For most of the league’s existence, high-profile players in MLS have tended to fit into one of two categories: young prospects, from home or abroad, who have been developed in-house, and established stars who have moved Stateside to wind down their careers.
In recent seasons, though, a look across MLS’s most consistent high-performing players reveals a third class of imports – a group of mid-prime stars who have moved to North America with the aim of kickstarting stalled careers.
Riqui Puig was one of the jewels of Barcelona’s La Masia academy but struggled to break into the first team at Camp Nou. The 24-year-old is now thriving with LA Galaxy, with seven goals and four assists in MLS this season. Scottish attacking midfielder Ryan Gauld first generated widespread buzz as a young player at Sporting CP, but after a string of uneventful loan moves, the 27-year-old is finally fulfilling his potential with the Vancouver Whitecaps, where he’s been a revelation since joining the club in 2021.
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It’s a similar story for New England Revolution’s Carles Gil, who struggled to meet expectations at Aston Villa in the Premier League. The 30-year-old has been one of the best forwards in MLS over the last five seasons. The likes of former Germany under-21 standout Hany Mukhtar at Nashville SC, Columbus Crew’s Cucho Hernandez and Sebastian Driussi of Austin FC have followed similar trajectories to MLS stardom.
One of the reasons cited for the growth of this burgeoning category of import is that, until recently, such players did not consider a move to North America. Now, though, thanks to infrastructural advancement and the growth of the sport among the US public, MLS franchises can offer an all-encompassing soccer environment on par with the European clubs to which these players might previously have been more attracted.
“We have a league and product on the field that is now strongly established and is appealing to both young potential prospects and senior pros who are mid-career,” says Neil McGuinness, the director of player scouting and recruitment at Columbus Crew, “which has made the market so much more open and diverse than it was back in the 90s.”
Lucy Rushton, DC United’s former general manager, agrees. “The stadiums and the training facilities that these clubs have are second to none,” she says. “What we have now in…