Since the teams of Major League Soccer have only been playing matches in the United States since 1996, the league faced challenges working its way into the arms of fans in the United States, as well as internationally. In most countries, however, "fútbol" has always been the desired sport.
With the MLS gaining international players into the league, it has produced much more attention from both American and International viewers. Fire Defender, Gonzalo Segares, talks about the perception of the MLS by National Teams, specifically the Costa Rican team. "I think since Blanco came to the team they [the Costa Rican National Team] have been able to watch more games. The MLS being so young, they didn't think the league was that great. Now they can see the games a lot more often on ESPN and Telefutura. They can see what the league is about and how the young league is developing every year. It has become more competitive with Blanco, Beckham and Lopez."
The Chicago Fire currently have six international players, including Cuauhtémoc Blanco from Mexico (also a designated player), Wilman Conde from Colombia, Tomasz Frankowski from Poland, Andy Herron from Costa Rica, Gonzalo Segares from Costa Rica and Lider Marmol from Paraguay. Segares has been called up this year by the Costa Rican National team and has made several appearances for them. Cuauhtémoc Blanco has made it one of his goals to play for the Mexican National Team again. These types of call ups have gained the MLS more international attention and have been helpful in the growth of the league.
Some other international players in the league include Juan Pablo Angel playing for the New York Red Bulls, David Beckham for the Los Angeles Galaxy and Guillermo Barros Schelotto for the Columbus Crew.
Luis Arroyave, sports writer for the Chicago Tribune and Red Card Soccer Blog, agrees the international players are the reason MLS relevance is increasing in other countries. It gains the attention of the international media.
"These international media outlets will follow their players. For example, Colombia follows Conde, Mexico follows Blanco." Arroyave also says there is more interest there where there wasn't before, "Hispanic Media will now follow big cities like LA."
Arroyave also comments on the increase of International Friendly games and how they have affected the league. "Fans are reluctant to attend MLS games, but when you bring in the international teams, it gains those fans' attention, and they realize the MLS is becoming more popular. You also realize how many soccer fans there really are in this country."
In addition to International Friendly Games, the MLS All-Star Games have been held each season the MLS has existed, and six of the years the MLS has played internationals, including this year. The 2007 game was the MLS All-Stars vs. Celtic FC of the Scottish Premier League and the previous year they faced Chelsea. The 2008 All-Star Game will be the MLS All-Stars vs. West Ham United. Playing against these international teams has also given the MLS a chance for more global media attention, as well as the alliance of soccer fans nationally and internationally. Gabe Gabor, consultant of international communications for the MLS talks about how this year's All-Star Game in particular, is bringing a lot of international media attention.
"This year the All-Star game helps the Major League expand its footprints internationally in two ways. First, that we're playing an English Premier League brings us credibility to the event and brings attention to us on a global scale. What it does is it brings additional exposure to the All-Star game from markets where these particular players come from. An All-Star game is an American thing; you don't see it in other countries. For the fact that these players are all playing in this event becomes a very interesting event for international media to want to cover."
Gabor talks specifically about Argentina's interest in the idea of all these players on the field in a competitive match at the same time. According to Gabor, Argentina has only recently been covering and airing MLS games. Within the past couple of years they have done a few media trips to appeal to the U.S. markets to better understand what the MLS is about.
"All these international players from different parts of the world are playing on a team competitively against another competition. Those two elements [the players and the media] bring incredible international attention."
Overall, the growing media and fan attention toward the MLS can be significantly attributed to the number of international players in the league.
