Los Angeles FC lead owner Larry Berg has predicted Major League Soccer will surpass Major League Baseball in popularity during the next 10 years and Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas added it will be of higher quality than the Premier League or La Liga by 2045.
I find this laughable. I love soccer, don’t get me wrong, and I find baseball pretty boring, with the exception of the playoffs or when the Cubs are actually good1, but that’s a quick timeline to overtake baseball.
But to be of a higher quality than the PL or La Liga??? People have been saying American soccer is on the verge of competing since I was little and playing. American players will continue to slowly get better, but the best of the best are and will continue to be from Europe and South America, where the sport is number one, so that’s what kids play, and that’s what they grow into being the best of the best. To overtake those leagues, you have to entice those players to come to MLS and they don’t want to. They want to compete against the best, win the trophies that have mattered for longer than MLS has been around and that won’t change until Americans dominate the sport like they have in basketball or baseball, which will be exactly never2. And anyways, the world will probably be on fire by 2045 so the speculation is irrelevant.