The Saudis might be splashing the cash and buying up a retinue of football stars, but the best example of a burgeoning league is to be found in North America, as Major League Soccer (MLS) rapidly gains traction in a market where it was long regarded as a minor sport.
With the help of occasional injections of marquee talent such as Lionel Messi, the steady growth of the league is now all too visible. With game attendance increasing exponentially and the league expanding as new franchises join, it’s taken professional soccer to more markets across the US.
Newer teams, such as Austin, Charlotte and Nashville, sell out almost every match — but the success story of St Louis City is at a new level, and it’s fuelled by major South African interest.
St Louis bills itself as the original “soccer city” in the US, claiming an organised league among its distinctive Catholic parishes at the turn of the 1900s. In fact, many of the key members of the US team that beat England in Brazil in 1954 in one of the great World Cup upsets came from the Midwestern city. But it last had a professional soccer franchise in the halcyon days of the old North American Soccer League, almost a half century ago.
St Louis City are the 29th franchise in MLS — part of a steady stream of new entrants over the past few years as the league gathers momentum and Canada, Mexico and the US look ahead to hosting the 2026 Soccer World Cup.
[Carnell] was for me the number one candidate, because I knew he could implement the philosophy we had our heads
— Lutz Pfannenstiel
Game on
Former South Africa international Bradley Carnell was 16 when he made his Wits University debut. He went on to play in the Bundesliga and was an assistant coach at Orlando Pirates before a chance came his way to work in the US. After a stint as stand-in coach at New York Red Bulls, he’s now head coach of St Louis City, who in their debut season sit top of the standings.
The process of putting together a club for St Louis was first mooted in 2015, but it was only in 2019 that the club was formally announced as part of MLS’s expanded franchise for 2023.
Progress over the past 24 months has come at breakneck speed, with not only a $460m stadium built near the iconic Union Station, but also a $300m training facility next door. The money for the first female majority-owned team in MLS comes from members of the Taylor family, whose grandfather made his fortune in creating the car-hire industry.
Carnell was hired by St Louis at the start of 2022 and had 12 months to assemble his team, scouring and scoring across the world as he put the puzzle pieces together.
“People said to me: ‘Don’t do an expansion team, it’s the worst, most thankless, job in the world and the most difficult job in American sport,’” he tells the FM. But the 46-year-old paid no heed and quietly went about his business.
By the beginning of this year, they were ready, with the signing of the promising Njabulo Blom, 23, from Kaizer Chiefs among the final touches to their squad. The Bafana Bafana midfielder arrived just in time for the season kick-off in February, where St Louis got off to a whirlwind start.
No new team, or “expansion side” as the Americans like to call them, had ever won their first five games, but Carnell and Co sprinted out of the starting blocks, setting new records. They have kept up the momentum and are now comfortably heading to the playoffs.
The vagary of the American way, however, is that you can end top of the table when the regular season is completed, but still have to go through the sudden-death playoffs to win anything. It means every game is a veritable cup final.
St Louis have not set themselves any targets for their inaugural season, but with their stadium sold out and with the results still rolling in there is a growing sense of expectation.
“The goal was to be competitive from day one,” says sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel, who arrived at St Louis from the German Bundesliga and was the man who hired Carnell.
“He was a terrier as a fullback and then he did a great job of being the head coach for a short time on an interim basis in New York,” he says of the South African coach.
“He was for me the number one candidate, because I knew he could implement the philosophy we had in our heads.”
On growing the club, and a sustainable business for the owners, Pfannenstiel adds: “Everybody who comes here, we give them a game. But of course you always have in the back of your mind that if things are going well you could sneak into the playoffs.
“Most important is to organically build a sustainable football club, which doesn’t come in with a big bang and then disappear again.”
MLS is not rated among the best leagues in the world but the standard of football is very good. It’s not what people outside think
— Njabulo Blom
Launch pad for local talent
Messi aside, MLS has in recent years become the launch pad for many careers. It’s no longer a parking lot for fading superstars seeking a final pension payday; it is awash with promising talent, assiduously watched by clubs in Europe who have already spent more than $100m purchasing players from the North American clubs.
One of this season’s outstanding performers is Bongokuhle Hlongwane, who joined Minnesota United from Maritzburg United in early 2022. After a slow start, he’s banging in the goals. Then Blom joined the league. And, more recently, Philadelphia Union spent about R15m buying the teenage Stellenbosch centre-back Olwethu Makhanya, while Toronto paid a similar amount to Mamelodi Sundowns for the emerging striker Cassius Mailula.
“To be honest, I had doubts because I thought the style of football was not anything like we do back home,” says Blom of when he was first told about interest from the US. “I know that the MLS is not rated among the best leagues in the world but the standard of football is very good. It’s not what people outside think.”
Blom says he struggled at first with the physical intensity of the game. South Africa’s top flight can be wildly frenetic at times and taxing on the lungs, but MLS is a lot more bruising on the body. “In the beginning I couldn’t keep up with the guys because the tempo is very high and they will be used to, like, taking the ball from me.”
His advice now to compatriots offered the chance to join MLS? “Come play, because it’s really a great stepping stone to grow. It’s like an introduction to a higher level of football.”
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