He also said: It's just going to take 5 years for impressions to change to the point that the discussion about MLS represents the current reality. You might have to check your MLS hate if it's too powerful for you to read the entire tweet.
It really doesn't mean anything. Jurgen Klopp is the Global Head of football operations at Red Bull. Red Bull is an investor in MLS, I just find it funny when people gush about how everything in Europe is better. Then when coaches who've been successful in Europe like Klopp and Pochettino have some good things to say about MLS, they completely dismiss it.
Yes, MLS is a deserving league and it serves a very important function. That function is to make other leagues worldwide look better. It is much like the neighbor we had when I was growing up. He raised warthogs and his wife raised very beautiful roses. I asked him why he raised warthogs because they are so ugly. He said, "I raise them because they make my wife's roses even prettier." That is a lot of the reason for MLS. It makes many other leagues look better.
Poch and Klopp likely didn't pay much if any attention to MLS until their current gigs. They offer a fresh eyes observation of the league. They are also able to give a real assessment of MLS vs the leagues they have worked extensively in their careers.
Jürgen Klopp spoke about the improvement in Major League Soccer and the quality -- but how expensive the game is at the youth level 🇺🇸⚽️“In my whole life, I never watched as much MLS as I did in the last month. The quality is constantly increasing and getting better, even when… pic.twitter.com/IzLBQSR63v— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) October 1, 2025 Jürgen Klopp spoke about the improvement in Major League Soccer and the quality -- but how expensive the game is at the youth level “In my whole life, I never watched as much MLS as I did in the last month. The quality is constantly increasing and getting better, even when you’re still in the introduction phase. “We are introducing the game to a massive country. Big names help a lot. It’s difficult to fill a stadium with the style of play. But I like the atmosphere we have in our stadium, for example. I see it mostly on the iPad or on television because I’m not here that often, but it’s really good, it is enthusiastic, it gets loud. “We have a couple of problems in the USA. So I’m the new guy. So I’m not the one who says, ‘I change it’, it’s not my personality. I just observe and see what could be a problem. Youth football can be expensive. So that makes no sense at all to get the best talents. We all know that the best players (in the world) are not coming from the richest areas. I think the last one (best player in the world at the time) who was rich before he started playing was Kaka, if I am right. So this part of motivation is essential.” “That is what tennis was 50 years ago,” Klopp said. “It was a rich person’s game, more or less. Buying a racket wasn’t possible. Then it started in Germany with Boris Becker. All of a sudden, clubs opened, courts opened. In my village, my dad founded the tennis club and these kinds of things started and everybody could play tennis. “That’s the situation here; so many kids play football. But to get the right training and education at different stages, it makes sense that it’s free. It’s a long-term project issue for me personally and that’s all the things we want to go for.”
Frankly, I really don't care very much what Klopp said or didn't say. That being said, if you are going to reference his quote in an argument...please be a bit more honest in the way you represent his quote. There were two parts to his statement: Present state of MLS and future state of MLS. The "present" comment was his opinion on the actual current state of MLS and the "future" was a statement about what he thinks the perception (likely from Euro point of view) of MLS will be in MLS. The quote about the present is as follows: "I can tell you the quality is really, really good. Good players, a lot of talent, high intensity." If you misread it before read it again. Note the word "is". Present tense. It means now. Also note that he did not just say good. He said really good...then added a second really. "really, really good" is better than good..much better...much, much better in my book. Of course it is still a subjective adjective (one person's really good might be another's really, really good etc), but to imply or say that he thinks it lacks quality now is deceitful at best. The future comment: "I'm 100% sure, in five years time, we (will) speak completely differently..." I believe for this quote, it is important to interpret it from his perspective which would likely be European perspective as a whole. I admit, that I really have no clue as to the European view of MLS quality (not USA Eurofans or MLS fans), so I won't guess but whatever it is, he is saying that it will be thought of in a different light than it is at the moment. My interpretation is that whatever the current view of MLS in Europe, he thinks the actual level is at least somewhat better than the European perception. I do find his comments interesting but like I said, I am not too worried about it one way or the other.
