http://www.footyfair.com/2014/06/50-most-famous-internationals-in-mls.html Some crazy names, i didn't realize that so many big names had come to MLS, given that some were in the twilight of their careers.
Top 40!! 1) David Beckham 2) Lothar Matthaus 3) Thierry Henry 4) Alessandro Nesta 5) Roberto Donadoni 6) Hugo Sanchez 7) Hristo Stoichkov 8) Claudio Lopez 9) Youri Djorkaeff 10) Marcelo Gallardo 11) Rafael Marquez 12) Juan Pablo Angel 13) Carlos Valderrama 14) Cuauhtemoc Blanco 15) Freddie Ljungberg 16) Thorsten Frings 17) Claudio Suarez 18) Walter Zenga 19) Denilson 20) Carlos Hermosillo 21) Andreas Herzog 22) Pavel Pardo 23) Luis Hernandez 24) Marco Etcheverry 25) Omar Bravo 26) Branco 27) Leonel Alvarez 28) Hong Myung Bo 29) Shaun Bartlett 30) Paulo Wanchope 31) Jorge Campos 32) Mikael Silvestre 33) Alain Sutter 34) Christian Wilhelmsson 35) Duilio Davino 36) Adolfo Valencia 37) Guillermo Barros Schelotto 38) Arne Friedrich 39) Mo Johnston 40) Thomas Ravelli EDIT : just past players on my list
All time starting 11 -------------------------------------ZENGA FRIEDRICH----------NESTA------------MARQUEZ-----------BRANCO BECKHAM-----------MATTHAUS-------DONADONI---------LJUNGBERG ------------------------HENRY------------SANCHEZ 2nd half subs : Stoichkov, Djorkaeff, Lopez In their prime that team would probably win a World Cup pretty easily
Carlos Ruiz, Mauricio Cienfuegos, Damani Ralph, Lubos Kubik, Peter Nowak, Miklos Molnar, Doctor Khumalo, Albert Celades, Francisco Palencia, Khodadad Azizi, Farid Mondragon, Mamadou Diallo, Juninho Pernambucano, William Sunsing, Abel Xavier, Frank Rost, Giovanni Savarese, Hugo Sanchez, Ronald Cerritos, Ivan Guerrero, Ronnie Ekelund, Ariel Graziani, Luciano Emilio, Christian Gomez, Jaime Moreno, Freddy Garcia, Laurent Robert, Mista, Danny Koevermans, Peguero Jean Phillippe, Simon Elliot, John Spencer, Ezra Hendrickson, Ronnie O'Brien, Eduardo Hurtado, Andy Williams, Donovan Ricketts, Tyrone Marshall, Onandi Lowe ... and who can forget that other famous Jamaican, Jeff Cunningham. That's skipping the Canadians like DeRo, Guzman and Onstad, as well as the dual citizens like Roger Espinoza, Dema Kovalenko and Yura Movsisyan.
y p lee who played with vancouver until 2013- south korean international defender who also played in the EPL and WC- truly a classy professional
90% of those guys were deep into there 30s & complete past it. This is basically a pathetic retirement league now, where the once big name stars go for one last big pay day.
Part 3 - Some more great players http://www.footyfair.com/2014/06/50-famous-internationals-in-mls-history_5.html
They got some facts wrong in the Part 2 listing. Guiseppe Galderisi only played 2 years in MLS.Revs manager Frank Stapleton snet him packing after only a couple of games in 1996. His total production was one shot off the post. He was picked up by Tampa, because they were the only team who had an open foreign slot and Galderisi still had a guaranteed contract with the keague. The following year the Revs (with his ex-Tampa coach Thomas Rongen) traded a player (Chiquinho Conde) for a guy they had given up for nothing a year earlier. He left MLS after the 1997 season, not 2000. Steve Howey? There wasn't a higher profile international than him? I was going to suggest the all-time great Columbus defender Ubusuku Abukusumo, but he only sounds like a foreign guy. Maybe the aforementioned Mozambican international Conde woudl be a better choice?
Part 4 is the last one. Man i almost forgot about Valderrama....what a great player he was, one of my all time favotites. http://www.footyfair.com/2014/06/50-famous-internationals-in-mls-history_8.html
Chiquinho Conde was amazing when he was young playing in Portugal's first division playing for Belenenses and Vitoria de Setubal. He was so fast.....