COLUMN: All American soccer needs is a Johnnie Flash
Can you name three American soccer players?
Average American: Uh …
OK, can you name ANY three soccer players in the world?
Average American: Uh … Pele.
Sorry, Pele retired 29 years ago.
How about Ronaldo, David Beckham, or Rivaldo? Anyone? I guess no one in this country would know them. That’s because all the stars of the soccer world play in Europe and not in the United States.
While America does have its own soccer league, that being Major League Soccer, it doesn’t even come close to competing with the European leagues.
Actually, MLS is more equivalent to the minors of baseball. When MLS players get good enough, they sign with teams in Europe.
However, this will not be the case for too much longer.
Prediction: In 20 years, MLS will be just as big, if not bigger than any league that Europe has to offer. The United States will be right in the middle of the soccer world.
Now, no one’s saying that soccer will be more popular than football, baseball or basketball in America. Those will always be America’s sports. The prediction simply says that MLS will be one of the biggest soccer leagues in the world.
You can probably already hear die-hard soccer fans scoffing at this idea. After all, soccer is all they do in Europe. Yes, and hockey is all they do in Canada but most of the NHL is in America.
Here is how it is going to happen. First of all, a young, exciting soccer player will arrive at MLS. We’ll call him Johnnie Flash. He’ll be the Michael Vick of American soccer.
Johnnie Flash isn’t necessarily the best player in the world, but he is very exciting to watch. He can get up and down the field like the MLS has never seen and he scores some amazing goals.
He’ll draw a few more fans to games, but will go largely unnoticed by the American media because everyone knows he’s going to sign with a European team anytime now.
But then Johnnie Flash says he’s going to stay in America to play. That’s when the American media goes crazy. You’ll see Johnnie Flash on the cover of Sports Illustrated. You’ll see Johnnie Flash on ESPN. He’ll be a star.
Then what happens is what we’ll call the Sosa-McGuire effect.
See, back in 1998, baseball was in financial turmoil. Fans were still bitter about the 1994 strike and attendance was low and was only getting lower. Then Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire started hitting home runs like Babe Ruth on steroids.
And the fans loved it.
Every game those two played drew capacity crowds. Baseball’s image and (most importantly) attendance were up. Fans started paying attention to their home teams again.
Even though neither Sosa nor McGuire played in New York on a regular basis, more people were showing up to watch the Mets.
Which brings us back to Johnnie Flash.
He’ll be the darling of MLS. Let’s say Johnnie Flash plays for the Chicago Fire. All of a sudden, there will be 40,000 people showing up to watch every game the Chicago Fire play, whether it be at home or on the road.
Everyone wants to see Johnnie Flash score a goal.
Then people will notice the other teams that the Chicago Fire play. People in Ohio will see Johnnie Flash and his team playing the Columbus Crew. They’ll say, “Hey, that guy playing against Johnnie Flash scored a sweet goal, and he plays in Ohio. What’s his name?”
Loyalties for one’s home town team will appear. Attendance will go up. This will give the teams more money which allows them to pay their players more. This will keep more of the good American players in America.
Teams will even start going outside America to find better players. And 20 years later, when Johnnie Flash retires, the league will be just as prominent as anything Europe has to offer.
All of this because of one American star who decided to stay home.
This scenario is not only possible, but inevitable. Think of how many people play soccer in America. Everyone played growing up, and high school soccer is growing faster than any other sport at that level.
MLS simply hasn’t caught on yet.
It was only created eight years ago, unlike the NFL, Major League Baseball, or the NBA. Those have each been around for more than 50 years. And it took just one superstar in each to bring them to the national spotlight for good.
Baseball had Babe Ruth, basketball had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and football had Joe Namath.
The soccer transformation won’t occur overnight. But mark your calendars; by 2023, MLS will be one of the premier soccer leagues in the world.
Then we can start talking about naming three American volleyball players.
Bryan Hinton is a junior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to bhhinton@cc.usu.edu