Football General Manager
- Balboa urges removal of spending limitations
- Supports transition to calendar-year schedule
- Wants balanced approach to player development
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Ex-USMNT star Marcelo Balboa critiqued Major League Soccer‘s financial structure and player acquisition rules, saying the league must “take the handcuffs off” clubs to facilitate further growth.
The former MLS defender highlighted the importance of loosening the salary cap to allow teams to pursue more international talent, as Inter Miami have done in recent years with the likes of Lionel Messi and, last week, Rodriqo De Paul.
“The fact that where we’ve built these new franchises has been fantastic,” Balboa told CBS Sports Golazo America. “Be it Charlotte the way the people have responded, Nashville with the new stadiums, even San Diego right now, what they did, St. Louis. So I think that’s always a huge bonus for me.
“Like anything else, where do we, I guess, take the handcuffs off? And let some of these teams start spending some real money to bring in some big time players besides Messi and DePaul and players like that? It would be nice to see them open up that salary cap.”
Balboa supported a potential move to fall-to-spring calendar, aligning the MLS schedule with that of Europe.
“It would be nice to see them go to a calendar year – I think that’s going to be important as everywhere else in the world,” he said. “So you can bring in transfer fees and bring in players at the right time instead of having to wait, because our transfer window is different than the European window. So, I think there’s a lot of positive things that have happened in this league, but I think we’re still handcuffing ourselves because we’re not allowing ourselves to open that market and allowing ourselves…
“We’re standing in a great place, man. In ’96, they told us ‘You have money for three years and we’ll see what we’ll do and how will more things out after that?’ And we’re sitting here, 30 years later talking about a league that is expanded with some of the best facilities in the world, some of the best stadiums in the world and wonderful fans. So we couldn’t be happier.”
The former MLS star said that, while there are clubs that could opt to fill their team with foreign players, there will always be MLS teams focusing on domestic talent.u0026nbsp;
“We talk about handcuffing, there’s always 30 teams,” Balboa said. “So, seven of them are going to take that, ‘We’re going to take the full approach of buying the best players of the world, bringing in players.’ But there are other teams that have a lot of Americans on there. So I think it’s a balance like you do in a South America, like you do in Europe. There’s always a balance.
“But there’s other teams that you look around that have seven or eight MLS starters. So I go back and say that’s what the academy is for. If we do our jobs right we’ll be selling 17-year-olds, 18-year-olds to Europe. And then when they get older they’ll be coming back.”
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The Colorado Rapids recently announced that they are set to retire Marcelo Balboa’s No. 17 to honor the legacy of the former USMNT defender. Balboa spent five years with the Rapids, making more than 150 appearances, and earning 127 caps for the USMNT, as well.
MLS is currently reviewing the potential to change the league’s calendar to a European model, but there have not yet been any decisions.
