Apple TV's Sunday Night Soccer analyst joined Mic'd Up to discuss MLS growth, San Jose and Chicago's potential
MLS had a record-breaking offseason in the buildup to its 2025 campaign. The league's transfer record was broken on two different occasions, leading the way in a period of unprecedented spending for the league.
FC Cincinnati initially made waves with the signing of Togolese striker Kevin Denkey from Belgian powerhouse Genk, forking over a massive $16.2M for the striker's services. However, that number was shattered even further when Atlanta United followed it up with the signing of Middlesbrough forward Emmanuel Latte Lath for a fee of $22M plus add-ons. That's without mentioning the deals for U.S. international Brandon Vazquez, Newcastle United standout Miguel Almiron, and reigning MLS MVP candidate Evander; all of which were $10 million plus deals themselves.
"I'm no longer surprised when I see multiple eight-figure signings in one day in the offseason from this league," Apple TV's Sunday Night Soccer analyst Andrew Wiebe told GOAL. "There was a time covering it 15, 12, 10 years ago where that was unthinkable, where that would have been the story of the entire offseason. And this offseason, for example, Denkey gets signed, and all of a sudden it's covered up by three, four, or five other signings, which may not be at that level of investment, but are at that level of ambition."
Transfer business made waves, but internally, changes were made to further enhance the competitive nature of the league as well, with the main example being the introduction of the league's newest mechanism, . The internal trade system has incentivized the league's best players to remain in MLS, and now gives teams around the league a chance to poach top talent from direct competitors.
"While I still am a person who thinks the best of MLS is in the future, and I hope we get to that soon, this is the best the league has ever been, and I firmly believe it is only going to get better with every single transfer window," Weibe said. "That's the message that we're being sent every time the windows open."
With MLS kicking off its Week 1 last weekend, Wiebe assesses MLS's future and weighs in on the teams to follow along with stars the league should pursue after missing out on Neymar.
He shares why and more in the latest edition of Mic’d Up, a recurring feature in which GOAL US taps into the perspective of broadcasters, analysts, and other pundits on the state of soccer in the U.S. and abroad.
ImagnON MLS'S 2025 OFFSEASON
GOAL: Is this MLS’ breakout year on the world stage, where players, clubs and fans alike really start to take a look at the league from an in-depth perspective?
WIEBE: I would say this maybe this season, or maybe the next two years, because when I look at MLS, it needs to announce itself on the world stage. Transfers are one part of that, but competition, I think, is the more important part, and that's why I'm so interested and curious to see what happens at the Club World Cup this summer. Yeah, there is no doubt that inter Miami and the Seattle Sounders are not going to be the favorites in their group. There is no doubt that both those teams are up against it. But Inter Miami, you have arguably the best team this league has ever seen, and in the Seattle Sounders, you'll have a group of competitors that's only been improved in the offseason.
Those teams may not shock the world, but they can remind everyone that the gap in quality isn’t as big as it’s sometimes made out to be. That said, competing against Europe’s top five leagues comes with risks—you could also fall flat. Ultimately, I hesitate to pinpoint one moment, one year, or one transfer window as the turning point that elevates MLS to the global stage. To me, it’s an ongoing process of growth.
So it needs to be three years put together, five years put together, momentum strong over long periods, and no moment where you say we're good enough because no league in the world says we're good enough. There always has to be the ambition, the desire, and the investment to improve.
GOAL: With the introduction of MLS' mechanism this offseason, we saw an internal transfer market establish itself with the likes of U.S. international Jack McGlynn, 2023 MLS MVP Lucho Acosta, and 2024 MLS MVP candidate Evander all move. Was this an overdue move for the league, and how beneficial will the mechanism be for MLS' internal growth over the next few years?
WIEBE: I've been waiting for years for this moment. I've been talking to sporting directors for years about the need for this mechanism, . It changes MLS because it changes the equation. It gives great players an opportunity to stay in the league in prior iterations of the rules and prior iterations of MLS. If the Portland Timbers had to move Evander, there was no way that Evander would be moving within Major League Soccer, they simply could not recoup their investment. Yeah, that's a baseline for clubs who invest at the level that it takes to buy an Evander or a Lucho [Acosta], you need to be able to recoup that investment, and so players had to go outside the league.
And ultimately, that was a net loss for MLS. And I think it's incredibly smart for the committee to look at that and say, how can we make a change? How can we give more opportunities for players to find their best fit within this league? And so to me, it is a defining point that we will remember for a long time, and that is because the best players for the most money can stay in MLS, and the teams that have the ambition to go get them have the means to do so within the rules.
AdvertisementIMGANON TRANSFER BUSINESS
GOAL: What team made your favorite offseason transfer in the buildup to 2025, whether that be a domestic move, or one from abroad?
