MLS turns 30 - just don't call it a retirement league
LES BLEUS: Olivier Giroud and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris celebrate LAFC's U.S. Open Cup final victory together
Less than 24 hours after spending an hour in the joyfully relaxed California company of France World Cup winners Hugo Lloris and Olivier Giroud, discussing their opening game of the new 30th season of Major League Soccer, I'm suddenly inclined to go against my life-long rule of not believing the hype.
For, from the languid lawns of their East LA training ground, I am now standing pitchside as they walk out in front of a raucous capacity 22,000 strong crowd at Los Angeles FC’s state-of-the-art BMO stadium. Only the most cynical would not get swept away in the sense of excitement and genuine joy that US-based football fans have for the game. They come in all ages, shapes, sexes and sizes, mainly bedecked in the black and gold of their favourite Los Angeles players.
The effortlessly coiffured, bearded French duo may have forsaken international football after lengthy careers in Europe for club and country, but look as fit as they did in their prime when they were fighting it out in the Premier League for Tottenham and Arsenal respectively.
Whatever you do out here, do not call it the retirement League. And, in fairness, that feels like a tired and now misplaced trope. Northern Ireland defender Paddy McNair, a Manchester United youth product and veteran of many a season with Middlesbrough and Sunderland, is a new recruit to MLS side San Diego FC and told me the standard is akin to the English Championship.
Don Garber, the MLS commissioner of 25 years standing, is the man the league revolves around, not, contrary to public perception, Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi. But the Argentine’s arrival last season has had a more significant impact than the not insubstantial noise made by David Beckham in 2007 and Robbie Keane a decade later, as Garber recognises.
“Leo Messi has really been a gamechanger for our league and for our sport, getting us recognition around the world,” Garber said.
He added: "I think our league is going to continue to grow. Every time I'm asked that question, and I say, ‘here's what it will look like five years from now.’ I underestimate where we're going to be. So, I don't know whether we'll have more teams. I think we'll have more fans."
World Cup winning goalkeeper Lloris is in his second season. The safest hands in LA told me: “There's a really strong fanbase that I was not expecting. We play in a full stadium with nice atmospheres. We have a good approach to the game with different coaching and different styles. It's really interesting. The recruitment restrictions makes the level quite equal between teams.
“I take my job like just as seriously as I ever have. Outside football is a life with probably less pressure, it's more quiet. Soccer, like they call it, or football in Europe is bigger. There is obviously more pressure from fans, media. It doesn't mean that there is no pressure here, but it is different.”
France's all-time leading goalscorer, Giroud, was even more laid back as he discussed the joys of living in California with his wife Jennifer and their four children. The former Arsenal, Chelsea and AC Milan striker joined Lloris here last May. They won their first trophy together in September as Giroud scored in the US Open Cup Final.
“I had this mental strength to always push me out of my comfort zone. I always had an ambition to play here when the time was right. There's a lot of things to do. It reminds me a bit of London, where I lived for nine years, and I really enjoy this city. This determination to be successful and always to work to improve my game. I couldn't hope for more.”
The downside? He sighed: “Since I arrived in LA last summer, we had three power outages in five days of 10, 12 and 15 hours. There was a massive earthquake when we were at the training ground. There were all the fires. It was a really sad situation. People lost everything. I also had a personal bad experience (when his family home was burgled). Hopefully, there will be better days ahead.”
Fast forward a day to the BMO stadium for the season opener against Minnesota United. The band is playing, the national anthem has been sung, flares and drums abound in the ‘North End’ behind one goal.
The guys running the show know exactly what they need to do to get fans inside the ground, as is shown with record attendances last season. MLS has become the second most-attended soccer league globally, with 12.15 million fans attending matches last season and season ticket sales at an all-time high for 2025. LAFC is now valued at $1.25 billion, making it the most valuable MLS team.
Day two of the opening weekend took me to the Dignity Health Sports Park, where the red carpet was again rolled out for the media. I was even presented with a team shirt on the pitch at half-time in gratitude for travelling so far to cover LA Galaxy’s surprise opening day defeat by newcomers San Diego. And when I say newcomers, I mean this was their first ever game as a club – they were formed last year and had only 24 training sessions together, with a few friendlies thrown in, before facing the strongest team in the country.
