Nashville (AP) – Hany Mukhtar is the highest-paid footballer at Nashville SC, was number two in the vote for the most valuable professional in Major League Soccer last year – and is almost unknown in Germany.
“It’s not so bad for me. I enjoy life here, it’s really nice. I’m living my dream, I’m playing football in America. Not many can say that,” said the offensive player of the German Press Agency before the The season starts this weekend with the kick-off in Seattle. “A lot of people say it’s a boring league and a league for older people. I don’t see it that way, I can develop here too.”
The fact that Mukhtar is largely unknown in Germany is because the MLS still only arouses interest when a big name from European football moves there – see Bastian Schweinsteiger, Zlatan Ibrahimovic or David Beckham. But the league has a different claim, in 2026 the USA will host the World Cup with Canada and Mexico. There are still professionals who are on the home stretch of their careers, such as ex-Bundesliga professional Xherdan Shaqiri, who went to the Chicago Fire. But increasingly there are also stories like that of Alphonso Davies.
Mukhtar played in the youth team of Hertha BSC
The full-back from Canada was still a special case in 2018 when he switched from the MLS to FC Bayern Munich. However, the transfers of Ricardo Pepi to FC Augsburg, Kevin Paredes to VfL Wolfsburg and George Bello to Arminia Bielefeld during the German winter break are all signals that the Bundesliga, like other top European leagues, is now recognizing the MLS as a pool for talented people who want to develop in North America. That, in turn, helps attract players like Mukhtar, who after training at Hertha BSC’s youth team has won titles in Portugal, Austria and Denmark and, at 26, is in prime footballing age.
The Berliner sees the skills for the big European leagues, but doesn’t feel any pressure. “I’m convinced that I have the potential to play in Europe. Does it have to be? No, I feel good here. I can continue my career here too, I have no problem with that at all,” he said. “It’s a very, very exciting league, very attractive football every week and there are a lot of goals. The teams play to win, you see a lot of talent in the league. It’s growing and it’s going to get better and better over the next few years.”
Star player at Nashville SC
Mukhtar is the player they’ve been building the team around in Nashville for the last two years and benefits from a special role once introduced for Beckham. As a so-called “designated player,” only a small part of his salary is included in the cap that each team has to meet, which is around five million dollars. Each team can have a maximum of three professionals in the squad, who earn significantly more than the other players.
For Mukhtar, that was $1.505 million last season – five of his mostly younger teammates, on the other hand, only got the $63,547 minimum wage. “It’s not a big issue for us in training or in the dressing room. At the end of the day it’s an honor and you try to live up to that honor,” said Mukhtar.
In the past season in particular, the professional managed this extremely well with a lot of wit. In 33 games, he had 19 goals and ten assists, and he came second in the MVP pick. However, in the quarterfinals on the way to the hoped-for championship after his opening goal in regular time there was also a missed attempt on penalties and the loss against the Philadelphia Union around defender Kai Wagner. “It was very, very bitter,” said Mukhtar. Because: “I take it seriously here, I want to get better, I also want to achieve something with the team.”