Feature: Why the American Major League Soccer is now a fertile destination and new challenge for Ghanaian players

Published on: 18 April 2015

Gershon Koffie is being shown a yellow card by a referee: Photograph - Orlando City FC Facebook Page

By El Akyereko Frimpong

Click to follow the writer on Twitter: @AkyerekOfficial

Former Ghana U17 winger Ishmael Yartey is the latest player to head into the American top-flight as he joins Portland Timbers on loan until June from Swiss side FC Sion.

I watched English-born Ghanaian attacker Lloyd Sam score an incredible finish for New York Red Bulls when they defeated DC United 2-0 over the weekend. The former Charlton Athletic forward was in such a blistering shape at the Red Bulls Arena in New Jersey.

Scenes from the Vancouver Whitecaps away victory over Orlando City which also had Ghanaian midfielder Gershon Koffie was a great spectacle and atmosphere.

Black Stars pair of David Accam and Adam Kwarasey have been the recent arrivals in the league, joining established names like Dominic Oduro and Koffie.

Former Benfica youth team player Ishmael Yartey would be the latest to head to Portland Timbers on loan from Swiss Super League side FC Sion.

Across the sporting world, America is known to hold their own great affection for their home grown sports with that coming in basketball, American football and baseball. Football's popularity in the USA is limited to the word soccer while football is an entirely different sporting language to Americans.

Basketball for instance has got its own collection of accepted world stars, produced and hyped by an efficient modern promotion and marketing principles. Soccer players as they are referred to in the USA like Kaka, Robbie Keane, Clint Dempsey, Tim Cahill, Obafemi Martins and Landon Donovan cannot march the soaring popularities and worth of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kevin Garnett & co.

Americans understand the spirit of branding: Photograph - Orlando City FC Facebook Page

But despite pulling some parts of the world along with its addiction to basketball, the Americans are now directing the traffic an average of 20,000 fans into soccer stadiums on every MLS match-day. By nature, Americans are serious economists and understand the dynamics of it. Through true marketing spirit which is deeply engulfed in modernized branding tenets and machined by time-tested systems and supervised by its own very proponents, the Major League Soccer will continue to attract top stars who excelled in Europe.

In not a very distant future, MLS clubs will start to wrest the likes of Spain's Real Madrid and Barcelona for the world's best players of the sport. Already Europe's medium-size clubs are losing the transfer war to them. The lavished craze around the lucrative Uefa Champions League is still enough reason for the biggest men in the sport to stick to playing in Europe.

Atmosphere before an Orlando City game. Photograph: Orlando City FC Facebook Page

But America can turn the tables over time with their seeming huge capital injections and growing understanding of the game.

Some Ghanaian players have taken the step in playing in a league most home fans regard as meager and substandard. But the fact is league games in the MLS provide better atmosphere and competition than some games in Italy, France and Portugal.

Adam Kwarasey jostles for the ball: Photogragh - Orlando City FC Facebook Page

Avram Grant's arrival in Oregon a week or so ago to monitor the performance of goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey who plays for Portland Timbers shows the league has come off age. Grant would even want to see winger Ishmael Yartey who is also with Timbers as a loanee from French side FC Sochaux. Already the Israeli gaffer has Chicago Fire's David Accam as a permanent member in his squad since he took charge in January.

In some years back, football games from Portugal, Turkey, Scotland, Russia, Austria and Belgian all received a bad eye from some of us. But today some of Africa's and world best players play in leagues in these countries.

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anokwale 9 years ago
This is what I would say. It comes down to getting playing time. If you are good your are good. Why stay in Europe and be on the bench.

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