MLS has seen its fair share of stars over what is now a 30-season lifespan. Whether those players were global icons, cult figures, or unknowns who used the league to make their name in the soccer world, the league has seen some outstanding talents grace its fields.
Some of the biggest names are obvious: Lionel Messi is a player with no equal, while even the most casual soccer fan in the U.S. knows names like David Beckham and Landon Donovan.
However, MLS history extends beyond the ‘retirement league” cliches, and to see the league as nothing more than a home for aging big names and U.S. men’s national team hopefuls would be a huge mistake. From the get-go, MLS has been home to some extravagantly skillful players, as well as some incredible underdog stories, comebacks and top-level international talent that real soccer heads know all about.
With that thought in mind, here are USA TODAY’s picks for the 30 best players in MLS history:
Jeff Agoos
Only Landon Donovan has surpassed Agoos’ five MLS Cup rings. The longtime USMNT defender, who today is the president and general manager of the NWSL’s Portland Thorns, was a crucial piece for the most dominant team in MLS history (the D.C. United sides of the 1990s) and then arguably even more important on a San Jose Earthquakes club that won MLS Cups in 2001 and 2003.
Miguel Almirón
Almirón has only played three seasons in MLS, but his impact is undeniable. The Paraguayan put together two marvelous MLS Best XI campaigns with Atlanta United in 2017-18, helping a brand-new team redefine what it is to hit the ground running in this league. Almirón then joined Newcastle United in a reported $26 million transfer, which remains a league record. Moreover, the move validated MLS as a place for elite younger players to blossom before moving on to the world’s elite leagues.
The Five Stripes brought “Miggy” back this season in part hoping to recapture the club’s early success.
DaMarcus Beasley
As a fleet-footed winger, Beasley burst onto the scene with an excellent Chicago Fire side that won three trophies in his five seasons there.
The Indiana native – who is the only USMNT player to appear in four World Cups – then broke new ground with a transfer to Dutch power PSV, eventually playing in the Premier League and Bundesliga before returning to MLS in 2014 to join the Houston Dynamo. Remaking himself as a left back, Beasley became a leader in Houston, helping the Dynamo to the 2018 U.S. Open Cup.
Kyle Beckerman
The dreadlocked Crofton, Maryland, native owns the MLS record for minutes played by a field player (41,164), a remarkable achievement for a player whose career started before teams in this league really knew what to do with talented youngsters. His other MLS record (most yellow cards, with 152) speaks to a win-at-all-costs grit that made him a club legend for Real Salt Lake.
Beckerman played in six MLS All-Star Games and is one of 15 players with 400-plus league appearances.
David Beckham
Beckham’s place in MLS history is fascinating. The global superstar was an important piece of the puzzle for an LA Galaxy side that won MLS Cups in 2011 and 2012, putting up 20 goals and 42 assists in 124 appearances in all competitions. However, he was not the most important player on that team and missed time due to a torn Achilles tendon suffered on a winter loan to AC Milan that, at the time, went down like a lead balloon.
As a cultural force, though, Beckham’s impact was absolutely essential for MLS’ growth. His arrival served as rocket fuel for a league that was seemingly stuck in place, opening wallets domestically and doors abroad that were previously closed.
Sergio Busquets
Busquets’ career speaks for itself: nine championships and three UEFA Champions League wins with a Barcelona side whose stylistic qualities fundamentally changed the sport, and a pivotal role on the Spain team that won the 2010 World Cup to boot.
The 36-year-old may play an unglamorous position, but his presence in MLS remains mind-blowing for any long-standing league observer. Since coming to Inter Miami in 2023, Busquets has been nearly ever-present, functioning as a leader and the driving force of the possession-based style that allows Messi and company to make all the headlines.
Dwayne De Rosario
“De Ro” is a thoroughly MLS success story. De Rosario won eight major trophies and was named to the MLS Best XI six times in his 14 seasons in the league. With the San Jose Earthquakes, he scored a brilliant Golden Goal to secure the 2001 MLS Cup and later scored a physics-defying free kick that remains arguably the best goal in MLS history. In 2011 he won the MLS MVP award despite being traded twice after that season had begun (playing for Toronto FC, the New York Red Bulls, and D.C. United).
Between his wandering career, his trademark goal celebration, and a staggering highlight reel, the Ontario native is unquestionably an MLS legend.
