It’s safe to say Jim Curtin is high on MLS’s potential.
The Philadelphia Union coach, fresh off of winning the Sigi Schmid Coach of the Year award, told ESPN that he thinks it’s possible for MLS to be right there with the Premier League, the Bundesliga, and La Liga by the time the 2026 World Cup gets underway.
“The stadiums, the facilities, the players that are coming here, the coaches that are coming here, why is it so crazy that by 2026 this isn’t the top league in the world?” asked Curtin.
According to data Pro Soccer Wire has analyzed deeply, 2026 is soon. Becoming one of the world’s best leagues in that timeframe would require MLS to accelerate its progress at a rate beyond anything it has previously achieved.
“I’m going to be the guy that’s going to get in trouble for saying this, but what if this is the league?” wondered Curtin about his future. “People say to me, ‘do you want to go to Europe?’ Europe’s a broad topic,” noting the differences between the world’s biggest clubs and the far more common experiences at the hundreds of top-flight clubs that are not in that select list of a dozen or so behemoths.
“It’s not all as glamorous as Man United or Chelsea.”
Curtin adds context
Curtin expanded on that idea while speaking to reporters during his press conference the day before MLS Cup.
“What I was getting at, I was talking about what this league has the potential to be, a top league in the world, not ‘this league is the top league in the world,'” explained Curtin. “I do believe, with the ownership groups that are here, with the men and women that are in charge that are winners in all their endeavors, with the facilities like you see here, with the locker rooms, the training facilities with the players that are wanting to come here, with the coaches that want to come here, this is a great place.”
Curtin’s experience with the Union makes it easy to see why he’d take that stance. Philadelphia has in recent years built a stadium in Subaru Park, which is right next to the club’s training ground and the home of their top-tier youth academy.
While the Union are routinely mentioned as a model of success on a budget due to their low-end salary spending, Curtin highlighted that money put towards infrastructure and other less heralded aspects of the club can be just as important.
“We spend in a smart way,” said Curtin, citing the pitch at Subaru Park as an example. “The surface that we have, they bought some new, innovative hybrid grass that plays a lot faster. It takes teams, to get used to it, a little while. You look at our goal record at home, like these little things, we are spending a million dollars for that surface.”
[lawrence-related id=9185,9016,6306]