MLS has been on the fast track to international credibility, but with the Chinese Super League’s deep pockets, America may hit a speed bump.
Soccer has been growing in America at an incredible rate. Forbes indicates that the average attendance at MLS matches has grown 12.7 percent in the past year alone. No doubt some of that success has to come down to MLS’s ability to bring big name European talents to America.
In the past year alone we have seen names like Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, David Villa Kaka and Steven Gerrard all jump across the Atlantic and find new homes in the states.
However, the common theme between most of the stars that MLS is attracting is their age. Pirlo is 36, Villa 34, Gerrard 35, Kaka 33 and Frank Lampard 37. These are all players at the end of their career. This theme has prompted MLS to be referred to as the retirement home of European football. Lampard was even subtly berated by a few within NYCFC for treating MLS like a vacation.
But the fact is that it is growing, and that is all that matters. These are players that Americans would not normally be able to see regularly. Just because they are in their latter years does not dull the impact they have on MLS.
Naturally, any time America has a good thing going, China has to have their say at one-upping the red white and blue. The Chinese Super League was founded 11 years after the MLS, in 2004. Yet they are already attracting some big name European talents that aren’t in their mid-30s.
How? Money.
China’s president Xi Jinping wants to make soccer in China massive. According to CNN, “China wants to build the world’s biggest sport industry worth $850 billion by 2025 and part of that strategy is to host the World Cup and win it. To do that it needs to learn how to play football, so it’s now acquiring and developing assets to enable this.”
Xi Jinping has been pushing business owners to invest in teams and the results have gone splendidly. So splendidly, in fact, that China outspent the Premier League in the January transfer window.
MLS showed that one of the keys to growing popularity is an increase in recognizable soccer players. China is following that model. However, China is also offering a cash flow that cannot be matched by the MLS. It is a cash flow that is so appealing that it is pulling talent away from the Premier League.
Alex Teixeira is the latest to land in the Chinese Super League. The Brazilian talent was supposed to be ticketed for Liverpool but a $55 million deal intervened. The price paid was a full $20m above his reported market value. The kicker is that Teixeira is only 26 and will be spending his prime in China.
China has also landed Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid as well as Ramires from Chelsea to go a long with a couple of handfuls of other players already established in the Super League.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has pointed out that the Premier League should fear the Chinese Super League. If the birthplace of football is supposed to fear China’s intent, then MLS, too, could see a downturn in the talent they are able to attract.