Mexico Manager Juan Carlos Osorio Warns His Players To Avoid The MLS

While the MLS is improving in quality, it still doesn’t have the best reputation. Thanks to an influx of aging European stars, the league has come to be seen by many as more of a retirement home than a truly competitive league by global standards.

Juan Carlos Osorio, the manager of the Mexican national team, clearly believes that reputation as he has urged Mexican players to avoid the league at all costs. Playing in the MLS, he explained, is inferior to European competition and will damage a players chances of being called up to the national team.

“I have expressed this to Carlos Vela last year when I was in Europe, and I think the objective of all the world’s players is to go to Europe or at least that’s the primary objective, because there they have the best leagues, the best tournaments and thus they are seen all over the world,” the manager told Excelsior. 

“Now, every situation has its particular circumstances that merit further analysis, and I don’t know those of Giovani (dos Santos) so I dare not give an opinion about it, but I do believe that the objective of the Mexican players and all the young players who emerge is to play in Europe and stay there for long time.”

“I think that at some point they should go to America because it may be a long-term goal, but I think the time when a player is at his peak performance is to to be spent in Europe and not in MLS. I think at this time, that league is for the end of a career and not to play there as a player still has much to give,” he concluded.

Photo: The national soccer team of Mexico poses before the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup Qualifier at Rose Bowl on October 10, 2015 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Jonathan Moore/Getty Images)