Some Of Our Guys Opting To Develop In MLS Rather Than Europe

The standard track was that if you had the tools to play in Europe then you went to Europe. Europe offered more money, more crowds, more excitement, and more competition. I still expect some of our young guys to go across the pond. However, some of them have chosen to stay and develop their game in MLS. Among them are Zusi (West Ham) and Besler (QPR):

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The midfielder and member of the U.S. national team signed a new four-year contract with Sporting Kansas City, shelving interest from several overseas clubs to remain in Major League Soccer in what could be considered a significant step for the domestic game. "Graham is a guy that obviously had lots of options all over the world,'' Sporting Club CEO Robb Heineman told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "We made it clear to him that we want to keep him here long-term, and we wanted to at least make it a difficult decision to leave.''

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"When you hear that QPR really likes you as a player and they want to bring you in, yeah, that's pretty cool. And so of course you're interested and you want to find out more, but at the end of the day I had a very big desire to stay in Kansas City. The club is No. 1. Kansas City, the city, is No. 2,” he said. “You know I love the city, but you can live somewhere else. You can enjoy another city. But if you're somewhere and the club is awful and you're not having fun, you're not enjoying it, then it's pointless to go there. That's why I like Kansas City so much, soccerwise.” - Besler

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The ability to keep some of the developing players in MLS comes from the Core Player Initiative retention fund:

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MLS executive vice president of player relations & competition Todd Durbin revealed to a small group of reporters before Wednesday’s All-Star Game that the league’s so-called “Core Players” initiative has been in place since this past offseason as a mechanism for teams to retain key members of their roster before their contracts expire instead of losing them to foreign leagues.

Sporting KC re-signed Zusi in late June to what manager Peter Vermes said was “for all intents and purposes” a Designated Player deal without classifying him as a DP. That was thanks to the extra financial resources of the Core Players initiative, which Durbin explained gives all clubs extra money in their salary budgets that do not count against the cap.

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The quality and capability of MLS continues to edge upward.