In the past decade, Major League Soccer has sunk plenty of cash into various attempts to increase youth development. In that same period, however, American starlets have begun to populate the landscape of International Football. Christian Pulisic at Dortmund and now Chelsea, Weston Mckennie at Schalke, and Josh Sargent at Werder Bremen highlight a few of the budding American players that will lead the next generation of the national team. Now, contrast their reasons for traveling abroad to expand their development with the MLS’s pitch for them to spend their younger years in their home country. Overseas, such players can play a high level of football in a league that offers wealthy contracts, greater recognition, and established means of producing talent. In the MLS, these same players have their contracts restricted by a salary cap, receive equal if not fewer minutes due to the demanding travel and compact schedule, and are separated from the clubs of their dreams by an entire ocean. What promising talent would evaluate both options and choose to stay at home? That’s right, no one.

The MLS, therefore, must reevaluate what it can offer to young, American talent. With the right offers of development and incentives, MLS could become a dynamic breeding ground for the future of not only American but also European football. In the style of both the Netherlands’ Eredivisie or even the English Championship, the MLS could become a league that allows young talents to prosper. Currently, however, that vision looks decades away from being realized - decades the MLS cannot afford to waste by merely bloating the league with expansion teams and pitching themselves as a resort at which the stars of yesterday can rest their worn out legs. The MLS must act quickly to become a league on par with the mid-tier European leagues and provide the youth prospects of the United States with a defined platform to flaunt their talent.

Becoming a Development League

For Major League Soccer to serve as an attractive launch pad for young talent, they must first decide what type of league they want to be. In recent years, commissioner Don Garber and many MLS owners have insisted on establishing the association as a “league of choice.” This model, Garber insists, allows European veterans and players of lower quality from across the Americas to coexist within the league. Though this model supports the inclusion of a wide range of players that boost the league’s profile, becoming a “league of choice” has occurred at a massive detriment to the league’s quality of play. With Garber’s model for the league-leading the same sluggish and outdated brand of football that has seen the MLS lose respect from its European counterparts, youth prospects become inclined to take their talents to the more demanding and serious leagues of Germany or England.

Major League Soccer must adjust its aim from becoming a “league of choice” to a “league of development.” This alternative requires the prioritization of youth talent and progressive football over catering to the choices of the game’s elder statesmen. Becoming a development league would allow MLS to accept its position in world football and provide young American players with a clear path to the elite leagues of Europe. By marketing the league in such a way, clubs could potentially receive large transfer fees for their younger players that they could reinvest in their lineup or training and managerial facilities, thereby improving the quality of their team and the league. Imagine if Christian Pulisic had played for an MLS team like the Philadelphia Union for two seasons until he was 19 or 20 years old. Even if he had only performed at a fraction of the quality he has shown in the Bundesliga, he would have without a doubt made himself known to Europe’s biggest clubs. Currently, Pulisic is set to join Chelsea this summer as the result of a deal in excess of $60 Million. Now, though Philadelphia would never see a transfer fee that great, it is entirely possible to assume that, had Pulisic spent a season tearing through the US, he could be traveling to a Chelsea or Borussia Dortmund for a fee of $30 Million. It may be only half of his current, but it would be almost record-breaking for Major League Soccer. American prospects are among the most valued in all of world football. Not only to the represent quality talent for the future, but they are a marketing department’s dream. A Christian Pulisic or Weston McKennie opens the door to a third of a billion potential fans, lining up to buy a jersey.