Thierry Henry started his career in France with Monaco, then moved to the Italian Juventus, English Arsenal, Spanish Barcelona, and now he is playing for the New York Red Bulls. It was at the English premier league club Arsenal that he really made his name, lighting up the soccer scoreboards with a record breaking 226 goals in 8 seasons for the club.

At the age of 32, he is nearing the end of his career, but there are still many top European clubs that would like to have him on their books. Despite this, he has chosen to finish his soccer career playing in MLS.

Henry’s decision to move to the US has given the league another big star after the arrival of David Beckham, who moved to LA Galaxy three seasons ago.

Although pundits do not think that soccer will ever reach the level of popularity enjoyed by the NFL, NBA and MLB in the US, with the immigrant community having particular interest in the sport, it could establish itself as a top five sport, and perhaps become even more popular than the NHL.
The average league attendance has been continuously growing over the last few years. The attendance in 2010 was up 10% compared to 2009. MLS was only founded in 1993, and considering that the growth of the league has been impressive.

Fortunately, the game has extremely good TV exposure across the US. Nearly every MLS game is broadcasted, and the 2010 World Cup was a huge success for its US broadcaster ESPN. 19.4 million viewers tuned in to see the US play Ghana last month. Unfortunately, the soccer scoreboards showed 2:1 to Ghana, but it was still a great event.

Since the 1994 World Cup, which the US hosted, a 16 team league has been created, with ten new soccer stadiums. Many soccer players are now well-known across the country, and with the arrival of Henry the league has another star player to further improve its image.

There are an increasing amount of casual soccer football fans who have a passive interest in it but who have yet to convert to MLS. If more players such as Henry come to the league in the future, then these fans might start to show a more active interest in MLS and even start to go to some games.

It is a particular feature of American fans that they want to feel like they are watching the best of the best, and for that MLS will continuously need to attract big names from Europe and South America.
For sure MLS is here to stay, and there will not be another collapse like we saw in its first attempt of the league to get going in the early 1980s.

For more information on MLS, go to: mlssoccer.com