MLS All-Star Week: More Than Just an Exhibition

Steven Moreira arrived in MLS in 2021 with a simple personal target: become an All-Star. He’s now done it twice.

“I wanted to see how it looks,” the Columbus Crew defender told GOAL. A kid from France who grew up loving the NBA, he wanted to taste that American spectacle. “All of my ex-teammates, when they saw I was an All-Star, they were like, ‘Damn, that’s crazy!’” he said. They loved the show. So does he.

He’s not the only one. In Charlotte this week, some of the game’s biggest names are treating a midseason exhibition as something more than a marketing exercise. Thomas Muller has won everything there is to win. Son Heung-Min has lived at the sharp end of European football for a decade. Yet both have flown across the Atlantic to pull on MLS All-Star colors, to represent their leagues, their clubs, and, yes, themselves.

“Being called up for the All-Star Game, I think everybody wants to participate in these events,” Son said. “It’s a great experience to be here with great players, great names, and I’m looking forward to it.”

For Son, for Muller, for veterans like Tim Ream and Ashley Westwood, this is a rare pause button in a relentless calendar. Longtime opponents become teammates for a few days. Training-ground banter replaces tunnel glare. You share a dressing room with the guy who’s been kicking you for years and find out who he is when the whistle isn’t blowing.

Young Faces, Old Dreams

Zavier Gozo, Julian Hall, Lucas Herrington – for them, this isn’t just a break from the grind. It’s a glimpse of the life they’re chasing.

“It sounds weird, but it just reminds me of when I was 17 or 18, you know?” Son said. “Probably, they’re a little bit nervous, but it’s an amazing experience. I think they have a chance to learn, to speak with us, and to play with us. I think it’s a great honor.

“Also, I say age is just a number, so I think they deserve to be here. We are, as athletes, happy to have them, and also, from my side, I’m very happy to play with the young boys. I’m also learning something from these young kids and the younger generation.”

That mix – Muller and Son on one side of the locker room, teenagers on the other – is what the cameras capture. The real power of All-Star week, though, sits a few blocks away, behind closed doors.

The Billionaires’ Meeting Point

There are only a handful of moments each year when MLS can get its ownership class in one place. The All-Star Game is one of them.

While the public gaze drifts toward the Skills Challenge, the pregame show and the latest celebrity sighting, the people who shape the league’s future are huddled in hotel conference rooms. On Wednesday, as reported by The Athletic, the MLS Board of Governors convenes in Charlotte. On the agenda: a proposal from the sporting and competition committee that could overhaul roster-building rules.

The most consequential minutes of All-Star week won’t be played under stadium lights. They’ll be spent around boardroom tables, where decisions ripple out into transfer markets, salary structures, and competitive balance for years.

Sponsors circle the event as well. Every major league partner finds a way to attach itself to All-Star week. It’s a showcase, a sales pitch, a networking hub. The game is the headline act, but in many ways it’s just the hook that gets everyone in the same city at the same time.

That’s true for the players, too.

A Showpiece Wedged Into Chaos

This is a World Cup summer. MLS stars played last weekend. They’ll play again this weekend. Some have barely unpacked from international duty.

Saturday brought a fierce rivalry clash between the Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati, complete with a post-game tunnel scuffle. Days later, Moreira and Max Arfsten are suiting up alongside Evander, swapping derby hostility for All-Star camaraderie. Dean Smith, appointed as MLS All-Star head coach, will spend midweek managing Philip Zinckernagel and then go straight back to his day job with Charlotte FC against the Chicago Fire.

The league schedule doesn’t pause. It bends, awkwardly.

There’s also the obvious absence. Lionel Messi, the league’s biggest star, isn’t here. Neither is Rodrigo De Paul. Both are still away after World Cup duty. Sebastian Berhalter and Hugo Cuypers, who might have been part of this conversation months ago, aren’t even MLS players anymore.

Messi’s no-show strips some shine from an event that already asks a lot of tired legs.

“Obviously, if I’m honest, the schedule was a little bit crazy because we had way too many games and filling in this game in that schedule, I think it was a little bit crazy,” Son said. “But look, this experience is huge for everyone. Thomas and me, we are getting a little bit older, but I think this experience is special. It doesn’t matter how old you are, and we are all excited and we are all happy to be here, and we want to make this game as special as possible.”

To help with that, MLS has changed the script.