Their head coach is Mikey Varas, who most recently worked with the national federation and was interim USA coach before Mauricio Pochettino was appointed. He smiled: “We knew how we wanted to play but we do not know how we are going to react to any situation. I can walk into a quiet or noisy locker room and not know until we play which one shows whether or not the players are nervous or confident, happy or whatever.
“When I first got all of the players together – there were only a few signed when I first started – I just told them to pair up and talk to each other for a while and move on to the next, like a speed dating exercise. There was no time to waste. Every single second on the training pitch is 100 times as important as for all the other teams. Because even if the other team has a new coach and eight new players, they have 15 guys in there that know the league, that know each other."
San Diego are what is known as an expansion team. The owners paid $500 million to enter the league and another fortune staffing it and building a stadium. It represents the highest ‘joining fee’ in MLS history, to bring the total teams competing up to 30 (three are based in Canada). They are split into an Eastern and Western Conference, playing for the hope of playoff qualification deep into the season. Every match is screened live on subscription streamer Apple TV.
The organisers know how to keep it as interesting as possible for as long as possible. In charge of Minnesota United, narrow losers at LAFC last weekend, is Welshman Eric Ramsay. Appointed last season aged 32 and by far the youngest in MLS history, he earned his coaching reputation with Chelsea, Wales and on the Manchester United staff with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick and then Erik ten Hag.
No wonder he opted for the relatively less stressful attraction of MLS. The energetic multilingual football obsessive explained why he moved to America rather than follow his fellow young United colleagues Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna into manager jobs in the Championship.
Ramsay revealed: “I did have some chances to go to the Championship but I felt like this (coming to America) was a good step. I do genuinely feel like I'll be ten times better prepared for whatever comes next. It's not an easy profession, particularly in England where the level of scrutiny and media interest, even in League One, in the Championship is just insane. Getting managers sacked is a bit of a national sport.
“As a first-time head coach, I felt like it was a perfect experience. The league here is everything I wanted it to be in the sense that it is high-level. It's now the ninth-ranked league in the world and you feel that. It feels high-level in infrastructure, media, interest, fans, but also generally.
“Coming to a place where the owners are very sensible, you've got really sensible people that are looking at the long-term vision of the club, I felt like this is as good a chance I was going to have to make sure that when I come out the other side of this, I'm as well prepared for whatever comes next as I could be.”
It’s a crazy, fascinating, enormous country and while they take their football seriously it is, above all, a whole lot of fun to be around.
Major League Soccer has a complicated recruitment system in place to maintain a competitive balance, akin to many of their major sports. It enforces salary cap, Designated Player slots, homegrown player rules, international roster limits, and allocation money restrictions to maintain competitive balance.
Taking much of that into account, here are my top ten players to watch out for in the 2025 season.
Who else? The great Argentine is still a leader and joy to watch. Scored 11 in 16 appearances last season as a transformational signing for America’s version of Barcelona.
The prolific Uruguay striker scored 20 in 28 appearances last season. Ever competitive, already fined this season for grabbing an opponent’s neck in first game of the season.
The Germany midfielder moved to MLS last August and won his first league title by December. Can still run the show at 35.
Active Mexico international in his prime at 29, the former Napoli and PSV goalscoring winger is a new arrival at new club San Diego.
Atlanta paid an MLS record $22million (plus add-ons) for the speedy Ivory Coast striker. The former Middlesbrough man scored twice on his weekend debut.
Linked to Manchester City already, the attacking midfielder debuted last season aged 14 and signed the largest deal for a homegrown player in MLS history.
The former Crystal Palace winger has been recruited via a successful spell at Galatasaray. At 32, he can still have a major say in matches and is still at Premier League levels.
The Togo striker, only 24, was briefly the MLS record $16.2m signing when he came in from Belgium in January on a deal that runs until 2029. Scored on his debut.
Another impressive Ivorian, 28, who came to MLS via a long career in France with St Etienne and Lille before two years in Spain at Celta Vigo.
The Catalan midfielder spent nearly a decade at Barcelona before going to LA in 2022. His 17 goals and 14 assists were integral to his side’s success last season.
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