Days after Egypt national team technical director Ibrahim Hassan tried to discourage Mohamed Salah from choosing Major League Soccer as his next destination, MLS commissioner Don Garber answered firmly in defence of the league.<\/p>\n
In an interview with The Guardian, Garber specifically rebutted Hassan\u2019s tone by invoking the league\u2019s recent high-profile arrivals. \u201cThat\u2019s the first time that I\u2019ve ever heard anything like that,\u201d Garber said in Hassan\u2019s comments. \u201cLeo Messi is the most popular player in the world. He was, and he still is. I\u2019d be happy to send an Apple subscription to the head of the Egyptian FA so he can watch as many Messi games as he\u2019d like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garber framed Hassan\u2019s remarks as part of a long-running skepticism aimed at MLS and U.S. soccer. He argued the attitude is familiar: leagues on this continent have often been viewed as inferior, a perception the commissioner said the competition is steadily outgrowing. \u201cI think that Hassan\u2019s point of view is very indicative of what MLS deals with as we develop as an aspiring major player on the world stage,\u201d Garber said. \u201cI can remember, not that long ago, Mexican national team coaches saying: \u2018If you\u2019re in MLS, you\u2019re not going to play for our national team.\u2019 That\u2019s not the case today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just constantly dealing with this perspective that we, Americans, will never get it, and it\u2019s just not true. I\u2019ve been dealing with skepticism for 27 years. It\u2019s never stopped me, and it never will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garber, who became league commissioner in 1999, has overseen a period of notable change. He pointed to the arrival of elite talent, improvements off the field and stronger pathways to Europe as evidence of progress. \u201cWe\u2019ve got dozens of players [who came through MLS teams] playing in Europe,\u201d Garber said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some of the best players in the world playing here. We have the best facilities if you put them up against any league in the world. We have a national team coach [Mauricio Pochettino ], who has been on the world\u2019s stage, who believes in MLS.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exchange highlights the tension between established international opinion and MLS\u2019s recent trajectory as it competes for elite signings and credibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Garber rejects Ibrahim Hassan’s warning on Salah, defending MLS with Messi, players and facilities..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1396,1163],"tags":[983,1162],"class_list":["post-10348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mls","category-transfers","tag-agents","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}