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Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber has revealed he hopes to lure world class players such as Wayne Rooney to the United States, but admits he will have to wait a few years yet. Rooney, 29, scored his 50th goal for England on Tuesday to break Sir Bobby Charlton's all-time scoring record for his country. The Manchester United striker returns to Premier League action this weekend as Liverpool make the short trip to Old Trafford, and Garber hopes the striker will consider MLS when his career in England draws to a close. Garber told the Manchester Evening News at the Soccerex convention: "He's under contract at Man U. I'm personally very friendly with the Glazers [United's owners], I know them well. To even be talking about it while he's under contract I guess speaks to the way we operate. We don't do that. We wouldn't do it. "We would love players like Wayne Rooney, and those who have been able to be really successful at the highest level, to be thinking about Major League Soccer. Today, that's perhaps in their-30s and maybe, sometime in the future, that's in their mid-20s." Rooney has previously hinted he would be open to a spell playing in the United States. While on United's preseason tour, he said: "I'm obviously concentrating on Manchester United. "When that time comes, that'll be something I'd think about. [I'll] sit down with my wife and children and decide if it would be right for me." Garber also admitted it will take "generations" before MLS produces a global superstar like Rooney, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. But he is confident the North American league will develop its own top talents and is encouraged by the way his clubs are luring players at or near their peak. Garber feels it is a major challenge to bring through a player of the calibre of the recent Ballon d'Or winners: "We haven't yet. We haven't come remotely close to creating a Lionel Messi or a Wayne Rooney or a Cristiano Ronaldo and that takes generations of the culture but I believe that time will come." MLS has been criticised as a retirement home for veteran players and recent arrivals have included the 33-year-old David Villa, the 35-year-old Steven Gerrard, Andrea Pirlo, who is 36, and Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, who are both 37. But Garber points to the arrivals of younger footballers such as USA captain Michael Bradley and Italy international Sebastian Giovinco, who both joined Toronto, as signs that a cross-section of signings are being made. "The average age of the 35 players we signed was 27," he added. "It is just that people pay more attention to the big games and that is good. They have the chance to see Drogba playing the year before in the Premier League and then they see him playing for Montreal. "There is a strategy to sign players like that. At the end of the day it is about signing Bradley and Giovinco in their 20s, making as much money as Lampard and Gerrard, and signing them in the prime of their career. "Robbie Keane [at LA Galaxy] is probably the best signing in the history of the league and we signed him almost in his prime, in his late-20s or 30-ish [he was 31]." Bradley returned to North America from Roma and Garber believes it is important that some of Jurgen Klinsmann's national team are plying their trade in their home league. "We still need to have American players who are idols and stars of the game here," he explained. "It is great for DeAndre Yedlin to go to Tottenham but it was great for Michael Bradley to come home. He is the captain of our national team, which he wasn't before, and arguably he is a better player now."
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