Major League Soccer held its 2024 All-Star Game on Wednesday, July 24, on the home turf of the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew. This year’s format featured a diverse MLS roster combed from the rosters of 18 of the league’s 29 teams (26 in the United States and three in Canada) against the best from Liga MX.
Besides the All-Star match, this year’s festivities also featured an All-Stars Skills Challenge, MLS Next All-Star Game and Special Olympics Unified Sports All-Star Game. Players are awarded roster spots through a combination of fan voting and selections by the appointed manager and league commissioner.
This year’s MLS All-Star roster featured 32 players from 18 clubs.
Lionel Messi of Inter Milan CF was voted into the roster. Columbus had the most all-star selections with five while Inter Miami had four.
The L.A. Football Club (two selections) and L.A. Galaxy (two selections) both had representation from the Southern California region.
Players on San Diego FC’s expansion club roster will be eligible for selection to the 2025 MLS All-Star Game. If fans get out the vote, San Diego FC could be represented in its inaugural season.
The MLS All-Star Game dates to 1996.
England’s Arsenal defeated the MLS All-Stars, 5-0, in the 2023 game in Washington, D.C. for its second title in the series. Overall, the MLS All-Stars had won 11 titles in the series against international competition.
Youth on call
San Diego FC’s Right to Dream Academy will host its first-ever free open tryouts in Chula Vista and Tijuana for boys born 2010-14 coming up in August. The two events offer an opportunity for youth players to be scouted to join the club’s youth development academy.
The San Diego region tryout is scheduled Aug. 8 at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center, located at 2800 Olympic Pkwy, Chula Vista. Start time is at 8 a.m.
The Tijuana tryout date is Aug. 12 at the Complejo Romero Manzo, also starting at 8 a.m.
The Right to Dream Academy offers an incredible opportunity for its attendees with a fully funded residential program that will provide education and football training from middle school through high school. The academy is being built on the Club’s 28-acre campus in El Cajon on the Sycuan Reservation, and will feature a state-of-the-art sports performance center, five full-sized soccer fields and dining facilities.
The Right to Dream Academy will make San Diego FC the first MLS club to offer a privately operated school, starting with middle school through high school, combined with a residential football academy.
“We’re excited to continue to make history as we host the first ever free open tryouts for SDFC’s Right to Dream Academy in San Diego and Tijuana,” said Joaquin Escoto, who serves as executive vice-president of SDFC’s Right to Dream Academy. “This is a significant step in our mission to connect with the community, discover and develop the best young talent in North America, providing opportunities for young players to shine. We look forward to welcoming the next generation of footballers and offer them the resources and support to achieve their dreams on and off the field.”
Participating players must be born between 2010-14 and must register prior to the open tryouts via www.sandiegofc.com/academy/tryouts/. Players must come prepared for the tryouts with their own boots, socks, shorts, gloves, shin pads or any other equipment related to their position. Players will be provided with bibs to wear during the games.
The Right to Dream San Diego facility is part of the club’s overall 125,000-square-foot campus that will be shared by the club’s first team and academy teams. Besides a state-of-the-art 50,000-square-foot sports performance center, the sprawling campus will include three natural grass fields and two synthetic fields. Other Right to Dream locations are currently in Ghana, Egypt and Denmark.
The location of the $150 million facility on the northwest portion of the reservation is set to attract players from both the United States and Mexico. According to Right to Dream founder Tom Vernon, the new facility will be a shining example of its kind in the United States and will carry the highest operatin cost in MLS for an academy system.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber is already excited about the potential the San Diego team will bring to the league. He called the ground-breaking on the Right to Dream San Diego project “one of those great, memorable, and historic events for our league.”
“We’re beginning to kick off a series of special moments with the launch of this team that takes the field in 2025,” Garber said. “The development of young players, as in this case boys and girls … is a big part of the DNA of our league.”
Growing the team
While Hirving Chucky Lozano is the San Diego club’s first major signing, he’s not the first player inked by the local side. Former San Diego Loyal goalkeeper Duran Farree actually became the first player signed to a professional contract by SDFC last December when the six-foot three 17-year-old San Diego native inked a four-year contract with an option for 2028.
Ferree, the ECNL Boys Southwest Conference U16 Player of the Year, ascended through the Loyal’s development program from the age of 15 as a standout player with the San Diego Surf Soccer Club. He appeared in five matches for the USL Championship side over two seasons after making his professional debut at 16. He helped the U.S. national team advance to the U17 CONCACAF championship match in 2023.
