‘It Rains Most Of The Time’ – Ex-Everton Star Says Players Will Choose MLS Over Likes Of Crystal Palace | OneFootball

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Former Everton star Landon Donovan believes that players will eventually choose the MLS over Premier League teams such as Crystal Palace given the way the league is developing and the salaries are growing.

Two players from English football, Miguel Almiron and Emmanuel Latte Lath, left the country in the January transfer window to travel to continue their respective careers in the MLS.

One more player with Premier League experience, Wilfried Zaha, also moved to the MLS, to join Charlotte FC, where Dean Smith is in charge.

Donovan, a former United States international with experience of Premier League football during a stint at Everton, is encouraged by just how well the league is growing.

He is bullish about players eventually picking the MLS over the Premier League as he feels few stars go to England to experience the country.

Expressing his view on the weather in England, Donovan told the Unfiltered Soccer Show (14:21): “With all due respect to England and the Premier League, it is a small country, it rains most of the time.

“People aren’t going there because it is an amazing place to be, they go there because the money is great and the competition is great.

“In America, if we get to that point everybody‘s going to want to be here. It is the reality. And I think that has been the slow progress of the league.

“Is it still a ways away? Yes of course but the progress of the league is moving towards that.

“Eventually you are going to see people say – ‘okay I get the same offer at Crystal Palace as I, and this is happening already, as I do at Charlotte FC I am going to choose Charlotte.

“Because they want to be here.”

Donovan spent time in England with Everton on two separate occasions, first in 2010 and then in 2012.

INSIDE FUTBOL SAYS:

Former Everton star Landon Donovan dreaming of a time when top players choose the MLS over the Premier League is understandable, but he is missing a key point.

A move to a top Premier League club gives players the chance to play in European competitions, against some household names in other top leagues – the MLS cannot offer that.

It is also clear that Premier League clubs have global followings in the way that MLS sides just do not. How many players grow up dreaming of playing for Charlotte FC? How many even watched them as a kid? The Premier League is what they will have watched and that remains a strong draw.