Former Tottenham and Aston Villa striker Robbie Keane claims that several Premier League stars are open to the possibility of joining an MLS club in the near future.
He says that this is a clear sign that the league is growing in the right direction. MLS recently introduced two more franchises as part of the league while the plan is to take the number of teams to 24 in a few years. This has resulted in the need for more foreign players, as each club is allowed three spots for signing expensive names.
Kaka, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, and Didier Drogba are some of the Premier League’s household names have joined the MLS in the last year alone. Keane expects this number to increase going forward. He says that a number of his former teammates have expressed their desire to join the MLS. Apart from providing them with a decent quality of football, MLS also pays its designated players rather well with average salaries around $ 2 million per year. For a footballer in his final legs, this is an amount that appeals a lot. Keane says that there is a lot of difference compared to 2011 – the year when he joined LA Galaxy.
David Beckham was the first of the superstars to move to the MLS in 2007, and brought with him experience of the Employee benefit scheme Manchester.
“There has been a massive difference between 2011 and now. David Beckham was really the one who started it off and I followed him and since then, the influx of stars who have come over here has been absolutely huge.People like Kaka, Lampard, Stevie, [Giovani] Dos Santos, David Villa, Pirlo – they’re massive, massive names in Europe. It’s only going to get bigger and bigger, there’s no doubt about that. The league is only going to get stronger,” said Keane.