What is the real story of 2007 for MLS?

[Canuck Oranje]

I found this story on www.yahoo.com. I tend to agree and have posted on the subject previously although I would probably also put Toronto FC's attendance success as an important story as well.

MLS No. 2 says South America imports more significant than Beckham arrival

By RAF CASERT, AP Sports Writer

November 26, 2007

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- David Beckham filled seats, sold jerseys, landed on magazine covers, increased television ratings and brought Major League Soccer unprecedented attention.

Surprisingly, MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis insists Beckham's transfer to the Los Angeles Galaxy wasn't the biggest event in the league this year.

"What is the real story of 2007 for MLS?" Gazidis said Monday. "The actual story has been looking to South America and importing players from South America who are very significant performers in our league."

Luciano Emilio, a Brazilian forward on D.C. United, was selected the league's top player, capping a season in which he became MLS's first 20-goal scorer in five years. He finished ahead of Colombian forward Juan Pablo Angel of the New York Red Bulls and Mexico's Cuauhtemoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire.

Gazidis said the league's immediate future as far as foreign imports lies as with South Americans, not with aging stars such as Beckham.

"South America -- that is a market that we are mining internationally in the short term," Gazidis said at the Soccerex international conference on soccer and business, a day after the qualifying draw for the 2010 World Cup.

Beckham, a former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder, played in only five regular-season games because of a knee injury. Those games, predictably, were among the best-attended in the MLS, averaging 37,659 fans.

The United States' first-round exit at last year's World Cup has put a new focus on youth soccer programs in the United States.

"Since our World Cup failure last year, we have really been going around the world and specifically to Argentina, Brazil and Mexico looking at player development in those countries," Gazidis said, stressing there still was lots to learn.

Also, American soccer has never produced an offensive player who could start regularly on a top European club.

"To me it represents a significant failure on our part that, outside of perhaps our goalkeepers, we really haven't produced a truly world class player," Gazidis said.

[ag futbol]

Good find, I don't necessarily see the need to compare it to anything else, but I would definately describe the performance of the imports as a very significant. I think it's excelent news for the league that they've started to look past some of the aged signings of the past.

It is also a good point made by Gazidis that while American Soccer is producing significant players, they still struggle more in the offensive category, while they are quite prolific at producing keepers.

The activity for MLS in South America this off season has reached an all-time high, with clubs being spotted in both Brazil and Argentina scouting players.

[Crazy_Yank]

Good for MLS. They've finally figured out what Europe and Mexico did a long time ago. The best bargains are found in South America. I can't find the link, but I the average wage in South American 1st divisions is something like $400 a month. Not to mention the difficulty players have getting paid. MLS is a great option compared to that.

[Canuck Oranje]

I read that in the Brazilian Serie A, Palmeiras pays an average of around R$7,000 per month (about US$3,850/month or US$46,200/year). If you make him happy and double his salary (after all it would be more expensive to live in the USA or Canada), you could get some decent players for less than $100,000/ year each.

[ag futbol]

It’s very hard to find any salary information from those clubs. I remember thinking that they pay all their players peanuts, but I have seen in Argentina for example, where a player will get transferred between clubs and the fee paid is 1 or 2 million USD. Very strange.

[Canuck Oranje]

Transfer fees are a different thing and the ones that get all the attention are just a few players at the high end.

[ag futbol]

That's true, it's been unseen so far for a MLS club to spend a few mil on a tranfer though, so I just wonder what their true economic power is.

[Canuck Oranje]

There are very few occasions when a transfer is paid between two in Brazil. Normally, it involves a European club buying. Brazilian clubs are very at recognizing high value players. Those are the players they lock up into long-term contracts (mostly young players). Transfer fees are only involved when a player has longer term contract. Also, it is the rich clubs that can take the risk on signing long-term contracts with players which means the saying, "it takes money to make money", holds true in this case. There are even some cases where a club will partner with private investors to lock up a player (ie. Portuguesa is currently trying to lock up Diogo using partners).

But most players live from year to year and many of those players could be starters in the MLS. A good example of the contrast in approach between the Brazilian Leagues and the MLS is the case of Gremio Barueri, the team that I follow. With four games remaining, Barueri sat 6 points back of promotion to Series A. The team lost its next game which meant that its chances of promotion became remote. At that point, team management made the conclusion that it would not promote this year and took the shrewd decision to begin planning for 2008. The first step it took was releasing its two starting strikers (ironically around the time Mo was in Brazil). With two games left, it released five more regulars. In the final two games, the starting line-up was filled with young players being evaluated for the 2008 season. Predictably they lost their final two games. So far, the list of players released has reached 11 and the season ended only last weekend and all but one of those (backup keeper) played their share of games this season.

There are probably two or three regular starters and some young occasional starters that will be retained. As well, it has some highly attractive young players almost ready for prime time (ie. Juan Gomes was the leading scorer in the Sao Paulo U-17 league this year).

The first assumption might be that this team is facing financial problems but that is highly unlikely because it was the only team in Brazil to turn a profit in 2006 without selling players. That was while it was playing in Series C. More likely is that Barueri is using its wealth to sign new better quality replacement players to fill in around those players it has chosen to keep and the young players it will introduce because next year is the year they really want to promote. That is because their brand new 40,000 seat stadium opens for the 2009 season.

[amacpher]

Aren't Angel, Schletto and Blanco aging latin america stars in the same sense that Beckham is an aging European star?

The comments from Gazidis simply aren't in line with reality.

[ag futbol]

Those guys are of the aged variety, but in a much greater frequency you've seen guys who are not too old coming to MLS this year. I'm talking about guys like Toja, Emilio, Fred, Richetti, Galindo. Perhaps the best example is RSL who signed three Argentines mid season and started to turn around their play. The oldest one is 27.