Huge statement from US U20 mostly made up of underdeveloped semi-pro MLS franchises LLC beating on France U20 mostly made up of players in top 5 Euro leagues and elite clubs. MLS really hampering the development of our players with these embarrassing performances.
all credit to MLS for giving the U20 guys the platform to come in and dominate France but the problem isnt getting players to be good at this level. tim weah and dest and them beat France U20 a-team in 2019, remember. and cade cowell's u20 team destroyed thier group before a tough loss to evetual champ uruguay in 23 the problem is what happens next. thse guys like jordan morris or jesus ferreira or kely acosta or miles robinson on and on and on.....the players who dont leave MLS....STAGNATE and dont reach their potential the MLS job is to get good prospects ready to move on top leagues where they can continute to develop like tessman, mckenzie, sands ledezma etc when and if a usmnt fill of mlsers dominats the ful frech national team like this.....then I will shut up about players leaving MLS n order to get better
MLS just need to keep its best talent around, not sell to Europe unless offer is too good to.refuse, keep on opening up those wallets to bring in better foreign talent and MLS will be there. Baby steps, Baby steps.
Poch sounds a bit dumbfounded at the idea here in the U.S. media that some guys should be auto picks just because they play in Europe.
poch has been with the MLSers for 2 months basically....jan camp and gold cup he hasnt even called in a bunch of the euro guys, otr if so, only once he has a clear bias for what he has seen with his own eyes and is ignoring clear talent in europe because of it
yeah well have you never heard of EUROPA LEAGUE? or CHAMPIONS LEAGUE? even if teams arent in top 5 leagues, they are likely still facing high quality competition from ACROSS EUROPE so actually yeah europe is a league so for usmnt purposes, players on pananthinaikos, celtic, utrecht, etc...are actually going to be playing high level games against top eruopean opponents. how do you think MLS teams would do in UCL or Europa league? lol
They would hold their own and you would bring up some excuse as to why MLS sucks just like you did in the CWC when MLS played these exact teams you are always glazing. If Pafos, Qarabag, Copenhagen, Slava Praha etc are playing in UCL only because they belong in that Continent then I have no doubt that MLS could also compete in UCL and surprise many. And in Europa League you still have weaker teams than those on UCL. Heck, I would say Palmeiras and Flamengo are way better than most of those UCL clubs and definitely better than a lot of Europa League clubs and those Brazilian clubs didn't look that much superior to their MLS counterparts.
Ok, I think I've got it. I do have a few serious question though. How do you think the Justice league would do? They have a justice league Europe, but I don't see a justice league MLS...am I missing something, or did they not qualify for Europe?
Look, until the Justice League is part of a unified pyramid, where the worst justice leaguer can get sent down to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the best LoEG can move up, you can't really compare. And sure, we're only familiar with Aquaman from the Atlantean pyramid, but they have like 20,000 leagues under the sea, just a huge untapped player base I'd imagine...
They'd need to play them. Riding the bench behind conmebol journeymen isn't going to help us anymore than riding the bench behind homegrowns/croatians/dutch/portuguese/CAF prospects in the UEFA 1st and 2nd divisions.
Do our domestic players that go to Europe are they given and gifted their spot over there or do they need to compete for them?
Great post, but I’m still a little confused. Where does the college draft fit in? Hoping for more clarity…
I only speak on serious pyramids. I asked my friend, coach Conan, what is best in college soccer, he said "to crush the dreams of domestic youth players with our academy washouts, and hear the lamentations of the soccer parents".
We still have a lot of former NCAA players advancing to the USMNT on merit. People have been predicting the demise of the NCAAs for like 25 years now. It hasn't happened. The leading goalscorer for the USMNT this year is a former NCAA player. I'll give everyone a hint. He scored this past weekend in England.