Will LA Galaxy's Giovani Dos Santos ignite Mexican American support for MLS?
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Version 0 of 1. Weeks before touching a ball for his new club or even donning its training gear, Giovani Dos Santos made an immediate impact for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Two days after the Galaxy announced the Mexico international’s signing July 15, the team store featured a navy blue T-shirt with his name and number on the back. “The response that we received initially has, quite frankly, been overwhelming in a positive way,” Galaxy president Chris Klein said. Dos Santos represents the latest attempt by the Galaxy – and Major League Soccer – to stimulate widespread enthusiasm among the millions of Mexicans and Mexican Americans living in the United States. More than 9 million Latinos alone – most of them with Mexican ancestry – live in the five counties surrounding Los Angeles. Those fans will have the chance to see the 26-year-old midfielder make his LA Galaxy debut on Thursday in the Concacaf Champions League “The Mexican and Mexican American fans in my social circle are looking forward to seeing Gio on the field,” said Jose Alaniz, who owns season tickets and belongs to the LA Riot Squad, one of the club’s two major supporters groups. “Not many of my Mexican friends follow MLS and the Galaxy, so the Gio signing will definitely re-engage these fans and boost attendance numbers.” If Alaniz is correct, those fans could begin to reverse a decades-long trend. The vast majority of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the United States feel more loyalty to the teams they or their parents left behind. Mexico’s national team relies on that sentiment to make money by scheduling more friendlies in the United States than in Mexico. “Mexicans still don’t see MLS as a respectable league,” ESPN Deportes’ Rigoberto Cervantes said. “Mexican soccer fans overall don’t respect the league as it deserves, because basically they’re still too much in touch with their own clubs. They have a chance to touch their clubs watching them every Sunday on TV.” The Galaxy signed three of Mexico’s most famous internationals in the club’s first five seasons. Yet they failed to help the Galaxy win any of their five MLS Cup championships or inspire long-term support. Goalkeeper Jorge Campos became the first foreign player to join MLS. Campos, known for his flamboyant uniforms and his desire to be a striker, started for Mexico in the 1994 World Cup held in the United States and played for the Galaxy in 1996 and 1997, the club’s first two seasons. But Campos frustrated Galaxy management by competing in Mexico’s first division during the off-season, so the club traded him to the expansion Chicago Fire. Then forward Carlos Hermosillo arrived in 1998. At the time, Hermosillo held the career scoring record for Mexico’s national team. But in two seasons with the Galaxy, Hermosillo amassed just 14 goals in 34 regular-season games. Cervantes offered one reason for Hermosillo’s output. As the assistant sports editor at the time for La Opinion, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States, Cervantes participated in a roundtable discussion that included Hermosillo and the Galaxy’s Cobi Jones, a flank midfielder who would represent the United States in more internationals than any other player. “Hermosillo told me to ask him why he didn’t get enough balls and enough crosses to head or to finish,” Cervantes said. “The quote from Cobi was this: ‘I don’t have to put balls in the air or send crosses to Hermosillo because I am a striker myself.’ That headline was in La Opinion: ‘I am a striker myself.’ The last was Luis Hernandez, a forward with flowing blond hair and the nickname El Matador. The Galaxy wanted Hernandez so desperately that they agreed to relinquish two players in a special dispersal draft to fit him under the salary cap. Hernandez joined the Galaxy in 2000, two years after he set a record for most goals scored by a Mexican in the World Cup: four. But in MLS, Hernandez managed just 12 goals in 30 regular-season games over three seasons.“Luis Hernandez was a joke,” Cervantes said. “He came here to party, basically.”MLS terminated Hernandez’s contract in 2002. Since then, the Galaxy has not fielded a Mexican player. “That is why many Mexicans are very disconnected with the Galaxy,” said Eduard Cauich, sports editor for Hoy, a Spanish-language weekly published by the Los Angeles Times. “Only a signing like Gio can attract them again. This signing is different than Campos’s, Hermosillo’s and Luis Hernandez’s because all of them were past their prime when they came here. They were in a different stage in their careers compared to Gio.” Dos Santos’ signing comes three years before the Galaxy’s newest competitor, Los Angeles FC, will take the field. LAFC will replace Chivas USA, which folded last year as another abortive attempt to attract fans with Mexican ancestry. When asked how Dos Santos’ arrival would affect LAFC’s strategy toward marketing and player acquisition, President Tom Penn said it would not be appropriate for him to comment on other teams’ transactions. Klein dismissed the idea that acquiring Dos Santos provided the opening salvo in the upcoming battle for the area’s soccer fans. “It was never even contemplated,” Klein said. “I’m not sure that the Galaxy, with our history, needs to fire a shot across the bow. We would never make a decision for a team that hasn’t even started playing yet. We don’t make decisions based on marketing.” Klein witnessed the effects of decisions based on marketing. He played for the Galaxy when David Beckham arrived. Chaos, losing and internal strife so pervaded the Galaxy in Beckham’s first two seasons that he tried to manipulate a permanent transfer to AC Milan in 2009.Yet once that failed, Beckham helped the Galaxy win MLS Cups in his final two seasons in the United States. One long-time fan hopes the Galaxy’s newest major acquisition emulates Beckham’s belated success. “I am Mexican American and have been an LA Galaxy fan since day one at the age of 17,” Arolodo Mazariegos said. “I can’t wait until Gio straps on his boots, puts on his Galaxy match uniform and gives us many, many good memories – and hopefully more championships.” |