, as well as through knowledge of how the club could play through sister Danish club FC Nordsjælland.
Unlike in Europe, the winger could also rest easy after a bad performance.
“Anders was at Anderlecht, where if you lose a game, you can’t go out that night because the fans are that diehard,” Heaps said. “That’s not to say that ours aren’t, but I think the American culture is just a little bit different. I think he’s able to live his life in a way that he wants to live his life, so his family feels safe. He feels safe. He’s able to go and do normal things.
“Does he get recognized? Of course he does. I think that’s him and Hirving both … [but] these guys are able to live much more normal lifestyles.”
And if those players want to return to Europe for a quick trip? Teams on the East Coast, like Charlotte FC in North Carolina, don’t have too much trouble providing a path to old stomping grounds.
“They are still surprised [at] how big the [Charlotte] airport is and therefore flights to London, Paris, Milan and Madrid are all direct,” Charlotte general manager Zoran Krneta told ESPN about American Airlines’ second-largest hub. “It helps a lot.”
From Old Trafford to (almost) the Heart of America
Following a historic two-decade run through European club giants, five-time Ballon d’Or winner and all-time leading UEFA Champions League goal scorer Cristiano Ronaldo nearly went to the “Paris of the Plains” in 2023.
“The Ronaldo thing was obviously, it was completely, it was in its own stratosphere,” Peter Vermes, former Sporting Kansas City manager, told ESPN. Along with contract talks, lifestyle in Kansas City, discussions of style of play, and club infrastructure, they also talked “about jersey sales, you’re talking about sponsorship deals that will be coming in.”
For names like these, there’s clearly much more to the careers of these larger-than-life personalities, and in Ronaldo’s case, he is the most followed person on Instagram, who has helped sell products ranging from cologne, to automotive lubricants, to underwear.
“David Beckham’s a perfect example. David Beckham came to America, I don’t want to speak for him, but everything that I understand, he came because it was about building his North American brand … a lot of it has to do with not now, but your brand even when you’re done playing,” Vermes said.
Doing so in Los Angeles is one thing, but doing the same in Kansas City? That’s not exactly a straightforward process. That said, due to the travel for away games, Vermes would highlight those excursions as an opportunity for potential players to experience those destination cities, while also having the benefit of a small-town feel in Kansas City.
“You’ll have a great life outside of soccer here because people are very respectful of your time and when you’re out in the community. It’s a big little city,” the former coach said. “A lot of times we [play] on Saturdays and if you want to stay on a Sunday, we have Monday off. You can stay those two days in that city and have your family fly … you don’t have to live there and deal with the traffic.”
On the field, off the field, a sales pitch was made to Ronaldo. Two introductory chats helped get the ball rolling, which led to “probably another three thereafter” as discussions escalated to include “quite a few people involved on both sides.”
A deal for the Portugal international never got over the line. Instead of moving to MLS, the forward instead joined Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr, where he’s still playing to this day.
Vermes has stated that doing the elevator pitch for the soccer was the easy part for deals like these, whereas off the field, it’s much more challenging when “a lot of guys want to be in New York or want to be in California … with Miami.”
Training facilities and prolonging careers
In the search for a new job, it doesn’t hurt to have an impressive office space and environment. Although he isn’t exactly at the same level of goal-scoring prowess as Ronaldo, Alan Pulido — Sporting KC’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2020 and MLS’ Comeback Player of the Year in 2023 — was immediately won over by what the club had to offer.
“He liked how competitive we were. He liked, he saw the atmosphere and … the facilities, blown away,” Vermes said about the former Mexico international. “[The training center] was brand-new, just opened in ’18 … he was excited about that.”
Kansas City isn’t alone when it comes to that modern infrastructure. San Diego’s Heaps, who has previous experience as an analyst for the U.S. Soccer Federation, has praised many of the facilities he has visited across the country.
“I was fortunate with the national team to be able to see most of the ones in MLS. What I can say, having worked in Europe, is that these ones are state of the art and I think that is a huge attraction to these players. They come here and work every single day,” Heaps said.
“If you can have everything that they need to not only play well now, but also to prolong their career, that’s a really helpful thing for these guys, especially DPs, obviously, that are making significant amounts of income.”
And there’s something to be said there about extending those playing days.
In spite of MLS still shaking off a reputation as a “retirement league” for aging world-class players, there are undeniable reasons as to why many clubs continue to bring in veterans who can make an impact on and off the field. Those fields can literally be artificial, such as Vancouver’s at BC Place, which remains a talking point in the soccer world in terms of the potential harm of those surfaces to players, but there’s also a recognition that the actual standard of play on those fields is better than anticipated.
“He was pleasantly surprised of the level,” Charlotte’s Krneta said about marquee star Wilfried Zaha being introduced to the league. “He didn’t expect the MLS to be so good. I mean, it’s way better than he expected.”
Vancouver’s Schuster agreed.
“The positive development of MLS in the last 10 years, or in the last five-and-a-half years since I’m here, is that we became a league that a player like Thomas [Müller], Son [Heung-Min], Messi, [Emil] Forsberg — you can extend this list forever — see as a good platform to extend their career and play a little bit longer on a good competitive level,” the sporting director said. “That’s the big thing. Thomas was looking for somewhere where he can compete.”
Focusing on the soccer
In the end, it is about what is done on the field. Over in Vancouver, as panoramic as the Canadian setting is, Schuster doesn’t want that to be a distraction to the players he’s adding.
“If somebody comes only to enjoy Vancouver, [which] is, as you know, one of the nicest, best cities in the world, then it might become a first step outside of the career of enjoying life and on a world tour,” he said. “That’s not what we want, and that’s also not what Thomas wants.”
Schuster was frank when noting that were it not for the recent progression of the Whitecaps project that earned them a place in this year’s Concacaf Champions Cup final, a current spot at second in the Western Conference, and an attractive style of play, Müller likely wouldn’t have signed his latest contract.
“He actually did his research,” the Whitecaps’ front office executive said. “Two years ago or three years ago, he never would have chosen Vancouver.”
One spot ahead of them in the Western Conference, San Diego also feels similarly about its approach to the sport that could bring in the next game-changers.
“The style of play, I think that’s also something that we leaned heavily into when we’re recruiting these guys, is, we want to play a way that is attractive. We want to score goals … we said all those in words to both of them [Lozano and Dreyer], but now we’ve also proven it,” Heaps said.
“To play an attractive way, to play on the front foot, that’s also beneficial for them, because they’ve got all these bonuses in their contracts, obviously, in terms of whether it’s making an All-Star Game or Newcomer of the Year, MVP.”
It’s also important to recognize that these deals aren’t simply one-way streets.
With Vancouver, which was thrashed 5-0 by Liga MX‘s Cruz Azul in the Concacaf Champions Cup final in June and narrowly knocked out by LAFC in Round 1 of last year’s MLS Cup playoffs, Müller represents the missing link.
“You can be the last puzzle piece,” Schuster said about chatting with the German attacking midfielder. “To go further and to compete for more.”
Transfers like these, from the best clubs in world soccer and also to them through outgoing moves, bring more attention to MLS. As the league seeks to continue much-needed growth, it’ll be dependent on non-major markets to help support MLS’ evolution.
And sure, certain North American soccer cities may not be London, Paris or Madrid, but given time, they might be getting there.
“I mean, let’s face it, people don’t really know about Charlotte in Europe,” Krneta said. “But the players are learning now.”
