It has never made much sense that Miami doesn’t have a team in Major League Soccer, what with its large Central and South American population and all, so it’s little surprise that the Magic City is a leading candidate for an expansion franchise beginning in 2010. We’ll know in the next six to eight weeks whether the MLS chooses Miami from a field of seven cities, which include Atlanta and Montreal.
In the meantime there’s a website where fans can register to buy season tickets (to show we’re serious about our pro soccer seven years after the Miami Fusion flamed out), and there’s already speculation that a prospective Miami club, which already has the backing of Spanish soccer giant FC Barcelona, could land one of the sport’s biggest stars: Frenchman Thierry Henry. Henry, a striker, helped France take the World Cup in ’98 and was twice nominated for FIFA Player of the Year. FC Barcelona, which owns the rights to Henry, is partnering with Miami cell phone magnate Marcelo Claure to bring an MLS team to South Florida. Claure, a native of Bolivia who owns a soccer club there, recently told the magazine Sport that in less than a week, 3,500 people registered for season tickets on the miamifcb.com website.
