Christian Fuchs is bringing top-level experience and a genuine personality to Charlotte FC
Christian Fuchs is the fifth professional soccer player to join Charlotte FC’s roster, but he could have been the first.
Fuchs said he was considering making the cross-continental move from Premier League club Leicester City in England to the MLS expansion team in North Carolina after discussions with Charlotte FC sporting director Zoran Krneta and special advisor Steve Walsh in March 2020.
Walsh, a former head scout at Leicester City, scouted Fuchs and helped bring him to the club where the left back spent six seasons and won a league title in his first year. When Walsh pitched Fuchs on the new club set to join Major League Soccer in 2021, he was quickly sold.
“It doesn’t take a lot to convince me when Steve Walsh is involved,” Fuchs said.
The pandemic changed those carefully laid plans, pushing Charlotte FC’s debut to 2022 and leading Fuchs to sign a one-year extension at Leicester City through the end of the 2021 season. The goal for Fuchs was to get to Charlotte and closer to his wife and three young children in New York. After a one-year contract, followed by a one-year extension that kept the family apart longer than anticipated, a two-hour flight between North Carolina and New York felt short for Fuchs.
Sunday, Charlotte FC announced the Austrian-born player signed a one-year contract with a one-year option as a Domestic Player. He joins a roster of younger talent that includes players from around the world, including Spanish midfielder Sergio Ruiz (26 years old), Australian attacking midfielder Riley McGree (22), Polish defender Jan Sobociński (22) and former Chicago Fire midfielder Brandt Bronico (25).
When asked about the years of high-level experience Fuchs has on his future teammates and the potential to fill a veteran leadership role, he deadpanned.
“Are you calling me old?”
Perhaps not old, but among the oldest in the league, along with names like 38-year-old Chris Wondolowski, 36-year-old Brad Guzan and a handful of others in a market that could skew younger in the coming years with new rules in place such as the U-22 initiative, which is aimed at reducing risk for teams filling out their rosters with qualifying players 22 years old and younger.
After 152 appearances while at Leicester — 32 of which came in his famous title-winning 2015-16 season and dipped to nine appearances in the most recent year — experienced is the favored word for Fuchs. It’s a descriptor and role he said he’ll lean into.
“I want to be a leader in the club,” Fuchs said. “I want to be — well, now I have to call myself old again — but I want to be the veteran who is not only there to play but helps the younger generation of players, the talent that will be on board, to excel.”
“I cannot tell you how excited I am,” he added.
Fuchs said he sees a tendency in both the Premier League and MLS as playing “attractive, attacking football.” And while there is not yet a head coach named for Charlotte FC, early discussions with team leadership indicated to Fuchs that the team will look to excite fans with its style of play while aiming to produce record-breaking crowds for the league.
Charlotte FC president Nick Kelly last month outlined multiple goals for the club in its first year. The team intends to host at least 74,000 fans at a single match and consistently fill the lower bowl of Bank of America Stadium, which translates to around 30,000 fans at home matches on average.
“Anything less than this would not be a successful first year in our eyes,” Kelly said.
Fuchs said he hasn’t yet met his new teammates, just followed them on Twitter, while they play with various teams on loan until reporting for training with Charlotte FC in early January. A plan for Fuchs’ training until then hasn’t been determined, but he said he’ll rest and recover from the latest season with Leicester — in which the team finished fifth in league standings — through June, and will find a way to stay fit over the next six months, with an opportunity to return to Leicester on the table for training during that period.
And then he plans to fully embrace Charlotte and the community. He said there could be crossover between his esports team that plays under his hilariously titled “No Fuchs Given” brand (a play on his last name that will be incorporated into Charlotte FC’s branding) and the eMLS league, as well as potential opportunities with his international youth sports foundation called Fox Soccer Academy. Fuchs appeared in a 2016 video with former NFL player Osi Umenyiora making a field goal kick from 55 yards out while sporting a Carolina Panthers jersey. He said he received the jersey through a team partnership and that he still has it.
“I want to be out and about,” Fuchs said. “I want to explore the community. I want to be in touch with people, get to know the people that are in Charlotte.”
Playing minutes aside, he’s guaranteed to bring a vibrant personality to the city. Fuchs teased reporters, promised to learn Spanish and shared details of his business ventures, during a nearly hour-long media availability Tuesday. But what brings the elite-level international player to the new team in the U.S. is the potential for success on the pitch and the chance to create something memorable, again with Walsh’s involvement.
“I came here to win,” Fuchs said, and then shared the advice he’s heeding before heading to the Queen City.
“Players are not getting paid to play. Players are getting paid to win, and that’s the mentality that I’m coming here with.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2021 at 1:26 PM.
