Latin American Flair Will Boost MLS Popularity

“Major League Soccer has a selling job to do, not merely with its players, or even its teams , but with the sport itself. It has to convince substantial numbers of Americans that soccer is attractive, interesting, and exciting enough to take a place alongside baseball, football, and basketball. It’s a tricky assignment, because soccer is a notoriously fickle activity that comes in many forms, from sparkling to downright boring. This is a crucial fact that MLS has not handled particularly well. In its debut year, 1996, the league imported a number of skillful and colorful Latin Americans í‚– Bolivia’s Marco Etcheverry, Colombia’s Carlos Valderrama, El Salvador’s Mauricio Cienfuegos, and Mexico’s Jorge Campos. But these were players signed not by coaches, but by the league’s deputy commissioner, Sunil Gulati.”

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