“How did women and Lionel Messi make soccer the sport America loves?” July 9, 2024 Marko Protic
WASHINGTON —
In the hot July Saturday sun, in sultry weather, in one of the parks in Rockville in the American state of Maryland, the baseball and basketball courts are empty.
But children’s screams can be heard from the nearby field where improvised goals are set up, and boys and girls wearing the jerseys of Lionel Messi , Kylian Mbappe , Cristiano Ronaldo, Alex Morgan and Christian Pulisic “kick” the soccer ball.
During the break while drinking water, with excitement and eyes full of happiness, they comment on the moves of the players from the previous day’s Copa America and European Championship matches.
Such scenes were probably not common until a decade ago on the North American continent, while “soccer” was considered a foreign game brought by the children of immigrants from Europe and South America. But everything is changing, including the United States, and football has “taken root”.
A lot has changed since 1994, when the USA organized the World Cup for the first time, the national MLS league has grown into a serious competition, and the task of organizing the World Cup awaits the Americans again in two years.
The growth of soccer as a sport and its popularity in the USA is evident, although there are still many things that must be worked on, Predrag Radosavljević Preki , a former member of the USA national team, tells the Voice of America.
“There is a huge difference between the current time and that of a couple of decades ago, as far as investments and infrastructure in clubs are concerned. They made progress in terms of organization. But in that organization there must also be quality in the functions. Everything can look great from the outside, but expertise is the most important thing in our business” , says Radosavljević, who played, among others, for Kansas City, Everton and Portsmouth.
Preki Radosavljević in a hug with Erik Wijnald, a teammate from the United States national team (Photo: VINCE BUCCI/AFP)
He believes that the organization of the 2026 World Cup, as well as the announced Club World Cup next year, will contribute to “strengthening the MLS league, increasing budgets and opening the possibility to bring in even better players.”
Perhaps the best proof of the growth of football in America arrived in June 2023, when the contract with Inter from Miami was signed by one of the best players in history, Argentine Lionel Messi . After Messi, his former teammates from Barcelona, Luis Suarez , Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, came to the club from Florida . Before Messi, MLS clubs also brought aces like Zlatan Ibrahimovic (LA Galaxy) and Wayne Rooney (DC United), but the arrival of the Argentine ace caused the biggest “quake” and brought the league a lucrative contract with Apple.
Transfers like this are the cause of a new “boom” in a country where football is played with a ball of a different shape than in Europe.
“The growth is very large for two reasons. One is that they keep adding more teams, going to more cities and that brings more fans. And secondly, there is no doubt that Lionel Messi greatly accelerated the growth of the league, so now even those who have never seen it before are watching football,” Jonathan Tannenwald , a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, who follows the MLS league and the US national team, told the Voice of America .
However, he believes that it is somewhat of a mistake that a large part of the marketing attention goes to Messi, while some other good aspects of the league are neglected.
“No one talks about the other good players that are in the league, especially the young Americans and those from South America that teams buy as talent, then develop and sell to other teams for big money. And that’s something MLS has become very good at. But no one talks about it because of Messi ,” explains Tannenwald.
Jonathan Tannenwald (Photo: Private archive)
Karl Dewazien , the former director of the National Association of Coaches in the youth categories of the USA, believes that the growth of football and its professionalization has led to certain negative phenomena that affect the base of this sport.
“Everyone looks at the World Cup as the pinnacle of football. We organized the World Cup in ’94, so the next one will arrive in 2026. And what about this sport between those two tournaments” , he asked himself in an interview with the Voice of America.
“We have a lot of kids from abroad who are absolutely brilliant at playing football. They come from Mexico, South America, various countries. And their parents cannot afford to participate in our programs. All this talent that no one sees anymore because of the money. Nobody focuses on those children ,” he says.
The Power of Women’s Soccer
Without a doubt, one of the cornerstones of soccer’s popularity in America was struck by women. The women’s national team was often more popular than the men’s, explains journalist Jonathan Tannenwald. As the main reason for this, he cites the success of the women’s team in the previous two decades.
“They each won four world championships and Olympic gold. You have far more girls playing soccer in the US than anywhere else in the world, even though the national team is no longer number one. They are constantly present on television, they are popular, and more and more people are playing them in Europe. What do you think, who is more popular here, Alex Morgan or Kristijan Pulisic “ , asked Tannenvald.
Alex Morgan is one of the best female soccer players in the history of the American national team, with whom she won the world championship and Olympic gold twice, while Kristijan Pulisic is the captain of the men’s national team and currently plays for Milan in Italy.
He reminded that the men’s MLS league did not exist until 1996 and says that its creation is a direct consequence of the fact that the USA organized the World Cup in 1994.
” That football growth was not always so fast, but it was constant ,” describes Tannenwald.
Alex Morgan, soccer player from San Diego and the US national team (Photo: AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
He also believes that the fact that Americans can watch matches of various leagues “from morning to night” on the biggest TV and streaming platforms is extremely responsible for the development of the popularity of football in the USA.
