From Becks to Zlatan: The top 10 players to have played in MLS in the modern era
Andrea Pirlo
The world champion and one of the best playmakers football has ever seen decided to accept an eight million dollar a season offer from New York City FC in 2015. He arrived in July and a month later finished seventh in the voting for Europe's best player.
NYCFC had a quality team with other stars at the time but disappointed in the play-offs. Pirlo himself, however, showed off his artistry, pulling off beautiful passes and crosses, although he scored only one goal in 60 games. He was also the first footballer in the history of MLS to be included in the FIFPro World's Best XI for the past year.
As time went on, he was increasingly plagued by health problems and retired, but even at the end of his career in America, he didn't disappoint.
David Villa
With Barcelona, he won the Spanish title in both 2011 and 2013, then did so again in 2014 as a member of Atletico. After that, he left to join a new project in New York City. He spent the autumn on loan at Melbourne City in Australia, which has the same owner, and from the new year of 2015 began to haunt the defences of opponents on North American soil.
A lot could be written about Villa's career - he has won literally everything, including a world or European title, and he also became one of the best players to ever play in MLS. He was immediately captain, the first in the club's history, and scored their first goal, asserting himself in NYCFC's opening win.
In total, he scored 80 goals in five seasons and got over the 400 career goals mark, something only a handful of players have managed.
Frank Lampard
In July 2014, after leaving Chelsea, Lampard agreed to move to NYCFC. However, he could only join as a rookie in March 2015, and as the club belongs to the same group as Manchester City, he joined the English side in the meantime. It later emerged that he'd never actually signed a contract with NYCFC, and thus he played the entire 2014/15 season for City.
In the aftermath, supporters of the New York club chanted before the draft "where is Lampard?" and wanted their annual season ticket money back. He eventually headed to the US, making his debut in August 2015. At that time, the Brooklyn team had not only him, but also Pirlo and Villa.
Lampard played the entire 2016 season, retiring in November due to health issues. He made 29 MLS appearances, scoring a respectable 15 goals.
Didier Drogba
Drogba arrived at Montreal in 2015 and scored 21 goals in 33 games. He got off to a great start, winning the award for the best player of September, and finished the season with 11 goals in the same number of games.
However, health problems came and he had a disagreement with the coach who did not include him in the starting line-up in one of the matches, and so he refused to go to the game altogether. He gradually quit the team, but extended his overseas stay.
He finished his career at the age of 40 with Phoenix Rising, of which he was also a minority owner. At the time, the club was trying to put the USL on the MLS map, which failed. Along with Drogba, Shaun Wright-Phillips played for Phoenix.
Kaka
From Real Madrid, the Ballon d'Or winner returned to AC Milan, but then he left Europe. Despite offers from Brazil, he chose sunny Florida in the summer of 2014, only playing half a year on loan for his native Sao Paulo as Orlando City only entered the MLS from the 2015 season onwards.
In total, Kaka played 75 games in the states and scored 24 goals. He ended his career in 2017, turning down both Sao Paulo and AC Milan. As a player, he won everything, including the World Cup.
Thierry Henry
The Frenchman has become one of the most memorable faces in MLS. He arrived from Barcelona in 2010 and stayed for five seasons, with a brief loan spell at Arsenal in 2012.
His overseas home was the New York Red Bulls, where he scored 51 goals in 122 games. As a coach, he led Montreal between 2019 and 2021.
Wayne Rooney
Rooney was both a leader and captain for DC United. In 48 games, he notched 23 goals and several assists, including the now-legendary moment when his team needed a goal, so the goalkeeper went up for the corner. He stopped the counter-attack with a fantastic tackle and then sent a long-range pass to Acosta who scored.
He finished his career at Derby County, where he became head coach. Since July last year, the Manchester United legend has been DC's boss.
Steven Gerrard
Gerrard wore the red Liverpool jersey all his life and the captain's armband most of the time, but briefly became an LA Galaxy player. In January 2015, he signed a one-and-a-half-year contract.
It wasn't a completely successful tenure. Gerrard later complained that he was bothered by the long journeys to games and the weather changes in the various cities he played in.
He played the last game of his career on November 6, 2016 when he was eliminated from the play-offs.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Although he talks a lot, actions speak for themselves. The Swede has scored a whopping 52 goals in 56 MLS games. He has performed incredibly. In his debut in the Met derby against Los Angeles FC, he came off the bench and scored two goals to secure a 4-3 win, scoring the second from 40 yards out on the volley.
He scored his first hat-trick in July 2018 and in September he scored his 500th in an unbelievable acrobatic way against Toronto. Another season worth mentioning is the 2019 campaign, in which he scored a hat-trick to beat LAFC again in the derby, and another one contributed significantly to the 7-2 defeat of Kansas City.
Ibrahimovic called himself the best player in the league, but it has to be said that he proved it every week on the pitch. He broke the club record for most goals in a season (26). Despite that, the Californian team was eliminated in the semi-finals of the play-offs and Zlatan then announced that he would not continue with the Galaxy.
"You wanted Zlatan, I gave you Zlatan. You have nothing to show for it. Now you can watch baseball again," he tweeted.
David Beckham
Last, but not least. The fact that MLS, and football in general, is on the rise in America is because of him coming from Real Madrid to the Galaxy. Beckham is a global superstar transcending the boundaries of sport itself. It is no wonder, therefore, that he has attracted people to stadiums, to screens and popularised the unknown 'soccer' in the USA.
Pele, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Matthuus, Stoickov, Valderrama and others have also played in North America in the past, but that's history - Beckham has become the face of football for Americans. He lasted a total of six seasons in California and played 98 games. The Englishman was the only one of these ten legends who also managed to win MLS, in 2011 and 2012.
He is currently one of the owners of Inter Miami, where Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets are now playing. The Argentine will have at least the same impact on the competition, but Beckham simply lifted it from the bottom to the top, and America will forever be grateful to him for that.
Other famous players who have played in MLS: Gareth Bale, Robbie Keane, Ashley Cole, Giorgio Chiellini, Gonzalo Higuain, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Javier Hernandez, Riqui Puig, Douglas Costa, Clint Dempsey, Carlos Vela, Landon Donovan, Alexandre Pato, Lorenzo Insigne, Alessandro Nesta...