Breaking down Charlotte FC’s meticulous roster-building process with team leadership
In all the time Steve Walsh has been a top-tier international soccer scout, which means for more than 30 years and through successful stints with Premier League clubs such as Chelsea and Leicester City, he’s never not been looking for a striker.
“That is key,” said Walsh, now a special advisor to Charlotte FC. “... If you’ve got somebody who doesn’t contribute in any other way, but is able to score goals on a regular basis, they’re worth their weight in gold.”
Charlotte FC’s sporting director Zoran Krneta agreed, citing lessons he learned through his experience as a former agent and scout overseas.
“The only position you can never have enough players is striker,” Krneta said. “So if you can have six, have six.”
It’s an odd thing, then, to look at the 30-player roster the two are helping build for Charlotte’s Major League Soccer expansion team ahead of the club’s inaugural season in 2022 and not see any of the first five players fit that role.
Charlotte FC is stacked in the midfield so far with former Chicago Fire player Brandt Bronico signed as an option in the 6, surrounded by Spanish Second Division midfielder Sergio Ruiz (who can also play right back), Australian attacking midfielder Riley McGree, former Leicester City left back Christian Fuchs, in addition to Polish central defender Jan Sobociński.
But the masterminds shaping Charlotte’s inaugural team are being meticulous with their process, with each of the early signings adding value for the club. Charlotte FC, for example, hasn’t used any of its three allotted Designated Player (DP) slots, which gives an MLS club the ability to sign players whose salary and transfer fees exceed the maximum Salary Budget Charge ($612,500 per player). The club meets the compensation of a DP player above that amount outside of the Salary Budget ($4.9 million in 2022 under the new CBA).
Krneta said Fuchs and Ruiz could be considered DP-caliber, and that the team received attractive offers from clubs in La Liga they turned down for Ruiz, who’s playing for Las Palmas in Spain on loan ahead of his MLS season.
“In other circumstances, he might’ve been a DP,” Krneta told The Observer. “But he’s not, which is great business for the club.”
According to salary information released in April by the MLS Players Association, Ruiz’s base salary ($300,000) is lower than the league average base salary for Senior Roster Non-DPs in 2021 ($398,725). His guaranteed compensation is $363,000, not including performance bonuses, which is higher than McGree’s ($180,000) and Bronico’s ($90,705), the other two signed players for which salary information is available.
Fuchs, 35, is Charlotte FC’s most recent addition, and Walsh helped bring him to the club through his ties with Leicester. He signed a one-year contract with a one-year option as a Domestic Player earlier this month. Walsh said the plan is to bring the same success of Leicester’s title-winning 2015-16 season, in which the club avoided relegation in a Cinderella story moment, to Charlotte for the inaugural MLS season. And he said he believes Fuchs can be the glue both on the pitch and in the dressing room.
“We needed some experience. We needed a bit of leadership,” Walsh said. “He’s still got some good playing time ahead of him.”
Krneta and Walsh said they’ve received interest from other MLS clubs asking about Fuchs joining on loan and they’re “looking at all the options.” Fuchs said has an opportunity to continue training with Leicester, but Krneta said it’s preferable that he remain in the U.S.
“We want the best option for us and for Christian to make sure that he’s ready,” Krneta said. “So we’ll make that decision in the next week or so.”
Other looming decisions include naming a head coach, which Krneta said is getting closer. Club leadership has narrowed the list of names to roughly four to five candidates, and plans to narrow it down to two names in the next two to three weeks, Krneta said. He did not specify any names and said the search has included both domestic and international coaches.
“We still have plenty of time,” Krneta said. “We don’t want to rush.”
That’s the same philosophy the club is using to determine its DP slots, whereas other recent new clubs like Inter Miami CF and Austin FC filled those positions early. Strikers will also be signed when the right players are identified, with the end goal being to bring “attractive football” to fans, Walsh said.
“I’ve never been involved with a club that doesn’t want to win games and play attractive football. That’s the utopia, and we’re no different,” Walsh said.
“If you’ve spoken to our owner David Tepper he’s not one that wants to come second,” Walsh continued. “He wants to win the league.”
Walsh said he knows the expectations will be “very, very high” in Year 1.
“He certainly expects us to compete, and we’re gonna put a football team on the pitch that is gonna compete and give a good account of itself in its first year,” Walsh said.
Krneta and Walsh said they know it’s not about the flashiest names, just the right ones, to achieve that end.