He earned kudos as the starting goalkeeper in the Loyal’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup second round victory over Albion San Diego on Feb. 23, 2023, at San Diego State University. He also appeared in the Loyal’s exhibition match against Bundesliga Borussia Dortmund last July at Snapdragon Stadium.
“I’m honored to sign with my new hometown club,” Ferree said. “To be part of San Diego soccer
history and play for my home city is beyond my wildest dreams.
“This signing spotlights our commitment to providing opportunities for local talent to flourish right here in San Diego,” San Diego FC CEO Tom Penn said. “Duran’s San Diego roots, natural talent and promise for the future make him a valuable addition to our club.”
Farree is currently on loan to USL Championship club Orange County FC through the 2024 season.
With the upcoming Right to Dream Academy tryouts, the newest MLS team is looking for more outstanding local talent to fill its roster.
Next up to ink contracts with the SDFC were a pair of Danes — defensive midfielder Jeppe Tverskov and forward Marcus Ingvarsten. Both are from Danish Superliga and Right to Dream SDFC sister club FC Nordsjaelland and are expected to join Lozano for the team’s 2025 preseason camp.
Inghvartsen, 28, has tallied 30 goals in 74 appearances for the Danish Superliga club, leading the league in scoring in 2016-17 before transferring to Belgium Pro League club Genk and German Bundesliga clubs Union Berlin and Mainz 05. The all-time goal-scorer for Denmark’s U21 national team, He made his debut with the senior Danish national team in March 2021.
“I’ve been part of the Right to Dream playing style and part of the philosophy of this group from a very young age, developing through the years as a person and as a player,” Ingvartsen said. “Being able to bring some of those ideas and way of playing to San Diego FC is something that I look forward to. I look very much forward to being part of a completely new club and I have the confidence in joining because of the organization and people involved in it. Being able to create history from Day One in this amazing city is something that will be magical.”
Tverskov, 30, has played in more than 250 professional games across a number of leagues and competitions throughout his entire career in Denmark, including 14 UEFA Europa League matches.
“The possibility of starting a new team is very rare and to be one of the first players joining the club is exciting,” he said. “From what I can see there is already a great fan base and we hope to compete at a good level from the start. It’s going to be very unique and exciting.”
Penn said both Danes look to bring veteran leadership to the team.
“Marcus and Jeppe will provide experience and a key understanding to the Right to Dream style of play and culture that we will look to build from here at San Diego FC,” Penn noted.
Going forward
Will San Diego FC be a hit or a miss on the pitch in its first season? That’s a good question and one not easy to answer. Just because a franchise carries an “expansion” label doesn’t mean it will be an instant flop.
The Vegas Golden Knights made it to the Stanley Cup Final during their inaugural season. Owner Bill Foley had the mega-bucks and general manager George McPhee had the brains and foresight to draft and trade well to set up the team’s amazing NHL debut in 2017-18.
The Golden Knights finished runner-up but remained near the top of the standings to finally break through with their first Stanley Cup championship in 2023.
Likewise, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the top developmental affiliate of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, made it to the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Finals in their first season, and returned to the AHL championship series for a second consecutive season against the defending champion Hershey Bears in 2023-24.
Corner kicks
As MLS approached the midseason mark of its 2024 season, the league had set records for attendance, corporate sponsorship revenue, retail sales and social engagement.
The record-setting 2024 season follows on the heels of the record 2023 season that saw new highs across key business metrics.
Key drivers include Messi’s second season with Inter Miami, the arrival of new international stars, ongoing influx of dynamic young talent from MLS academies and throughout the world and second season of the league’s partnership with Apple.
MLS’s average attendance is 23,194 (8.3 million total), the highest so far at the All-Star break. Six matches have drawn more than 60,000 and seven matches have exceeded 50,000 fans. The wow factor: 21 matches have drawn at least 40,000 fans. Attendance is averaging 94 percent of capacity. A total of 153 matches have sold out — another midseason high.
San Diego FC and Club Tijuana Xolos have entered into a five-year partnership that will feature an annual friendly match as part of a soccer cultural celebration for the region. The first of its kind between an MLS and Liga MX club, the inaugural match will be played at Snapdragon Stadium in 2025.
