Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber hit back strongly at US national team coach Juergen Klinsmann for saying players switching to the league could be hampered by a drop in form.

While MLS has trumpeted the return of leading US players like Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley as a sign of the league’s rise, Klinsmann said this week that players returning from stints in Europe risked a drop in form.

“Juergen’s comments are very, very detrimental to the league, to the sport of soccer in North America ... they are wrong,” Garber said.

An animated Garber said Klinsmann’s words, which were made on Monday, were “incredibly damaging and personally infuriating” and undermined the work that MLS and the US Soccer Federation were doing to develop the game.

“It sends the wrong message to other young American players that we collectively – the league and federation – want to have in Major League Soccer so that we can develop the game and the league,” said Garber.

“Juergen needs to think very hard about how he manages himself publicly.”

The MLS chief said he sent a “very strong letter” to US Soccer president Sunil Gulati and that MLS club owners had done the same independently.

As well as being head coach of the national team, Klinsmann is also technical director of US Soccer.

“I am just demanding that he refrain from making comments that are damaging to our league,” added Garber, who noted that MLS players had made up a large chunk of Klinsmann’s World Cup squad.

Klinsmann expressed concerns that Bradley, who moved from Roma, and Dempsey, who left Tottenham for Seattle Sounders, could suffer a drop in form.

“There’s nothing I can do about it. I made it clear with Clint’s move back and Michael’s move back that it’s going to be difficult to keep the same level that they experienced at the places where they were,” said Klinsmann.

“It’s just reality. It’s just being honest.”