MLS All-Star Week: A Celebration of Soccer and Competition

Steven Moreira arrived in MLS in 2021 with a simple, almost childlike ambition: make an All-Star team. Not win a cup, not crack Best XI. Just see what this American-style spectacle actually felt like.

He’s done it twice now.

“I wanted to see how it looks,” the Columbus Crew defender told GOAL. “Because I love the NBA and that was crazy. I'm from France, so all of my ex-teammates, when they saw I was an All-Star, they were like, 'Damn, that's crazy!' What the league does and everything, they really enjoy the concept. Even me, I really enjoy the concept."

That sense of wonder runs through All-Star week in Charlotte. It’s not just the fringe guys soaking it in. Thomas Muller has won everything. Son Heung-Min is one of the Premier League’s defining forwards of his era. They have medals and memories most players can only dream of. Yet here they are, smiling through media duties, slipping on All-Star gear, treating this as something that still matters.

"Being called up for the All-Star Game, I think it's 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."

Stars, rivals and a different kind of dressing room

For someone like Son, this isn’t about legacy. It’s a break from the grind. A week to trade stories with Muller, to joke with Tim Ream, to share a midfield with Ashley Westwood instead of trying to find a way past him.

The walls between rivals come down. The faces you’ve spent years trying to beat become the ones you’re suddenly trying to find with a pass.

There’s a different layer for the kids. For Zavier Gozo, Julian Hall and Lucas Herrington, this isn’t nostalgia. It’s a jolt.

"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."

The generational exchange plays out on the pitch and in the hotel corridors. While Son is bouncing between conversations with teenagers and serial winners, a different kind of meeting is unfolding a few blocks away.

The real power plays

All-Star week is one of the few times MLS can count on having its power brokers in one city. The billionaires and decision-makers who shape the league’s future can slip into Charlotte without the spotlight, knowing the cameras are fixed on crossbars and crossovers.

On Wednesday, as reported by The Athletic, the MLS Board of Governors is set to meet in Charlotte. On the table: a proposal from the sporting and competition committee that could reshape how clubs build rosters. The biggest moments of this week won’t come with fireworks or TV graphics. They’ll happen in hotel lobbies and conference rooms, in conversations that will ripple through the league long after the final whistle of an exhibition game.

All-Star week is also big business in the present tense. Every major league partner has carved out a piece of the event. It’s a sales pitch, a networking hub, a reward trip and a scouting mission for future sponsors all rolled into one.

The game? It’s the hook. The excuse to gather.

A show wedged into a brutal calendar

For players, this year’s edition drops into chaos. Many are fresh off a World Cup summer. MLS fixtures rolled last weekend and will roll again this weekend. The Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati were trading shoves in a tunnel scuffle on Saturday; days later, Moreira and Max Arfsten are lining up alongside Evander under the All-Star banner.

Dean Smith will spend midweek coaching the league’s showpiece team, then turn around and prepare Charlotte FC for the Chicago Fire. The real games keep coming. The margins stay thin.

Layer the World Cup on top, and the travel and workload tip from demanding into punishing. The schedule has also stripped this All-Star Game of some of its biggest names. Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul are still on the other side of their international summer. Sebastian Berhalter and Hugo Cuypers have already moved on from MLS.

Messi’s absence is the obvious hole. His shadow still stretches over everything the league does. Without him, the spectacle loses some of its global glow.

Son doesn’t sugarcoat the strain.

"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," he 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."

MLS vs Liga MX: from workout to rivalry

To give the night some edge, MLS has leaned into geography and history. Gone are the European preseason visitors who treat the fixture as a fitness drill.

"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."

That’s the crux. MLS has tied its All-Star format to the simmering rivalry between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It’s also a business relationship: two leagues trying to pull each other higher on the global ladder.

"The rivalry just starts from the top and trickles down into every level," USMNT captain Tim Ream said. "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 for players with no direct stake in the U.S.–Mexico narrative, the competitive itch never really switches off. The Skills Challenge turns into a quiet score-settling. The match itself becomes a measuring stick. You don’t get invited to this week if you’re content to coast.

"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."

Rain, mascots and a chance to breathe

Even the weather tried to intervene. The Skills Challenge staggered through a heavy rain delay, the kind that usually sends fans to the exits and players to the treatment room.

Instead, the mascots came back out. The players followed. Celebrities hugged the touchline. The games resumed, a little damp, a little delayed, but still going.

So did the laughter.

"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 other side of All-Star week. For players locked into a relentless cycle of travel, tactics and pressure, this is one of the few times they can be something closer to fans again.

A shop window for a changing league

MLS wants the rest of the world to feel that energy. The league sees All-Star as a showcase, a stage where Muller and Son can draw the first wave of eyeballs and someone like Evander can keep them. Maybe a neutral viewer stumbles upon Gozo or Hall for the first time. Maybe a kid meets a player in Charlotte and never quite lets go of the memory.

"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."

Robert Lewandowski is the latest headline arrival. Maybe he’s in the All-Star squad next year. Maybe Messi makes it, too. By then, MLS will be on the brink of a sprint season in 2027 and a full calendar switch to mirror Europe’s schedule. The league that gathers in Charlotte this week won’t look quite the same when the circus rolls into its next host city.

So the question lingers: how much does the game itself actually matter?

On the scoreboard, probably less than MLS would like. The result will fade quickly. The goals and tricks will blur into the next viral clip.

But the week still carries weight. For players, it remains a genuine honor and a rare pause button. For fans and sponsors, it’s a live advertisement for what the league wants to become. For owners and executives, it’s a discreet summit on where MLS goes 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 league pushing to turn a midseason exhibition into another step toward the place it believes it belongs.