MLS has shared a list of the 25 greatest players of all time in celebration of their 25 years. The league has come a long way and is getting more and more respect season after season. They were once seen as an amateur league, then a tournament to go finish your career but now things are different.
Sure, some players go there to play thelast years of their career but right now the league is one where young players from other leagues can develop their game before making the jump to Europe or another league.
All the players that they listed made the league the big sensation they are right now but it feels like they missed some names that also helped them reach this current level. Some stars from the past and the present and missing, including one of their best players for the past three years.
MLS incredibly snubs Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Carlos Vela and more from “The 25 Greatest” list
Players like Carlos Valderrama, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, David Beckham and more feature on the list, but it’s still curious not to see some stars that have been nothing but great for MLS.
Starting from one of the most famous players they had in recent seasons, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who set the league on fire as soon as he landed in Los Angeles to join the Galaxy. Ibra was a scoring machine for the Californian club.
Ibra scored 53 goals in 58 games with his team in two seasons, making headlines every season with his performances on the pitch or his declarations after every match. In his first year, he was named in the MLS All-Star and MLS Best XI and was awarded the MLS Newcomer of the Year Award and MLS Goal of the Year. He did a lot in only two seasons before returning to AC Milan in Europe.
Another name that comes to mind right now is Carlos Vela, one player who had memorable duels with Ibrahimovic on the pitch. The Mexican star landed in Los Angeles to play with the younger team in the city, LAFC, in 2018.
Vela holds the record for the most goals scored in an MLS regular season with 34 in 2019, breaking the prior record of 31 that belonged to Josef Martinez. He’s yet to win a championship with his team but there is no doubt that Vela has already left his mark on the league.
Cuauhtémoc Blanco doesn’t feature on the list, either, even though he was one of the best foreign players in the league back in the day. Contrary to what happens with other Mexicans, Blanco was a very good addition to Chicago Fire and the league. He scored 16 goals in 62 games, a decent number at the end of the 2000s.
It is curious that the league didn’t include Blanco on this list knowing that they remembered the former striker in October, calling him a legend and icon, recognizing his contribution to the league during his time in the Windy City.
Another player that had a short but successful run in the league was Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who was Los Angeles Galaxy manager until the end of the 2020 regular season. Before that, he had a short but great stint with Columbus Crew.
The Boca Juniors icon signed with the Crew in 2007. In his first season with the team, he dished 11 assists, leading the team in that item. One year later, he went off, being chosen Player of the week four times, Player of the month once, and recording 19 assists and 7 goals during the regular season.
Barros Schelotto won the regular-season MVP award but that was only the beginning for him. He won the MLS Cup with Columbus, closing a great season with the team. The striker returned to Argentina in 2010 after having a great stint in the U.S.
We are in no position of telling the league who shouldn’t be on the list but it’d be interesting to know why they didn’t pick any of these players as one of the 25 greatest MLS players in history.
