CC: Toronto Fc
Earlier in the month, Toronto Fc unveiled their newest signing for this upcoming 2022 season. Lorenzo Insigne, the latest signing is coming off a fresh Euro 2020 win with Italy, along with 5th place finish last year in the Seria A in Italy with his current club Napoli. The last time Toronto Fc transferred a short Italian forward from a European league, Sebastian Giovinco made the MLS his own. With Giovinco, Toronto won the domestic treble in 2017, winning the Canadian Championship, the Supporters Shield, along with the MLS Cup while winning the league. Could Toronto fans expect the same outcomes with a newer, better quality transfer? What does this mean for fans of the MLS in all, with another European superstar coming and bolstering the lineup of European talent in the league?
The significance of this transfer is that another big name player who is very well known in the European leagues having played in Italy, along with having Champions League experience with Napoli has come to the MLS, where the quality of play, isn’t the same at all. Noah O’Brian is a soccer enthusiast, who follows teams in Europe, but not in the MLS. “I’ve never been an avid MLS watcher viewer just because the quality of football isn’t that good. So like, for me as a viewer of it, it’s like seeing someone of his caliber and stature come over to MLS, he’s not outside of his prime, but like he’s like going in coming off a Euro, big Euro victory, and a big part in the Europe helping Napoli win a big championship as well. I think it’s a big significant thing for MLS and hopefully it draws other big European named talents over to the MLS as well.” O’Brian gave his thoughts on why he doesn’t watch the league very often, and how important the signing is for the North American soccer market.
Viewership for the MLS has been on a decline as of late, falling 7% since 2018. With the league only pulling 257,000 average viewers per season, compared to Insigne’s Seria A in Italy pulling 3.4 million average viewers, can tell you the difference in quality of play. Having those European stars coming over the ocean pulls in a lot of viewers due to the impressive skill they poise in a league with not too much skill. “I personally, I only really become a fan of the MLS seems to have the European team players on it. Teams like Orlando when they got Kaká, or when LA Galaxy got Ibrahimovic. It makes it more fun to watch because those are the guys who are a little past their prime, but can still hold up to the standards of play in this league. So I think it’s fun to watch those guys come over here and bring lots of viewership to the sport on the continent. It’s a big untapped viewer market.” O’Brian told us what he thought about European players coming to the MLS and what they bring.
When it comes to European stars in the MLS, one team stands out in particular is Inter Miami, boasting 3 European stars on their team. Blaise Matuidi, Gonzalo Higuain, and Keiran Gibbs, all three of those players have won a trophy in one of Europe’s Big 6 leagues. Gibbs won the English FA Cup three times with Arsenal, Higuain won La Liga with Real Madrid 3 times, the Italian League 3 times with Juventus and won the Europa League with Chelsea, along with Matuidi being on that same Italian League winning squad alongside Higuain. All of those players have European championship quality in their skill, does that mean we’ll get to see more champions of Europe join the MLS? “I could see bigger names and those people who are the world’s biggest names. I could see Messi coming over here and ending his career here, with the amount of money and like the lifestyle that it has to offer, that a lot of European people are drawn to, so I could 100% see some of the bigger names Messi. Neymar, potentially if they ever even Ronaldo. They have the lifestyle that we’ve got here in North America that they want. So, I could 100% see, some bigger names eventually come down to the MLS, when when their time is right. But me personally, I do hope for those bigger names bring a bit more broad viewership on MLS in the future.” O’Brian thinks that we could see the game’s biggest stars come to North America to end their careers, but not before giving MLS fans what they would all love to see.
Comments