HALA MADRID! HALA MADRID! 

It’s the middle of July, and Real Madrid has just scored to beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the quarterfinals of the FIFA Club World Cup at Metlife Stadium in New Jersey. One would think you were in the Bernabéu, with over 75,000 people in the stadium donning the Real Madrid jersey. 

Although already common in other countries, soccer has recently increased in popularity in the United States. According to an Economist report from late 2024, soccer has overtaken baseball in popularity, making it the third most popular sport in the U.S. With the World Cup coming to America over the summer, the sport is projected to see huge gains this coming world cup according to ESPN.

San Jose Earthquakes’ Director of Communications Ryan Maquiñana said the FIFA World Cup could give an experience like no other, just as it did for him in 1994. 

“When the ‘94 World Cup came here to Stanford, I was lucky enough to go to Brazil versus Russia with my family,” Maquiñana said. “It was my first-ever soccer game that I attended live, but that wasn’t what blew my mind; it was the atmosphere.”

Since that time, Maquiñana said the Bay Area has shown potential as an area where soccer becomes popular. 

“The proof is if you look at last year alone, in the Bay Area, we hosted … the U.S. Women’s National Team against Brazil — that was a sellout. We had the U.S. Men’s National Team here for the Gold Cup at PayPal, and then also at Levi’s. We have Mexico versus Honduras in the Gold Cup semifinals, and that sold out Levi’s. We’re talking about 71,000 people for a game.” 

Maquiñana also said the 1994 World Cup started Major League Soccer, now including teams from America and Canada.

“(There is) a FIFA rule (that says) you cannot host a World Cup unless you have a domestic pro league,” Maquiñana said. “At that time, there was no league (in America), so … thanks to the World Cup we ended up having a domestic league.” 

Recruiting from U.S. teams also shows America’s growth. The Earthquakes recently signed 29-year-old German forward Timo Werner from RB Leipzig. Despite recent setbacks, he is a seasoned veteran in Europe, winning one Champions League and Club World Cup. 

“I think (joining the U.S.) is a trend we’ve been seeing in the league,” Maquiñana said. “Especially with this World Cup coming up, where all eyes are going to be on the United States, it’s going to have that type of effect where more and more elite players are going to pick MLS as their league of choice.”

The MLS, however, has previously faced a challenging issue In soccer, teams are able to sign players when the transfer window is open — usually during preseason and the month of January in Europe. However, the MLS’s transfer window is misaligned causing difficulties for players who want to join the league from Europe. 

In February 2027, though, MLS will change its schedule to align with other leagues’. Maquiñana said this will make it easier to switch from European leagues to the MLS..

“The one elephant in the room has always been the calendar,” Maquiñana said. “In the past it’s affected when players could come in, (but now) MLS is aligning with the rest of the world with the upcoming fall to spring schedule. I think that’s going to open the gates even more for teams to sign more high profile players.”

The U.S. has also expanded their youth development. In Sep. 2020, MLS founded MLS Next, a youth soccer program. Later, in June 2021, MLS founded MLS Next Pro to add another competitive edge to youth soccer.

Rodrigo Baptista, Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Soccer Academy said his club has grown immensely since he joined the academy, from 500 members in 2015 to over 1600 members and 100 teams today. 

Baptista said the growth can be attributed to different factors. 

“There’s more soccer on the TV right now than there used to be 10 years ago, and there’s a lot of hype with the womens and mens national teams,” Baptista said. “There was COVID a few years ago, and now parents want their kids to have more social activities, so there’s a lot of factors that play a big role (in the growth of youth soccer).”

The development of youth soccer in America has seen rewarding results. The U.S. men’s national team recently beat Uruguay, a dominant South American soccer nation. Many other American national teams have found success.

Maquiñana said youth fans are important in order to build a sustainable league with returning fans which he said the U.S. has been executing very well over the past few years. 

“With soccer continuing to grow every year, we see it at its very grassroots,” Maquiñana said. “That’s a testament to how well the United States has been really investing in the infrastructure of soccer. And in that sense, it’s a great way to grow fans organically, because they love to play the sport, not just watch it.”

Additionally, Maquiñana said having elite players in America allows for a stronger connection between fans and players. 

“If we have domestic stars, these are players that our fans can obviously relate with, because they see them with their national team,” Maquiñana said.

There are also many different aspects to growing a league. Past leagues, like the Chinese Super League and the Saudi Pro League, received large sums of cash injections into the league and resulted in many name signings to those respective leagues. However, both leagues have since failed in plans to become a competitor of European football. 

Dan Margarit, founder of San Jose Earthquakes’s ultras said that fans love teams that are built and not bought. 

“Real soccer fans would like to see a team being built from the ground.” Margarit said. “They don’t just like to see a team built in an artificial way, and I think it’s pretty easy when you have a ton of money just to bring in these big names.

Margarit also said that Earthquakes rivals Seattle Sounders have built a very desirable system. 

“I hate to say this because I dislike Seattle a lot, but I like their system much better.” Margarit said. “Seattle is raising their own players. Sure, they get one or two big names once in a while, but they have a very good youth system and they have great results.” 

With clubs developing locally, rapid domestic growth and a World Cup arriving to shine more light on US soccer, Maquiñana said the time has come for more serious questions to be posed. 

“How is (growth) going to impact the popularity of the sport going forward?” Maquiñana said. “Then you know if that causes an uptick in fandom domestically, does that mean you sell more tickets?”