Trace the timeline of Major League Soccer from its uncertain beginnings to its unquestioned success and you’ll find Greg Vanney was there at every important juncture.
He played in 29 games, including the first MLS Cup final, in the league’s inaugural season in 1996, then came off the bench in David Beckham’s debut 11 years later. In 2017, he took Toronto FC to three trophies, still the only MLS treble, and last season he coached the Galaxy in front of a Rose Bowl crowd of 82,110, largest in the league’s history.
But if that’s the league’s past and present, on Sunday Vanney will enter the future, where a league that has long thrived on star power has reached a new level thanks to a player whose mere presence has come to dominate it.
The “M” in MLS stands for Messi.
Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player in soccer history, joined MLS and Inter Miami last summer but played only six league games. That, however, was enough to change everything. Ticket sales and revenue soared; subscriptions to Apple TV, the league’s broadcast partner, more than doubled; and Vogue magazine put Messi’s Barbie-pink Inter Miami jersey on its list of the 15 fashion items that defined 2023.
So just imagine what Messi can accomplish in a full season, something he’ll get this year. Inter Miami opened the season last Wednesday, with Messi playing all 90 minutes and picking up an assist in a 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake, and will face Vanney’s Galaxy on Sunday in front of a sellout crowd in what club president Tom Braun said would be the highest-grossing game in the history of Dignity Health Sports Park.
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And many in that crowd will be focused on one player.
“The greatest player of all time is now in our league. And it’s pretty exciting,” Vanney said. “We’ve really entered the global market of the sport.
“It drives more attention to our league. People will watch and they’ll understand that the league has a higher level than maybe they perceived. It just continues to help the league grow.”
MLS has been here before. In 2007, the league was a sleepy soccer…