There were times Cobi Jones didn’t think Major League Soccer would survive its first few years, let alone a quarter-century.
When MLS contracted by two teams in 2002, Jones and his fellow players wondered if the fledgling domestic league was in trouble.
They shouldn’t have worried. MLS is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, commemorating it Wednesday with the release of the MLS 25 Greatest. Among the former players on the list are Jones, Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Clint Dempsey and Robbie Keane.
“There were ups and downs within the league over the time, but to see where it is now as compared to where it was 25 years ago, it’s drastic changes, and I don’t think I could have even dreamed that it would have been this momentous, this special, and this much growth over that 25 years,” said Jones, who was one of the league’s original players, spending his entire 11-year career with the LA Galaxy.
A panel of nearly 200 people tied to the league was surveyed to select the players who “achieved the most on the field, drove the narrative off the field, and helped lay the foundation and set the course for MLS’s next 25 years.”