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Jurgen Klinsmann Is In A Feud With The Commissioner Of MLS

Oct 16, 2014, 02:42 IST

U.S. men's national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann wants America's best players to play for the world's best teams.

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He has been vocal about this, even in the face of an increasingly popular trend where top U.S. players are returning home to play in MLS under lucrative contracts.

In urging his players to play at the highest level, Klinsmann has routinely thrown shade - implicit or otherwise - at MLS. On Wednesday, MLS commissioner Don Garber finally got fed up with this. He held a fiery conference call where he hit back at Klinsmann. Now two of the most prominent people in American soccer are beefing.

It all started with a fairly routine jab from Klinsmann before the Honduras game on Tuesday. Here's what he said about Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley:

"I made it clear with Clint's move back and [Bradley's] move back [to MLS] that it's going to be very difficult for them to keep the same level that they experienced at the places where they were. Reality is that both players making that step means that you are not in the same competitive environment that you were before.

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"It's not easy for Michael, and it's not going to be easy in the future."

Bradley left Roma, a Champions League team, to play for Toronto FC in 2013. Dempsey left Tottenham for the Seattle Sounders.

It's something that that Klinsmann has said before. His sole interest is in improving the national team, not in improving or popularizing MLS. It makes sense that he wants his players playing in the Champions League.

For some reason Garber decided to take issue with Klinsmann this time.

He torched him in this conference call, even mentioning that Landon Donovan should have been on the World Cup team:

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The quotes are somewhat petty and overblown, but at it's core it's a debate about what's best for America's top players, which is one of the most important questions facing U.S. soccer right now.
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