The Progression of Soccer in America

Once an afterthought in American professional sports, soccer has turned into one of the fastest growing sports in the country. Domestically, Major League Soccer (MLS) is setting record viewership and attendance numbers every year thanks to successful expansion. Meanwhile, corporate America is starting to exert greater influence on World Soccer as US investors continue to take ownership stakes in numerous big clubs across Europe. Efforts to “Americanize” the sport have been successful in increasing soccer’s national popularity in America, but this growth has not translated into a better product from the US men's national team or MLS. Though there have been plenty of efforts to increase the competitive ranks both within the US men’s national soccer team and domestic leagues, results have not been good. Several systemic roadblocks continue to hold back American soccer and relegate the US to a second-tier soccer nation.

The current exuberance America is witnessing in soccer is not the first time that its popularity has spiked in the United States. The early 20th century was a golden era for the game, in which clubs from the American Soccer League (ASL) were able to develop domestic talent while also poaching some of the best players from Europe. At the time, the game drew crowds of over 10,000 spectators, audiences that were only exceeded by Major League Baseball. It appeared likely that soccer was going to assume prominence as America’s autumn game, until a series of setbacks derailed it.

By the 1920’s, the ASL was attracting some of the best international soccer players. Upset at losing some of their best talent under contract to ASL teams, clubs across Europe petitioned the Federation International de Football Association (FIFA), soccer’s international governing body, to step in. In 1927, FIFA threatened to expel the US Football Association (USFA) from world football unless they reprimanded the ASL for violating existing contracts between players and their European club teams. Forced to reprimand their only professional league created tension between the ASL and the USFA. The conflict came to a head when the ASL announced that league clubs would not participate in the USFA’s National Challenge Cup, leading to the once prominent American professional league being illegitimized by the USFA. The USFA subsequently created the rival Eastern Soccer League (ESL) in 1928 with the intention of severing ties with the ASL for good. Although a settlement was reached to merge the leagues in 1929, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 followed by the Great Depression wreaked havoc on a financially weakened ASL, leading to the league’s dissolution just four years later. Although the United States would make a financial recovery, the “Soccer Wars” set a precedent of dysfunction in American soccer that has hurt the game’s popularity and competitive ranks ever since.

Following the Soccer Wars, American soccer would be dormant for three decades professionally, reduced to a niche sport amongst German and Italian communities. Although the National American Soccer League (NASL) would eventually form in 1968, the upstart league struggled to compete with the up-and-coming National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) and the long-established MLB. To this day, these “big 3” leagues have dominated the American viewership pool and have been able to cultivate strong youth audiences that are driven to participate in these sports throughout high school and into college.

American soccer’s lack of mainstream success and shortage of competitive talent is not for lack of interest in the sport. According to a recent survey conducted by the Aspen Institute, 26.5% of all surveyed participants under 18 reported as soccer athletes, only trailing basketball for the lead. For young girls and boys, soccer is one of the most popular sports in America. However, when accounting solely for participation rates in American high school sports, soccer ranked 6th in participation for girls and 7th for boys. The data suggests that, in America, soccer is seen as an excellent sport to develop athletic skills but is less popular in a competitive high school context when measured against sports like baseball, basketball, and football. The decades that American soccer has spent playing second fiddle to the big 3 has, seemingly, impacted the sport’s ability to attract top-tier talent. American athletes are less motivated to pursue soccer competitively when most of America’s television viewership and endorsement dollars are focused on the NFL, NBA, and MLB. The divergence that has grown between soccer and the big 3 has been exacerbated by the American soccer model which has instituted policies that continue to hurt the game’s ability to grow.

