Numerous big-name stars who excelled in Europe have crossed the pond to join MLS in recent years.
Didier Drogba will become the biggest to play for a team in Canada.
Drogba will make his debut for the Montreal Impact on Saturday night when they try to improve to 5-0-0 at home against the struggling Philadelphia Union.
Montreal (8-9-4) brought in Drogba on July 27 after the 37-year-old Ivory Coast forward signed with Chicago, which then sent him to the Impact for general and targeted allocation money. He was attracted to playing in the lone French-speaking region in MLS and because former Italian stars Alessandro Nesta and Marco Di Vaio had successful stints with Montreal.
"I wanted to come and play in the MLS," Drogba said. "The fact that there's players like Nesta, Di Vaio played here before, I spoke to Nesta before I signed here and I know he had a great time and Di Vaio had made such history here and also the fact that Montreal is also French-speaking."
Drogba scored 163 goals and won four English Premier League titles in two stints with Chelsea. He had the winning penalty kick as Chelsea won its first Champions League crown in 2012.
There has been debate locally whether Drogba is already the city's biggest star ahead of Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price. Drogba has over 900,000 followers on Twitter - more than the Canadiens.
"A superstar is only the way people look at you but in the dressing room, we are all the same," Drogba said. "I played with Frank Lampard, John Terry and I've played against big players, Steven Gerrard, Andrea Pirlo, and they are all simple guys."
Drogba joins Lampard, Gerrard and Pirlo as other high-profile players to join MLS this year. It's not clear whether he will start.
He could be facing the perfect opponent for a winning debut since Montreal has outscored Philadelphia 10-4 in winning all four home matchups. These clubs drew 2-2 at Philadelphia on June 27.
The Union (6-13-6) average a league-low 0.96 points with a goal differential of minus-11 that matches Real Salt Lake for the worst in MLS. They are four points behind the Impact for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot, though Montreal has played four fewer games.
"We're running out of games in league, we know that," coach Jim Curtin told the Union's official website. "We've dug entirely too deep of a hole for ourselves. We're not happy with where we are."
Philadelphia fell to 0-3-2 in its last five with Sunday's 3-3 home draw with Chicago, allowing the tying goal in the 92nd minute.
Midfielder Cristian Maidana assisted on all three goals to give him a league-high 14. French forward Sebastien Le Toux scored his third goal in four games.
The Union have allowed a league-high 43 goals.
Montreal hasn't played a league match since falling 1-0 at home to D.C. on Aug. 8 despite a 25-1 advantage in total shots.
The Impact's Justin Mapp is set to make his first league appearance since March 7 after being out with an elbow injury. The 30-year-old midfielder would become the youngest person to play in 300 MLS games.
