Marcelo Balboa: “We’re never going to eclipse the NFL”

Soccer has always been overshadowed by traditional American sports with NFL, MLB and NBA always leading football (soccer) in terms of popularity Stateside. Despite Inter Miami signing the top global star in Lionel Messi back in 2023, the sport has seen a significant uplift in interest but is still a long way from overtaking a giant like the NFL. An “impossible mission,” is how Marcelo Balboa sees the struggle, the 58-year-old is a three-time World Cup player and has earned more than 100 international caps with the USMNT and has been one of the sport’s main U.S. based advocates.

Despite the stern task at hand, Balboa believes that soccer has the ability to seriously threaten and possibly surpass other major leagues in the North American country and suggests that the ‘global game’ could be ranked only below the NFL and possibly the NBA in the USA

“We’re never going to overtake the NFL, that’s a fact. But other sports, other leagues, are concerned. We have League Cups, and they’re doing the same, with other tournaments in the middle of the season (the NBA Emirates Cup, which will take place in November). Many sports are concerned because they’re seeing the growth of our soccer,” he said at an event attended by AS USA.

He also pointed out that the arrivals of figures such as Lionel Messi and Heung Min Son are also factors that drive people to stadiums in the United States.

A gradual growth

However, Balboa acknowledges that the United States isn’t focused on that goal and asserts that they’re primarily looking to continue growing, even if it’s in small steps. “The stadiums are filling up, you can feel the atmosphere. For being 30 years old, this league is growing as it should: slowly, quietly.”

Even with the great growth that the MLS has enjoyed in recent years, Balboa believes that it is difficult to compare it with the major leagues of the world and Europe.

“We can’t compare it to the Bundesliga, we can’t compare it to England, Italy, Spain. We know that we first have to get closer to Liga MX and that’s what we’re doing,” he concluded.

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