As Europe’s top leagues enter the second halves of their respective seasons, Major League Soccer (MLS) opened preseason training camps last week, uncertain if they will even make it to the season. The collective bargaining agreement expired last Saturday and negotiations between the league and players’ union are seemingly at an impasse. The specter of a work stoppage looms large.
Despite this, the biggest stories going into camp have been the massive transfers of European stars to the U.S. Recent months have seen Frank Lampard, David Villa, Kaka, and Steven Gerrard all announce moves to the MLS. All are international superstars that bring exceptional talent to a league looking to fill a star power void left by Thierry Henry and Landon Donovan.
Toronto FC (TFC) stole the headlines though, landing the out-of-favor US Men’s National Team star Jozy Altidore from Sunderland and, even more shockingly, the diminutive Sebastian Giovinco from Italian champion Juventus. The Jozy deal was damn smart business and impressive in its own right. TFC shipped the unhappy Jermain Defoe back to England in exchange for Altidore, getting younger in the process and, by most reports, gaining a nice chunk of cash in the swap. Despite his struggles in England, Jozy had already excelled in the MLS and is one of the most recognizable faces for US Soccer, which is a great marketing opportunity when he hits the pitch next to his US national teammate Michael Bradley.
The real big fish though, somewhat ironically, is Seba Giovinco. At just 5’4,” but full of energy and with an incredible work rate, Gio lives up to the nickname “La Formica Atomica”—the Atomic Ant. He’s an incredibly creative talent with tremendous pace and versatility. That versatility will allow him to play anywhere from a second striker position behind Jozy to outside on the wing, to an attacking midfield position, all while creating space for Michael Bradley with his pace, dribbling and ability to take on defenders.
The Giovinco move is massive not just for the quality of player that he is, but also for how and when he decided to make the switch. While Gerrard, Lampard, and Kaka are all fantastic players in their own right, they are all on the wrong side of 30 and are well past their prime. Gio just turned 28 and still has his best years of football ahead of him. The MLS has improved by leaps and bounds over the past decade, but still needs to buck the “retirement league” moniker that, true or not, has dogged it in recent years. Snagging a player of Giovinco’s caliber at his age should help change that perception.
Perhaps just as importantly, he reportedly turned down offers from Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, and numerous other flashy-name European clubs. Other players of his caliber have moved to MLS in the past, but none have done so in their prime and turned down the top clubs in the world simultaneously.
The Giovinco move could be the start of a seismic shift that puts the league at least in the same neighborhood as the top European leagues. Seba’s Italian National Team manager Antonio Conte certainly thinks so, stating about the move, “In a few years players will elbow each other to go there. [The MLS] will grow so much”.
Let’s not pretend that Giovinco is doing the MLS a favor, though. He’s still getting paid. A lot. His new deal will make him the highest-paid player in the MLS, and the highest-paid Italian player in the world by most accounts. Despite all the inroads made toward developing into a major league, the MLS still has to overpay its stars, as every large name recently has received a deal well above their market value, highlighting some of MLS’s major issues. The wage discrepancy in the MLS is stunning, with the big-name designated players making upwards of $6 million per year, while the MLS median salary hovers around $90,000. Younger players are forced into semi-guaranteed contracts, where they can be terminated without compensation by the clubs at almost any time, leaving many without safety net.
All of these issues are ever more salient as the league and players union try to hash out a new collective bargaining agreement to prevent a work stoppage. Free agency remains the sticking point for the union, as the MLS still bizarrely operates without a free agency system, but issues like increased league minimum salary and salary cap, and guaranteed contracts remain at the forefront of their disagreements.
It’s hard to believe the owners when they cry poor after doling out massive contracts like so many of them did this offseason, and it seems the players agree. With no real progress made in the negotiations, all signs point to a work stoppage, which would cripple the post-World Cup wave of momentum the MLS garnered at the end of last season. World soccer is a competitive marketplace for attention and money, and it remains to be seen if the MLS can afford to lose ground while mired in a labor dispute. In the players’ minds though, they might not be able to afford not to.