“The players that play in Europe don’t see the Gold Cup as the most attractive trophy to win. That’s just fact. For the players in Europe — and the majority of them now are in Europe — a Copa America? They’d be here in a heartbeat. They would come right away. The Gold Cup? Every two years, in one competition you have almost all the Europeans there, in the next competition two years later you have almost all the MLS players play. How do you want to grow this feeling within the players — to say you have to come no matter what, [that the Gold Cup] is the most important trophy in the world? Cristiano Ronaldo showed the Nations League was the most important trophy to him. It means the world to Cristiano Ronaldo. And the Gold Cup should as well to the American players. But the reality is it doesn’t do that.”

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