Major League Soccer players wouldn’t mind if Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo ran rings around them.
That pair of soccer superstars were whom MLS players most wanted to join the league, according to results of an anonymous survey ESPN conducted among 104 active players. Messi garnered 24 percent of the vote, while Ronaldo finished a close second at 21 percent.
“(Messi) because he’s the GOAT,” one MLS player said. “It would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“He would bring some branding to the league, would make more people watch the league,” another said.
Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has been linked with a potential MLS move this summer, came in third at 18 percent. PSG’s Neymar was fourth at 11 percent.
The chances of Messi or Ronaldo turning up in MLS in the next few years are remote at best, but no one says stateside players shouldn’t dare to dream about the opponents they’d most like to face.
