Analysis: How Charlotte FC can build a winning MLS roster for championship success
More than money goes into winning an MLS Cup. Training, timing and some luck (especially in the case of 2020) play a role in a team hoisting a trophy at the end of a season, but spending can still reveal an organization’s priorities: How much does a team put into each of its designated players? Do you stack the supplemental roster with homegrown players? Is a big name worth $7.2 million?
These are the questions facing Charlotte FC as the team builds its inaugural roster for the 2022 season. While the team’s first season is still over a year out, recruitment is underway, with three players already signed to Charlotte. Those players include two international names in midfielder Sergio Ruiz (Spain) and attacking midfielder Riley McGree (Australia), in addition to recent MLS trade Brandt Bronico, all of whom will play on loan until joining the team for its first season.
A majority of the team’s 30 roster slots still need to be filled, and a bulk of those signings will come during transfer windows this summer and next winter, as well as during the MLS Expansion Draft and MLS SuperDraft. A look at some successful MLS clubs over the last five years indicates what works when it comes to building a roster. There are a few things Charlotte FC should consider when growing its burgeoning team:
Spending doesn’t always equate success in MLS ...
Sure, Toronto FC has been a relatively steady top finisher in its conference as a notoriously high-spending team. When Toronto won the title in 2017, the club nearly doubled the total spending on player salaries compared to the runner-up Seattle Sounders. (Toronto had a $22.6 million guaranteed payout on salaries, including supplemental and reserve rosters, versus Seattle’s $12.2 million, according to Sportrac.) Most of Toronto’s roster money was funneled into the league-topping contracts of forward Sebastian Giovinco ($7.1 million), midfielder Michael Bradley ($6.5 million) and forward Jozy Altidore ($4.9 million), who were slotted as the club’s Designated Players.
The Designated Player Rule allows a team to sign up to three players whose total compensation and acquisition costs exceed the maximum budget charge. Under the CBA negotiated in February, which has been the subject of ongoing dispute between the league and the MLS Players Association during the pandemic, the 2022 maximum budget charge is set at $683,750. Charlotte is able to exceed that amount for a DP using funds outside its Salary Budget, which is capped at $5.21 million in 2022, per February’s CBA. The DP Rule makes it so that teams are able to spend more on high-paid players and attract better, international talent.
There is also allocation money, General Allocation Money (GAM) and Discretionary Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) available for the club to build its roster, some of which can go toward reducing a player’s salary to bring it to below the maximum budget charge and avoid filling a DP slot. GAM and the club’s Salary Budget must be used, while Discretionary TAM doesn’t need to be used, but is available if a club wants to target an expensive, non-DP.
That’s one model Charlotte could go with; Spend loads on multiple stars like Toronto and you’ll likely win more that you lose. But don’t forget the 2018 MLS season when the reigning champions missed the playoffs after a lack of roster depth and fatigue from CONCACAF Champions League caught up. Or look to other steep and short-lived contracts of Zlatan Ibrahimović (LA Galaxy) or Wayne Rooney (DC United), neither of which led to spectacular seasons for their respective teams. Unless it’s Lionel Messi, who recently commented on his interest in someday playing in the United States, there are more economically efficient uses than spending $7 million on an individual star.
The clubs that typically finish in the top half of their conferences, barring Toronto, spend in the $9-15 million range on total player salaries, per Sportrac data. Seattle Sounders FC, which achieved two MLS Cup titles over the last five years, hovered between $12 million to $14 million in total guaranteed salary spending, averaging $12.7 million in that category from 2016 to 2019. The Sounders fell 3-0 to the Columbus Crew in this year’s championship match, but the franchise has appeared more than any other club in the finals over the last five years (four times). Complete salary data is not yet available for the 2020 season.
... But sometimes it does
What the Sounders have relied on primarily is the building of attacking midfielder Nicolás Lodeiro, alongside long-term franchise forward Raúl Ruidíaz and Homegrown forward Jordan Morris. Lodeiro has scored 41 goals and contributed 68 assists in his five years with the club. He recently re-signed an extension to remain with Seattle through the end of the 2023 season.
“He is the cornerstone of our franchise,” Seattle’s president Garth Lagerwey said of Lodeiro. “He is the best player on our team. He has been the best player on our team.”
Lagerwey also said that the team has been built around Lodeiro, the captain and one of Seattle’s highest-paid DPs ($2.5 million in 2019). Atlanta United followed a similar model for its 2018 championship season in crafting a team around midfielder Miguel Almirón ($2.3 million in 2018), alongside midfielder Ezequiel Barco ($1.4 million) and striker Josef Martínez ($1.4 million), but notably maxed out its eight international roster slots.
Designated Player salaries, for both Seattle and Atlanta during their title-winning seasons, accounted for roughly half the teams’ total payroll spending. The teams with the most losses in those seasons spent fewer than a third of their payrolls on DPs. In 2017, DC United used just one of its two DP slots on midfielder Paul Arriola and won only nine of its 34 games that season.
It highlights the emphasis teams place on DPs, but it’s important to note how those contracts differ across the league, especially in the era of allocation money. Winning teams usually supplement their biggest DP signings with multiple player contracts that exceed the maximum budget charge, but have been brought down using allocation money (think Hector Villalba or Brad Guzan at Atlanta).
The successful model and takeaway for Charlotte is to target a few core players — traditionally midfielders or forwards as the biggest signings — commit to developing them, and prepare to pay up to keep them in the franchise.
Tap into local talent
Charlotte FC is also uniquely poised to tap into is its network of talent from the Carolinas. The club already appears intent on doing so, prioritizing its youth academy teams early and engaging existing MLS talent by signing High Point, N.C. native Brandt Bronico as its third player.
It’s a move that probably won’t be isolated, nor should it be in order to make the most of a roster, which also favors homegrown signings under MLS rules. Charlotte FC technical director Marc Nicholls said he has a list of players from North Carolina he’s been watching that have a “passion for the area.”
Although not technically “homegrown,” those Carolina talents could include active MLS goalkeeper Clint Irwin, 31, a protected player for the Colorado Rapids in this year’s expansion draft. Irwin grew up in Charlotte and previously played at Elon and for the Charlotte Eagles in the USL Championship. Brad Knighton, 35, is another MLS goalkeeper from North Carolina. Knighton is from Hickory, N.C., and played soccer at UNC Wilmington. He is signed with the New England Revolution, but could be available after the 2021 season.
Additionally, three young players to watch include Gianluca Busio, a midfielder for Sporting KC, Jaylin Lindsey, a defender for the same club, and Jonathan Amon, a winger from Summerville, S.C. playing in the Danish Superliga. Busio, 18, is from Greensboro, N.C., and Lindsey, 20, is from Charlotte. Both are Homegrown Players for Sporting KC, meaning Charlotte would be unable to use Targeted Allocation Money (TAM), per the league rules.
Charlotte FC also has USL Championship club Charlotte Independence to look to for talent, including players who have already cracked the MLS market. Attacking midfielder Enzo Martínez, for example, previously played for the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake.
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 3:21 PM.
