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| ReutersYonhap News |
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Son Heung-min (33, Tottenham Hotspur)'s trip to the U.S. Major League Soccer (MLS), which is only left with an official announcement, is not without doubts.
U.S. sports media Athlone Sports said on the 3rd (Korea time) 'S Heung-min Son's trip to the U.S., who became a legend after playing for Tottenham for 10 years, is exciting many MLS fans. Many believe he will improve his MLS, but defender Frank Lebouff, who played for France and Chelsea, disagrees.
In an interview with the media, Lebouf said "MLS has made such an attempt before (recruitment of overseas star players). But in Japan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, it has proven to be ineffective. It is far from developing domestic players in the league, he claimed." Then "MLS can become stronger through the development of domestic players, not through image making through star recruitment." There is nothing that overseas star recruitment can bring. It doesn't make better culture, better football." He stressed that it was a beautiful ending for Son Heung-min to finish his career after his last game at Tottenham in Korea.
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| AFP Yonhap News |
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As Lebouf said, MLS has been keen on recruiting stars for quite some time. Starting with David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lionel Messi have stepped on U.S. soil, but they are far below the popularity of the National Football League (NFL), North American Ice Hockey (NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and the National Basketball Association (NBA), which are considered the four major sports in the U.S. However, as a result of its outward growth, MLS gradually developed soccer, which was treated as a 'girl sport' in the United States, into a sport of interest, and began to be illuminated as a bird's nest for overseas stars. Commercially, it signed a 10-year OTT broadcasting rights contract with Apple in 2022 worth $250 million (about 346.3 billion won), and Atlanta United continues to grow, achieving 46,000 average home viewers last year.
Since the establishment of the J-League in 1993, Japan has brought stars who have entered the twilight period, including Chiku, Dongga, and Dragan Stojkovic, and laid the foundation for the overall development of Japanese soccer as well as the box office success in a short period of time. Saudi Arabia was criticized by the European soccer community when it recruited Cristiano Ronaldo and Roberto Firmino with Oil Money, but Al Hilal overpowered Manchester City in the round of 16 at the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 and recently succeeded in attracting foreign investment in the process of privatization of the club.
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| APYonhap News |
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