Clint Dempsey
Dempsey started his career in MLS with the New England Revolution in 2004, eventually earning a move to the Premier League after three seasons. However, the second chapter of Dempsey’s MLS career with the Seattle Sounders is what earned him his place on this list. A blockbuster $8 million return to the league after European success with Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur broke new ground for MLS, with an in-demand USMNT star coming to the league at a time when that simply didn’t happen.
Dempsey’s swaggering, brash personality and creativity are ingredients MLS clubs have often had to find abroad, making him a uniquely important figure in league history.
Landon Donovan
Donovan’s MLS career was so impressive, and so important to what was a fledgling league when the California native arrived on the scene, that the league MVP award is officially titled the Landon Donovan Most Valuable Player Award.
No one has won more MLS Cups (six), made more Best XI lists (seven), or had more assists (136) than Donovan, who also sits third on the league’s all-time goal scoring list with 145. Between his time with the Earthquakes and Galaxy, Donovan lifted nine major trophies.
Marco Etcheverry
Etcheverry was the cornerstone of what remains the most successful run by a single club in MLS history. D.C. United won eight trophies from 1996 to 1999, including three MLS Cup victories and the first continental trophy in league history (the 1998 Concacaf Champions Cup).
Moreover, the Bolivian playmaker was exactly what MLS wanted to be: his skills would have fit in anywhere in the world, and his competitive fire (his nickname, “El Diablo,” was no joke) drove D.C. to heights it couldn’t have achieved otherwise. Etcheverry’s 101 assists in league play came in just 191 appearances, making him one of the most prolific chance generators MLS has ever seen.
Sebastian Giovinco
Giovinco wasn’t in MLS for all that long, but his four years with Toronto FC were unprecedented.
The pint-sized Italian won the league MVP award in 2015, leading MLS in both goals (22) and assists (15). TFC would go on to be the only team in MLS history to win a treble in 2017, claiming the MLS Cup, the Supporters’ Shield, and the Canadian Championship. In just four MLS seasons, Giovinco scored a league-record 13 direct free kick goals.
Thierry Henry
Henry’s numbers (52 goals, 40 assists in 135 appearances) speak to his class as a player, but where the Arsenal and Barcelona icon truly stood out came by changing perceptions about MLS.
Many global stars came to the league at the same point in their careers as Henry, who arrived in the league at age 33. However, none with his profile had brought the intensity and commitment to winning that the France legend did, and it’s fair to say he sparked a sea change at a Red Bulls franchise that had never won anything before his arrival.
Zlatan Ibrahimović
Whether you buy into the Zlatan persona or not, the towering Swedish striker made an impact in MLS that stands alone. Ibrahimović joined an LA Galaxy side in 2018, scoring 52 goals in 56 games for what was otherwise one of the worst teams in the league at the time.
Ibrahimović’s combination of skill, creativity and pure power remain unmatched in league history, and his subsequent success at AC Milan showed that MLS wasn’t as far from the world’s top leagues as some would say.
Robbie Keane
As much as the LA Galaxy’s best era as a team are defined by Beckham and Donovan, Keane was arguably that group’s most vital player. The Ireland striker was relentless for a Galaxy team that won the MLS Cup three times in four seasons, scoring 83 times in 125 total appearances.
His forward partnership with Donovan has arguably never been matched in the league, and Keane’s intense competitive nature was just as important in pushing the biggest club in MLS to capitalize on Beckham’s presence with on-field success.
Kei Kamara
A refugee who escaped the Sierra Leone civil war, Kamara has had a remarkably unlikely path to MLS stardom. The striker has played for a record 12 MLS teams, and he sits second on the league’s all-time goal scoring chart with 146.
Despite rarely staying with any team for more than two years, Kamara has aerial ability and an outsized personality that have won fans over across MLS. At age 40, Kamara is in the midst of his 18th MLS season, and he’s not merely hanging around. The target man is an often-used substitute for a serious contender in FC Cincinnati, and last season he had a similar role with another big-time franchise in LAFC.
Chad Marshall
Marshall’s 35,843 minutes played place him fifth all-time, and third among field players. A remarkable 16-year run in MLS saw the California native establish himself as a defensive cornerstone for the Columbus Crew and Seattle Sounders, leading both teams to tremendous success. In Ohio, Marshall helped the Crew to an MLS Cup win in 2008 and three Supporters’ Shields.
