Thierry Henry's move to New York Red Bulls shows MLS is punching above its weight

Thierry Henry is supposed to be fulfilling that show-stopping role for Major League Soccer, America's 16-team professional league, after signing for New York Red Bulls, but he is having the same impact as Johnson strolling down Oxford Street. Unless you know who he is, his impact is minimal.

Johnson is a nonentity in the UK, but as the golden boy of NASCAR, the American stock car series, he is a Stateside megastar in a sport that has exploded in popularity in the United States in recent years.

NASCAR offered proof that the established American sporting giants of gridiron football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey can be challenged. The sport competes for airtime and print space with the big four, and top drivers such as Johnson earn fortunes, with his career earnings hitting $77.5 million (£50.75 million) last month.

In contrast, the MLS is still struggling to break out beyond its devoted and passionate audience and, while the pre-season presence of Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham is raising the profile of 'soccer', doubts hang over Henry's ability to reach out to those still reluctant to embrace the sport.

Rather than being viewed as a coup for the MLS – which it arguably is – Henry's arrival in New York is regarded as the latest recruitment of a has-been to take the soft road to retirement in the US.

The bounce from David Beckham's 2007 move to LA Galaxy is long gone, hence the snaring of Henry. Plans are also afoot to tempt Ronaldinho to play alongside Beckham with the Galaxy, but the Brazilian would hardly alter the view of the MLS as an elephants' graveyard, despite its best efforts.

Don Garber, the MLS commissioner, said: "Thierry Henry is coming to the United States to hopefully help grow the game in our country. But MLS is clearly far more respected and has a much broader awareness than we ever had before David Beckham came to the league. This league is on the map in the world."

The world knows about the MLS, but does America? Landon Donovan's appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman last month was a milestone moment for football, the sport's leading US player on the nation's biggest show, but the audience for televised games is tiny.

According to USA Today, MLS fixtures broadcast this year on ESPN2 are attracting just 0.2 per cent of cable TV households. Average viewers per game are recorded at a mere 251,000. On Fox Soccer Channel, MLS games attract an average of 53,000 viewers.

Attendances are largely on the rise, however, with Seattle Sounders playing to average gates of 36,139 and a healthy 22,619 average for Philadelphia Union fixtures at PPL Park.

San Jose Earthquakes have suffered a 19 per cent drop, however, with attendances plunging below 10,000. The franchise owner, Lew Wolff, has warned that profits are difficult to envisage. Only FC Toronto and Seattle were in the black last season.

Wolff said: "The Earthquakes and the majority of MLS teams did not generate a profit in 2009, nor do they expect to generate a profit in 2010."

The MLS will expand to 18 teams in 2011 – adding the Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers – with Montreal Impact coming on board in 2012, but there remains a sense that the league is struggling to find an identity among a population that tends to favour top-class sports with elite performers.

Kevin Baxter, of the Los Angeles Times, said: "In some ways the MLS still needs to decide what it is. Does it want to be a big-time league like La Liga or the Primera Division in Mexico? It's not the same level.

"Clearly the league still believes it needs foreign stars to legitimise itself, but I'm not sure I agree. When I was in Durban during the World Cup, I was wearing a Galaxy T-shirt and two employees in the hotel said, 'Oh, LA Galaxy. David Beckham'. That's exactly what the MLS wanted.

"But Landon Donovan is definitely the face of the league now. He was the MVP [most valuable player] last season and had a good World Cup, so he's the flavour of the month."

Donovan, whose performances while on loan at Everton last season emphasised what the MLS can produce, will line up against United when Sir Alex Ferguson's team face the MLS All-Stars in Houston next Wednesday.

Alongside the LA Galaxy forward will be names such as Juan Pablo Ángel, Jaime Moreno and Donovan Ricketts, all of whom headed to the MLS after enjoying varying degrees of success in the Premier League, with Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, and Bolton Wanderers respectively.

It is the presence of those players, rather than Donovan, that is viewed as the result of the Beckham experiment.

Charles Gooch, football reporter for the Kansas City Star, said: "What is the legacy of David Beckham in America? He made it a viable option for footballers who are done in Europe and it was because of him that MLS allowed itself to compete for star players."

Until the MLS produces its own all-American hero, its own Jimmie Johnson, it faces a continuing battle to muscle in on the established order.