“All you have to do is pick up the phone. We live in probably the best country in the world for watching all the football in the world. Because you wake up on Saturday morning, and first you watch the Premier League, then the Italian Serie A, then the MLS or the Argentinian championship ,” he says.
MLS is one of the five “big” leagues in America, along with the NBA in basketball, the NFL in American football, the MLB in baseball and the NHL in hockey. In Tannenwald’s opinion, the NFL will “remain unattainable, like the NBA” among the American audience, but he believes that football has already overtaken hockey in terms of popularity.
“If there was a football league, it would be more popular than ice hockey, because I think the sport as a whole is already more popular. It’s hard to measure, because some people watch the Premier League, and some the Champions League, and some the MLS, some watch the Euros, and some watch women’s football ,” says the journalist of the “Philadelphia Inquirer”.
There are currently 29 American and Canadian clubs from 27 cities playing in the American MLS league, and Columbus Crew won the title last season. Starting next year, the San Diego team will also join the league. Data from specialized websites show that clubs are really spending more and more money on transfers, but there are still different categories of clubs, explains Preki Radosavljević.
MLS Inter Miami Revolution Soccer
“Miami is a story in itself. Los Angeles is also very fair when it comes to investments, Atlanta spends huge money, there is also the Galaxy. Chicago is among the top three teams in terms of investments, but there are no results. Money is not a guarantee either, you always have to know what you are doing and what you are buying. You can go to the market and buy 10 kilos of rotten cherries, and someone goes and buys a kilo for much less money, and they are all good” , Preki is picturesque.
Millions train, but who succeeds?
In addition to the increasing amount of money that is present in American football from the lowest levels to the best competition, one of the problems is the professional staff, claims Preki Radosavljević.
“As soon as you have better players, there is more quality. But better experts need to be brought in. You have to know what you want with quality, how to get even more out of minimal quality. It is very difficult to create a professional staff, there is a lot of interference and there are rare situations where the coach has total autonomy” , explains Radosavljević, who is now an assistant coach in MLS league Seattle.
Karl Dewazien (Photo: Private archive)
In America, according to the data of the national association, about four million children train and play football at all levels and categories. But, as Karl Dewazien says, there is still a certain cultural problem because there are no great domestic football heroes, except, as he says, “perhaps Christian Pulisic”, currently a player of the Italian Milan.
“If we have more than four million kids playing football, let’s see if we can develop world-class players. The problem is that six-year-old children have to go to the rehearsal. You go there and the most mature children are selected, those who are not mature enough go to recreational teams. Do you think you will stay and enjoy the next ten years” , Dewazien points out.
Although the interlocutors of the Voice of America agree that bringing in foreign stars was the right step in the direction of football development, it cannot be the only segment of progress, they point out.
Preki Radosavljević tries to vividly convey what football in America still needs in order to be able to reach the level of popularity of the NBA, NFL or MLB .
“The American League has to have 5 to 10 Americans who are mega stars, not just foreigners. Why do very few English people go outside England? Well, they have big money there, they play for big clubs. And here in our country, all the best players go to Europe. You dilute the quality of local players. You have to have a Lebron James or someone like the late Kobe Bryant , “ Radosavljević points out.
What is the future like?
The future of football in America is good, the World Cup in two years should bring new momentum, but it is also necessary for the youngest to “fall in love” with this game again, according to coach Karl Dewazien.
“I started to study why kids leave soccer programs and one of the things I found, especially with those from six to 12 years old, is that they give up easily because they don’t fall in love with the game ,” he claims.
He adds that the children are too burdened by the competitive segment of football and that it is held on them.
“They go to training sessions where they practice all the time, they can’t play football. They are dressed in gear so they look like professionals. Then they go to tournaments and play five to eight games a week. And football is not only that, children have to enjoy themselves” , said Dewazien.
Argentina fans in New York (Photo: AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
In addition to the USA, the 2026 World Cup will be hosted by Canada and Mexico, 48 teams will participate, it will be played in 16 cities, and the final will be held at the stadium in New Jersey.
Journalist Jonathan Tannenwald says that it is good that it will be the first World Cup in history with so many participants, as fans in some American cities that were not hosts during WC 1994, such as Seattle, Atlanta and Philadelphia, will have the opportunity to watch the matches live.
He believes that this way even more fans in America will have the opportunity to “see and feel” that football is something much bigger than something that is watched on television on Saturday mornings or that their children play on Saturday afternoons.
“Now during the Copa America, there were great shots of Argentine fans in Times Square in New York. I want every city in America to experience that. It’s not just a stadium game. I want people to experience the culture and see how rooted it is in other countries, be they Argentina or Colombia, Scotland or Serbia” , concluded Tannenvald.
Voice of America
Is an international broadcaster reaching 354 million people weekly across approximately 100 countries in 48 languages on television, radio, and digital media.
