"An All-Star game with no All-Stars." That's analyst Daniel Solana's verdict on this year's MLS vs Liga MX showcase — and it's hard to argue with him.
Eleven Liga MX players have already opted out, including Keylor Navas, Nahuel Guzmán, Gilberto Mora, and Brian Rodríguez. MLS hasn't been spared either. Lionel Messi, Rodrigo De Paul, Hugo Cuypers, and Mbekezeli Mbokazi are all out before a ball has been kicked.
That's a long list of names not on the pitch.
This isn't opt-out culture — it's a broken calendar
Calling this player reluctance would be missing the point entirely. The All-Star Game drops mid-season, right in the middle of a schedule that includes domestic cups, CONCACAF Champions Cup fixtures, and league games that actually matter. Clubs protecting their players isn't selfishness — it's basic squad management.
Messi's absence is the clearest illustration of the problem. FIFA's mandatory 21-day recovery rule for players involved in the 2026 World Cup final has already kept the Inter Miami captain out of two league matches. The same logic is driving Liga MX clubs to pull their key players before a demanding run of fixtures resumes.
Solana's broader point cuts deeper: "You can't parade soccer players around mid-season like it's the NBA — football isn't built that way." The NBA schedules its All-Star break when every franchise is idle. There is no equivalent window in soccer. Important games arrive almost every week, and no club is going to expose a first-choice goalkeeper or a creative midfielder to exhibition minutes with nothing on the line.
What's left on the pitch
Fans aren't completely without options. Son Heung-min, Thomas Müller, and Evander are among those still available, and that's a watchable game on paper. But the event was sold on spectacle, and spectacle requires the biggest names to show up.
From a betting standpoint, the depleted squads make this one of the least predictable exhibition fixtures in recent memory — not because of quality, but because neither side is fielding anything close to its best eleven.
MLS has been running this format for years without solving the scheduling conflict at its core. Until there's a genuine off-week built around the event, clubs will keep doing exactly what they're doing now — and the All-Star Game will keep looking like this.