The dormant age of soccer that followed the dissolution of the ASL in 1933 left American professional soccer leagues at a deficit of domestic talent. The drought ended with the formation of the NASL in 1968. However, the NASL’s only chance of survival was to acquire foreign talent to compete for viewership with the big 3. There was one individual who stood above the rest: the 34-year-old Brazilian Pele, who would sign with the New York Cosmos in 1975. Although the global superstar was far past his prime when he signed with New York, the move was a massive commercial success for the NASL. The Cosmos, who brought a maximum of 8,000 fans to a match prior to Pele, had an average attendance of over 42,000 fans in Pele’s final season in 1977. Pele’s commercial success left an indelible mark on American soccer. Lacking the domestic talent to put fans in the seats, American professional soccer teams have opted to sign international superstars at the end of their careers. The model of choosing name recognition over production has been ingrained in US soccer long since the folding of the NASL in 1985 and formation of MLS. While the approach can be viewed as a financial success, the practice of building teams around aging superstars has turned the US into a second-tier soccer nation and hindered America’s ability to develop top-tier domestic talent.

Founded in 1995, MLS’s commercial success did not take off until the arrival of English international superstar David Beckham in 2007. Beckham’s signing with the LA Galaxy made him the most influential soccer player in America, and his presence is still felt as one of the owners of MLS squad Inter Miami. While Beckham didn’t set the precedent, his arrival took the fading superstar model to the next level. His success in the American market made MLS the primary destination for aging soccer players in Europe looking for a last pay day in front of the bright lights.

Currently, the top ten salaries in MLS are all players purchased from Europe, with eight of them above 30 years old. American soccer’s prioritization of name recognition over quality has hurt the game’s ability to develop competitive domestic talent. Successful young American soccer players are typically exported to European clubs in their late teens or early twenties. Some of the most successful American players such as Christian Pulisic, Malik Tillman, and Folarin Balogun have never played in MLS or any other American soccer league. Aging superstars may be good for ratings, but they do little to conjure the type of fan bases you see in the NFL or NBA. And without the audience viewership, financial rewards also suffer to the point where the best American professional soccer athletes are compelled to go abroad to succeed. The American soccer model has focused on growing profits, but not on growing the actual sport which has set up systemic roadblocks that are hampering soccer’s continued growth.

While American soccer has made large investments in players like Pele, David Beckham, and Lionel Messi, the same investment has not been made in developing young domestic talent. The collegiate pathway has long provided American athletes with a stable roadmap to become successful in one of the major sports. If you stand out in high school and college, you will be on course to become a professional in your early 20’s. This model of development has reaped benefits for the big 3 leagues, but it has proven to be more problematic for soccer. Compared to a sport like football, soccer’s simplicity and physical burden allows younger stars to mature much more quickly. Elite soccer athletes in Europe are typically integrated into professional teams when they are still in their teens. The young adolescence developmental model that has been successful in Europe is diametrically opposed to the geriatric model present in America and the MLS. Rather than spending money on aging superstars, USFA and MLS need to invest in youth academies and domestic soccer leagues that focus on youth development for kids entering middle school.

In renowned soccer nations like England, France, Germany, and Spain, the talented athletes that rise to the top are usually scouted and developed in academy systems from a young age. Soccer clubs in these nations typically give scholarships to kids recruited to their academies in the hopes of making a return on investment from their production. America’s collegiate system is just not producing the same top-tier soccer athletes as the developmental model in Europe. One of the main reasons for this is that professional scouts and developmental academies in America are primarily focused on high school athletes. For the American soccer to produce the same results as the development systems in Europe, USFA and MLS need to attack youth development from the start of elementary school, so that the most gifted soccer players can get a head start on their development.

It is undeniable that soccer is starting to establish itself in mainstream US culture once again. Thanks to the staying power and expansion of Major League Soccer, America is beginning to see a real culture and tradition of soccer emerge. With the FIFA World Cup set to take place in the US in 2026, American youth will continue to invest more time and energy into the game. However, soccer has been on the back foot in the US since the 1920s, and its recent surge will not automatically equate to mainstream success. To build a competitive pool of elite global talent that can match the European and Latin powerhouses, American soccer must repudiate the fading superstar model and embrace a youth developmental model that fosters fluid pathways to professionalism for its entire pool of soccer athletes.