"I strongly believe that soccer will be the No. 1 sport in this country in a few years," said Vieira, currently the New York City Football Club's head coach, at the team's media day Thursday.
"I was just reading the news that the game that we played against Orlando [Florida] was like 14-15 percent more viewers," said Vieira, who won the World Cup for France in 1998. "I'm not surprised at all because when we are working at the stadium in New York or when we play away, there's always people around asking for autographs."
Winning over fans in the United States has involved bringing over some of the bigger names from Europe. For NYCFC, which plays in Major League Soccer, they include Italian legend Andrea Pirlo and David Villa, Spain's all-time leading goal scorer.