Ex-Germany star Klinsmann – MLS has come a long way

Former Germany star Jurgen Klinsmann believes Major League Soccer has come a long way in the past decade.

The 46-year old ex-Inter Milan, Monaco, Tottenham and Bayern Munich striker was in Seattle on the weekend to watch the Sounders take on the Houston Dyanmo and spoke to reporters about the state of the sport in the USA since he arrived among other things.

"Well I think MLS has come a long way. I look how it was 10-12 years ago and now with adding teams, adding soccer-specific stadiums, bringing in players from overseas, so it's come a long way. Still has a long way to go and I think everyone knows that, but it's awesome to see it,” he said.

Klinsmann believes that the job being done in Seattle will go a long way to improving the league and said the expansion of the league, along with development at grassroots level, will see soccer in America and Canada get so much better.

“I think Seattle plays a big role over the last two years in what's happened here, with the people behind the team -- great fans. And the facilities like that (at Starfire Sports Complex) with the kids playing along side the pros, it connects people,” he added.

“I think that's just wonderful to see. It's a process that takes time, and next year coming in more teams. Vancouver will be part of it, Montreal will be part of it. When you look at it, where the league was 10 years ago when I was a little bit involved with it with the Anschutz group -- when I think Phil Anschutz had five or six teams just to keep the league alive -- and now where you are with different owners, different people involved with it, connecting it to the youth game, connecting it to a lower-level infrastructure, I think it's come a long way and there are still so many things you got to do to be better."