Former LA Galaxy striker Alan Gordon thinks the potential impact of Lionel Messi signing with a team in Major League Soccer would be a major catalyst in the same way the David Beckham and Thierry Henry once were.
While there is no certainty Messi will ever ink a contract with an MLS club, he has been strongly linked with Inter Miami, which is owned by one of soccer’s favorite son’s David Beckham.
‘Messi is the biggest name in the sport and one of the best to ever step foot on a soccer pitch. He’s going to fill stands,’ Gordon, who played alongside Beckham for the Galaxy, told the Guardian.
Alan Gordon has said Messi would have the same impact as David Beckham if he plays in MLS
Beckham is currently the owner of Inter Miami who are ‘confident’ they can sign Messi
Lionel Messi just won his first World Cup trophy for Argentina and currently plays for PSG
‘Before Beckham came, we travelled ‘Group C’ on Southwest Airlines with LA Galaxy. We’d walk through the airport and either nobody knew us, or nobody cared.
‘When he arrived, we went from playing in front of 10,000, to 60-70,000 people in [American] football stadiums. That’s what it’s going to be like. And guess what? I’d be the first to grab a ticket and take my kids to see Messi.’
Messi turns 36 next summer when his contract with PSG runs out and if he were to turn down whatever exuberant amount of money the Qatari-owned club would dangle in front of him to stay, it would be an against the grain signing for MLS.
Gordon played for the LA Galaxy for several years while after Beckham had joined the squad
Within recent years MLS has been shedding the label of being a ‘retirement’ league, that it gained after several big named European players came to the league well past their primes to a bag of mixed results.
These names have ranged from the aforementioned Beckham and Henry to the likes flops like Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, to more recently Gareth Bale, Gonzalo Higuaín, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The league has in recent years become a young players league, with some of world’s more talented young players coming to or through MLS clubs.
World Cup winner Thiago Almada is a prime example of a young player excelling in MLS
Thiago Almada is a perfect example of one of the wonderkids who moved to an MLS club in order to boost his profile while continuing his development and has succeeded in doing so.
Almada moved signed with Atlanta United for what was reported to be a league-record $16million after starting his career for Argentine club Velez Sarsfield.
The 21-year-old has since gone on to earn his first call-up and first two appearances for the World Cup winning Argentina National Team.
Messi’s contract at PSG runs out next summer leaving him free to sign anywhere he wishes
It is also worth noting that many of the European superstar signing in MLS have often not resulted in trophies.
Henry for example put up some of the most impressive numbers in league history after recording 52 goals and 49 assists in 133 MLS games for New York Red Bulls.
On the downside, during those five years the team reached the conference finals once. In similar fashion Ibrahimovic’s 53 goals in 56 regular season LA Galaxy games weren’t enough, as the team missed the 2018 playoffs and reached the conference semifinal in 2019.
Even Beckham in all of his immortality struggled for several years after coming to the LA Galaxy before ending his career with back-to-back MLS Cups.
Only twice has a big named European signing even been named MLS MVP as Robbie Keane did it with the Galaxy in 2014 and David Villa with NYFC in 2016.
David Villa was the last European signing to win MLS Most Valuable Player after the 2016 season
‘The first three years were awful,’ said Gordon of Beckham’s time in California.
‘There was so much expectation, but there are 10 other players on the field and you had to build a good overall roster, which was tough back then.
‘But he had this tremendous, fairytale ending. He stayed in the league and was committed, even though he saw failure and people were very critical of him. He persevered and ended up having one of the best teams in MLS history with Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan.’
Beckham poses with his sons (left to right) Brooklyn Beckham, Cruz Beckham and Romeo Beckham after winning the MLS Cup Final