The center back then joined the Sounders, lifting three trophies (including the 2016 MLS Cup), and was a model of consistency throughout his career. Despite long being on the outside looking in with the USMNT, Marshall is the only player to win MLS Defender of the Year three times.
Josef Martínez
Martínez may currently play for San Jose, but he is synonymous with the incredible early success Atlanta United experienced when the club entered MLS in 2017. Martínez bagged 111 goals and 17 assists in 158 appearances for Atlanta, terrorizing defenses with a wide range of finishes. There have been few players to feel as inevitable as Martínez did from 2017 to 2020, before a torn ACL slowed his output and hastened his exit with the Five Stripes.
While his performances at Inter Miami, CF Montréal and with the Earthquakes may not quite have matched the good old days, the Venezuelan is sixth in MLS history with 123 goals. His strike rate of 0.62 goals per appearance is the best among any of the 13 players to cross the 100-goal barrier.
Tony Meola
Meola was a vital figure in MLS’ first few years, lending the notoriety he gained as the USMNT’s starting No. 1 (which also resulted in an NFL tryout with the New York Jets, among other things) to a league that needed all the help it could get.
The New Jersey native remains the only MLS goalkeeper to win an MVP award, doing so in 2000 as he helped a defense-first Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting Kansas City) to an MLS Cup victory. Meola’s 16 shutouts that season remain an MLS record, and we’d be remiss if we ignored what remains the best season a goalkeeper has had in league history.
Lionel Messi
If you’re regarded in plenty of quarters as the best player in soccer history, and you play in MLS, you definitely belong on this list.
Messi’s output for Inter Miami (49 goals, 24 assists in 59 games) is jaw-dropping, even knowing how good he has been at the very top of the sport, and only Beckham has come close to matching the Argentine’s cultural impact as an MLS player. He is, simply put, one of one.
Could MLS have more clearly capitalized on his presence? Certainly, but the GOAT being in the league has still been revolutionary.
Jaime Moreno
Moreno (133 goals, 102 assists) remains an icon with D.C. United, having been two different versions of himself in two stints with the club. In the ’90s, Moreno was the best forward in MLS, a classic speed-first No. 9 who was indispensable for a team that won three of the first four MLS Cup titles.
After a back injury that nearly ended his career in a 2002 trade, he returned to the District in 2004 slower but craftier, helping United win another championship in 2004. The Bolivian was a part of 12 of United’s 13 major trophy wins, landing on the Best XI five times. He and Donovan are the only two players to sit in the league’s all-time top 10 in goals and assists.
Pat Onstad
Now the president of soccer at the Houston Dynamo, Onstad won two MLS Goalkeeper of the Year honors in 2003 and 2005 (earning a spot in the Best XI on both occasions as well). Quiet and unspectacular, Onstad made positioning, sound fundamentals and organizational ability his top priorities.
The result? He was a key piece in the San Jose team that claimed the 2003 MLS Cup and 2005 Supporters’ Shield, then carried on when the team relocated, becoming the Houston Dynamo. That same group, now in Texas, continued an outstanding run, going back-to-back with MLS Cup wins in 2006 and 2007. In a nine-year MLS career, the Canadian posted a 1.14 goals-against average, one of the 10 best marks in MLS history.
Eddie Pope
In an era where center backs were big, mean, and slow, Pope was like a visitor from the future. The North Carolina native’s 12 MLS seasons were characterized with an unshakable calm with and without the ball, as well as the kind of mobility and comfort with the ball that became hallmarks in soccer over a decade after he had hung up his boots.
Pope won eight trophies in his years with D.C. United (scoring a legendary game-winner in the first-ever MLS Cup final), and landed on the MLS Best XI four times (twice with D.C. and twice with the MetroStars). He remains arguably the best center back the USMNT has ever had, another highly unlikely achievement for a player whose pro career was entirely spent in MLS.
Preki
Predrag Radosavljević had the kind of career that can scarcely be believed: Stints in Serbia, Sweden, and in the Premier League with Everton were broken up by years spent plying his trade in the various indoor soccer leagues that served as the best option in the U.S. before MLS kicked off in 1996.
