With Boca legend and current Columbus Crew maestro Guillermo Barros Schelotto hitting 18 assists on the 2008 MLS season so far, it got me thinking about El Pibe, Carlos Valderrama.

It seems like it was so long ago since Pibe was in an MLS lineup week in and week out (the 2002 MLS season with the Colorado Rapids to be exact), but Valderrama still holds the MLS record for single season assists with 26 in 2002 (26 in 32 games and just a little side note, Mamadou Diallo had 26 goals that year… just saying) and a 114 assists in 175 MLS matches.

Nowadays everyone is talking about the Designated Player, but sometime we forget guys like Valderrama, El Diablo Etcheverry, Preki and Nowak pulling the strings back in the day and putting MLS on the map.