From European Tune-Up to North American Grudge Match

The days of MLS All-Stars facing a European giant in preseason are gone. No more half-speed summer workouts for Premier League and Bundesliga squads shaking off rust.

Now, the All-Stars face the best of Liga MX.

“When you get the English sides over here, they’re in the middle of their preseason so they don’t take it seriously,” said Charlotte FC captain and former Burnley midfielder Ashley Westwood. “It’s just a workout for them. To play Liga MX, it makes it more competitive. We’re representing the MLS, representing America, and we want to win.”

This format leans into something real. The rivalry between the U.S., Canada and Mexico has seeped into every corner of the sport on this continent. Leagues Cup, Champions Cup, national team clashes – the tension runs through all of it.

“The rivalry just starts from the top and trickles down into every level,” said USMNT captain Tim Ream. “I don’t think there’s any way around saying that. It starts at the very top. It starts at the league level. It goes into the teams. It goes to the players. It goes to family ties. It’s everything, right?

“It’s such a big rivalry, and whether it’s an All-Star Game or not, one side wants to get over the other. That’s forever how it’s been and forever how it always will be. I think that’s just being competitors and being so close. It’s about who can get the best out of themselves and get the better of their opponent.”

Even those without a direct stake in the U.S.-Mexico story feel it. You don’t make it to this level without a competitive edge, and that edge has been on display all week. The Skills Challenge might be dressed up as entertainment, but nobody wants to be the one who looks out of place.

“As an athlete, you don’t want to lose the game,” Son said. “But most importantly, I think both sides, we stay healthy, and we don’t get hurt. I think this is most important. We want to make it as fun as possible and entertaining as possible. We don’t want to get hurt, but we still want to win this game.”

The balance between spectacle and seriousness is fragile. So is the weather.

Rain, Mascots and Relief

The Skills Challenge almost washed away. Heavy rain hammered Charlotte, forcing a long delay and sending players and mascots alike scrambling for cover.

Then the storm eased, the pitch cleared, and the circus rolled back out. Mascots bounced around again. Celebrities drifted along the touchline. The players returned to the field, laughing, joking, competing.

For many of them, those are the moments that matter most this week.

“You get to just enjoy,” Moreira said. “Yeah, you get to take a breath and enjoy and just laugh. It’s just a pretty cool moment, and that’s cool because we’re so focused and you don’t have time to just relax and enjoy. Now, you just enjoy the moment with everyone. It’s perfect.”

That’s the emotional core MLS hopes will resonate beyond the stadium. The league wants this to be a gateway – for casual viewers, for young fans, for skeptics flicking through channels who might stop because they recognize Muller or Son and stay because they discover Evander, or Gozo, or Hall.

Maybe a kid meets a player they’d never have seen otherwise and walks away with a new hero. Those are the small victories a league builds on.

A League On Display

“It’s a great event to have all these names here playing for the MLS,” Westwood said. “But I think the MLS in general is doing that. They’re attracting attention off the back of the World Cup. They’re doing a great thing. You see how many people are here today and yesterday. It’s phenomenal, so it’s doing a great job. It’s being recognized around the world. We’ve got some top talent here. Obviously, [Robert] Lewandowski has just joined as well. Players want to be here, and that’s a sign of how far the league’s grown.”

That’s the subtext of All-Star week: proof of concept. Star names choosing MLS. Crowds turning up. Sponsors buying in. Global attention inching higher.

Next year’s All-Star Game could look very different. Maybe Lewandowski is in the squad. Maybe Messi finally takes his bow in this setting. By 2027, MLS will be sprinting through a shortened season before shifting its calendar to align with Europe. The landscape is moving quickly.

So does the All-Star Game really matter?

The scoreline probably won’t. The match itself may never carry the weight MLS would love it to. But the week around it still cuts deep: it’s an honor players chase, a shop window for fans and sponsors, and one of the few times the league’s power brokers sit in the same city, shaping what comes next.

“A lot of players in the league want to be here,” Moreira said. “So you have to enjoy, represent them, and just enjoy the moment. You see these other guys, and you can spend so much time together, so that’s nice to see them outside.

“All the marketing stuff, I feel like the league deserves way, way more. Everyone here is just giving their best to put the league on top of the world.”

That’s the real contest in Charlotte – not MLS vs. Liga MX, but a young league pushing to prove it belongs at the sport’s top table.