In 10 MLS seasons (nine of which came with the Kansas City Wizards), Preki was named MLS MVP in 1997 and 2003, making him the only player in league history to win that award twice. With his trademark cutback move and powerful shot, Preki won two Golden Boot awards, while his 112 career assists rank him fifth in league history.
Steve Ralston
MLS’s first-ever Rookie of the Year, Ralston was a six-time All-Star Game participant and landed on the league’s Best XI three times (1999, 2000, 2002). The Missouri native’s 135 career assists are one shy of Donovan’s all-time record, while his 33,143 career minutes played rank 10th all-time.
Ralston thrived alongside Carlos Valderrama with the Tampa Bay Mutiny, then became a key cog for the best era in New England Revolution history once the Florida-based side folded in 2001. His consistent play over such a long span eventually won him a role with the USMNT, where he scored the goal that clinched the team’s qualification for the 2006 World Cup.
Nick Rimando
No player has spent more time on the field in MLS games than Rimando, whose 46,336 minutes played are easily the league record. He also holds league records for shutouts (154) and saves (1,701).
While Rimando is held in high esteem at D.C. United, his legend was truly built with Real Salt Lake, where he made 389 appearances over 13 seasons. There, the California native’s prowess at saving penalty kicks became mythical, and he would claim the MLS Cup MVP award in helping RSL claim its lone championship victory in 2009. While the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year award (controversially) never went his way, his place in MLS history is secure.
Carlos Valderrama
A legend in Colombian soccer, Valderrama was much more than his iconic hairstyle. One of the great playmakers on the planet in the ’90s, “El Pibe” piled up 114 assists in 175 MLS matches (the fourth-highest total all-time), including a 26-assist masterclass in 2000 that remains the league’s single-season mark.
During time with the Tampa Bay Mutiny, Miami Fusion, and Colorado Rapids, Valderrama played the game with a casual ease that MLS has only really seen in one other player: Messi. Valderrama’s vision and ability to weigh a pass perfectly meant that he could play with casual ease and still be the most dangerous player on the field.
Diego Valeri
Humble, dedicated, and possessing lavish skill, Valeri is the kind of player every MLS fan hopes their team will sign. Portland Timbers fans fell in love with the Argentine straight away, as Valeri led MLS in assists and clinched the first of three appearances on the league’s Best XI after joining the club in 2013.
During his nine seasons with Portland, Valeri would become just the third MLS player ever to surpass 80 goals and 80 assists, and he helped the Timbers win the MLS Cup in 2015 by scoring just 27 seconds from kickoff, the fastest goal in the league final’s history.
Carlos Vela
Vela was LAFC’s first designated player, and it could hardly have found a better candidate for the job. The Mexican forward came to MLS in 2018 and was instantly dangerous in a 14 goal/10 assist campaign.
That was just the appetizer. Vela’s 2019 remains the single-season bar all other players aspire to: a 34-goal, 10-assist masterpiece that set a new MLS record for goal scoring in one year and helped LAFC to the 2019 Supporters’ Shield. That’s the kind of productivity that only Messi has really matched, and it helped set a standard for LA’s second club that has thus far seen the team in the discussion for trophies during every single season it has existed.
Chris Wondolowski
There is no better MLS underdog story than “Wondo,” who was the 89th player selected across MLS’ two different college drafts in 2005. Wondolowski earned a contract with the Earthquakes but saw little action, largely stuck out of position as a right winger.
By the time his 17th season in the league had ended, the California native had scored 171 goals, which still stands as the league’s all-time record. It’s a staggering feat, especially when you consider that he didn’t become a starter (or score more than five goals in one season) until 2010. What followed was unmatched consistency: 10 straight seasons with at least 10 goals, including five instances in which he broke the 15-goal barrier.
Bradley Wright-Phillips
Wright-Phillips didn’t look like he would be much of an MLS signing.
With a more famous sibling (his brother Shaun played for Manchester City) and a solid career in the English second and third tiers, “BWP” seemed like a shot in the dark when the New York Red Bulls signed him in the summer of 2013.
After a tepid debut half-season, the move turned out to be a stroke of genius for both parties.
Wright-Phillips scored 27 goals in 2014, equaling what was the league record at the time and landing the first of two Golden Boot awards during his nine seasons in MLS.
The English striker scored at least 17 goals in five straight seasons and sits seventh on MLS’ all-time goal scoring list with 117 goals in 234 games.
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