WIEBE: My favorite move is one that might surprise you. It's Chicho Arango to San Jose, Earthquakes. Something broke that we all saw last year with Chicho. We know he is an immense talent. We saw almost none of that for the second half of the year, after a banner first half, Chicho needed a fresh start, and who better to give him a fresh start than Bruce Arena, and this Quakes team has me absolutely fascinated.
The entire offseason I've watched his moves the way he's collected players that have maybe burnt bridges, or, you know, are past it, and just collected them from around MLS. It reminds me of a certain football coach where he used to coach… Bill Belichick. It reminds me of Belichick signings that might be slightly damaged goods with an extremely high upside. Watch Arena get the best of those players.
And Chicho Arango, for me, is at the absolute top of that list. He is a 15 to 20-goal scorer with any service and even a little bit of confidence, and Arena feels like the guy to get it out of him.
GOAL: What club would you argue is the most improved from 2024, and why?
WIEBE: Most Improved for me has to be the Chicago Fire. The Fire has been mired in mediocrity for almost as long as I've been covering this league, which is a decade and a half. Gregg Berhalter wasted zero time this offseason. And I know Week 1, for them, went against them, but the talent influx into that team is absolutely massive. Jonathan Bamba is probably the headline among them, but what I'm really watching is the improvement of the players within… Brian Gutierrez already showed us that in Week 1, and most importantly, the implementation of a style of soccer that has worked, worked at the highest level, in MLS, and no offense to USMNT-obsessives that didn’t like Berhalter, it worked pretty darn well for the U.S. national team as well. So I think in terms of coach, talent, and function, and where the club was at in terms of on-the-field product, for me, the Chicago Fire vastly improved.
IMGANON A PLAYER TO WATCH IN 2025
GOAL: If there was an individual that fans outside of their own market might not be familiar with, but is a must-watch player in 2025, who would you tell them to keep an eye on?
WIEBE: Patrick Agyemang. Remember the name.
Those who are slumming around in January camps definitely know who he is, and Charlotte fans have been screaming from the mountaintop for two years. But Agyemang has something that not a lot of forwards have in this league, which is the ability to beat defenders 1v1 off the dribble while having the size to finish in the box in difficult situations. He just needs to develop a little bit more composure, and a little bit more consistency in his game.
But Agyemang has all the tools to be a 12 to 15-goal scorer this year in MLS and follow a path well blazed by college players who came to MLS and then were transferred like Daryl Dike. He has all the ability. He has a ton of drive and in Dean Smith, he has a coach that will push him, and that's what young players need. It also helps to have Wilfred Zaha, who already this preseason has been putting the ball on his foot in the 18 and seeing him finish.
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ON WHERE MLS GOES FROM HERE
GOAL: Over the past few months, it was widely reported that the Chicago Fire were an MLS team actively pursuing the signature of Brazil international Neymar Jr. before he signed a six-month contract with Santos. Other names of a similar hierarchy in Antoine Griezmann and Kevin De Bruyne have also been linked with multiple MLS clubs. If the league were to add another superstar name this coming summer, who would be the best fit and why?
WIEBE: Maybe it's because I just watched San Diego up close and in person on the sideline in LA on Sunday Night Soccer on Apple TV, but I would love to see De Bruyne on that team. They have a midfield that has a ton of different interchangeable pieces but doesn't have the one guy that can pull the strings. To me, if you put De Bruyne in that system, in that environment, and let him loose, he is going to have 20 plus assists in the bank, as long as you have semi-qualified finishers in front of him and in Chucky [Lozano] and [Anders] Dreyer, they certainly have that.
To me, that's the sort of signing of an undeniably great player into the right system, in the right moment that explodes in this league. I would love to see Griezmann in LA [LAFC], Neymar, give me him in any market [in six months' time], I don't care, just entertain me. But if I was going to match a project with a player and the timing for it to be realistic, Kevin De Bruyne seems like the most obvious one to me.
GOAL: What are the logical next steps for MLS as the league continues to make waves on the world stage? What is the one thing that, if drastically improved, could take them one step higher?
WIEBE: Develop more game-changing homegrown [players].
If MLS can develop more players and give them the opportunity to become stars, not only do you raise the level of the league itself and the competition for places within the league, but you begin to raise huge dollar amounts in terms of transfers, and you also increase the value of the other players within the league. MLS understands that it needs to become a selling League, but part of becoming a selling league is the reinvestment of that money for the time being. The U-22 initiative, in my opinion, is best used on young domestic players, who have proven that they're top-tier contributors at the MLS level. It lowers their capital. It allows you to hold on to them, and then it allows you to sell them at the right time.
Right now, U-22 signings [are coming] from outside the league. It's a little bit iffy. It's hard to generate GAM [General Allocation Money] off those signings. If you pay $5 million, it's hard to get a big profit when you develop a player, all of that is profit and all that can be driven back into the product, which we can never forget, is soccer, the highest quality soccer that you can muster. And ultimately that comes down to the players. And so the more good players that you bring out of your homegrown systems, and hopefully stars, the better off this league will be and the more reciprocal the transfer market will be for a loss as well.