MLS commissioner Don Garber publicly opened the door to Mohamed Salah once the forward\u2019s impending Liverpool exit was confirmed, framing the American league as an appealing option for the Egyptian international.<\/p>\n
\u201cMo Salah is one of the great players in the history of the Premier League… I\u2019d love to see him in our league,\u201d Garber told reporters at the Sports Business Journal conference in Atlanta ahead of the city hosting the U.S. men\u2019s national team friendlies against Belgium and Portugal. He added: \u201cI couldn\u2019t say that until he announced he was leaving Liverpool. What a great player he would be in MLS, and I think we would provide him with a great platform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garber had taken a more cautious tone in December at an event honoring Lionel Messi\u2019s back-to-back MVP titles. \u201cObviously, if [Salah] ever decides to come to Major League Soccer, we\u2019d welcome him with open arms,\u201d Garber told reporters at the time. \u201cI\u2019d say he should reach out to Leo [Messi] and reach out to Thomas M\u00fcller and see how happy they\u2019ve been and how successful they\u2019ve been and how much they\u2019ve really embraced being in Major League Soccer.\u201d Messi\u2019s arrival in the summer of 2023 remains the headline example of high-profile signings, while more recent additions such as Antoine Griezmann, James Rodr\u00edguez, Thomas M\u00fcller and Son Heung-min illustrate growing acceptance of MLS among established stars.<\/p>\n
Garber also warned that future transfers may not require direct league involvement. He was \u201cnot sure the league needs to get involved\u201d in future deals, unlike the way it and its partners became intertwined in Messi\u2019s Inter Miami contract, which includes a share of Apple TV broadcast revenue and other perks not included in standard player terms.<\/p>\n
Interest is likely widespread across MLS clubs, yet most lack the roster space, local pull or financial heft to mount a serious offer. Reports on Wednesday said San Diego FC had not shown interest despite being owned by Egyptian businessman Sir Mohamed Mansour. ESPN reported the Chicago Fire were not involved in any active pursuit. New York City FC, which are set to open a new soccer-specific stadium in Queens in 2027, have also not approached, with CEO Brad Sims telling The Athletic: \u201cI don\u2019t think we need that,\u201d citing the upcoming calendar switch in the 2027\u201328 season as an opportunity for MLS clubs to further contend for star signings. Yet, he didn\u2019t shut the idea down entirely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Garber: MLS would welcome Mohamed Salah after his Liverpool exit and could offer him great platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,1396],"tags":[983,1545],"class_list":["post-9773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-mls","tag-agents","tag-mls-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9773","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=9773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}