The Impact of Club Networks in MLS
A reported move had me curious. Just how much does having common ownership help?
Last month, DC United sold homegrown Moses Nyeman to Belgian side Beveren. This seems an odd move; Beveren are a second tier side and Nyeman has shown flashes of promise. However, Beveren’s ownership group has MLS ties, as David Blitzer owns Real Salt Lake (among others) and the team already has two former MLS players in Atlanta loanee Tyler Wolff and former RSL man Everton Luiz.
While nobody would consider RSL “in network” with Beveren (and the player being sold isn’t even theirs), it did get me thinking about the handful of MLS teams that have club affiliations through ownership. How has that affected them? Are things a two-way street, or is it one-way traffic?
Let’s find out. I’m not including II teams for obvious reasons.
Minor “Partners” with common ownership
This category is for teams that share common ownership but haven’t really seen any back-and-forth movement.
Some of those alignments only started recently, so there’s just not been enough time to have any; for example, Chicago Fire owner Joe Mansueto also bought Swiss Super League side Lugano this past year, and his only move involving them was dumping DP flop Ignacio Aliseda to the southern Swiss side. Others have made minimal moves across clubs, or none at all.
This includes Colorado and Arsenal under Stan Kroenke (the only move between the two was the recent sale of Auston Trusty), San Jose and Celtic under John Fisher and Lew Wolff (no moves between the two), and DC and Swansea under the Levien-Kaplan regime (the only move was a brief loan of Paul Arriola). I may be missing one, but that seems about it.
The Blitzer Brigade
MLS team: Real Salt Lake
Also owns stakes in: Beveren (BEL), ADO Den Haag (NED), Crystal Palace (ENG), Augsburg (GER), Alcorcón (ESP)
Notable Players In: Sergio Córdova
Notable Players Out: Everton Luiz
The newest one is something that’s already being milked. Blitzer bought RSL from the league earlier this year following a year in limbo, and has already used his connections to alter the Claret and Cobalt’s squad. Córdova was loaned in from Augsburg, as was Chris Kablan from Beveren, and as stated earlier RSL dumped Luiz to the Belgian side.
We’ll see if this is just a short term “get in guys we know for now,” or a greater trend. It’s certainly interesting.
Red Bull
MLS team: RBNY
Also owns: RB Leipzig (GER), Red Bull Salzburg (AUT), Red Bull Bragantino (BRA)
Notable Players In: Carlos Coronel, Marc Rzatkowski
Notable Players Out: Tyler Adams, Caden Clark
Red Bull didn’t really utilize the link between Salzburg and New York until the mid-2010s. In fact, nowadays many New York fans feel their club is little more than an afterthought to the mothership.
The biggest loss to elsewhere the RB system was not a player, it was RBNY head coach Jesse Marsch. When he left midway through the 2018 season, replacement Chris Armas was nowhere near Jesse’s quality, and began a window of stagnation for New York. Tyler Adams joined Marsch in leaving a few months later.
What has New York gotten coming from the network? Honestly, besides Coronel and maybe Rzatkowski (both Salzburg loanees made permanent), not much. There were a few failed loans (Fredrik Gulbrandsen, Samuel Tetteh, Youba Diarra) from Salzburg here or there, and Ibrahim Sekagya had his moments at center back, but mostly it’s just been a big bag of nothing.
That said, Clark (who’s back with RBNY on loan from Leipzig this year) did join RBNY in the first place due to the fact that they could easily shuffle him to Europe. So it’s not a terrible recruiting pitch…but that won’t help the fans’ frustration. This is New York. People wanna win now.
City Football Group
MLS team: New York City
Also owns: Manchester City (ENG), Girona (ESP), Troyes (FRA), Palermo (ITA), Lommel (BEL), Montevideo City Torque (URU), Mumbai City (IND), Sichuan Jiuniu (CHN), Yokohama F. Marinos (JPN), Melbourne City (AUS)
Notable Players In: Taty Castellanos, Santiago Rodríguez
Notable Players Out: Jack Harrison, Taty Castellanos (LOAN)
Good lord, I could’ve just put that “Also owns” section to Yakko’s World.
City Football Group is a machine. A conglomerate funneling talent from all around the world, and probably the biggest pioneer in ushering the era of club networks. Sure, the Red Bull network existed, but CFG took it to 11, with their marquee club in the most visible league on the planet.
That marquee club did net NYC some really nice loanees early on. RB Leipzig fullback Angeliño (currently on loan at Hoffenheim) spent a season in the Big Apple, as did the talented Venezuelan midfielder (and USYNT killer) Yangel Herrera. They also provided a dumping ground to get flop Mix Diskerud off the Pigeon’s salary books, and, well, whatever the Frank Lampard fiasco was. And of course, being part of the City machine allowed them to snag Patrick Vieira and Dome Torrent as managers.
However, NYC has particularly enjoyed the link with Torque. The Pigeons plucked Taty Castellanos from the Montevideo side back in 2018, and grew him into one of MLS’s best players. When no one bit on him moving to Europe, CFG decided they’d do it themselves, shifting him to their Spanish satellite at Girona. Santiago Rodríguez, the team’s assist leader thus far in 2022, also came from Torque, albeit on loan - and they gotta be making that permanent, right?
The other links have mostly either not been used (many of them are still very new) or have had pretty meh results.
Saputo
MLS team: Montréal
Also owns: Bologna (ITA)
Notable Players In: Marco di Vaio, Lassi Lappalainen
Notable Players Out: Luis Binks
The last major one of these, and one with a decent amount of crossover; I count four permanent ins from Bologna, one out, and seven short-term loans (excluding ones later made permanent).
Some of those loans have worked out. Blerim Džemaili was a baller, and I wish we got more of him in MLS. Sebastian Breza has had flashes of brilliance, but those are surrounded by some of the worst goalkeeping I’ve seen in modern MLS. The rest of the loans were a bunch of whos, unless the likes of Deian Boldor, Andrea Pisanu, or Daniele Paponi ring a bell.
I was actually somewhat surprised that there’s only ever been one Montréal player that got moved on to the Italian side, and that’s Luis Binks. A former Tottenham youth player, Binks was moved on after less than a year in Québec, and has since been punted out on loan again, this time to Como.
As for the permanent ins, di Vaio was the club’s first MLS star, and his 2013 is one of the most forgotten great seasons by a striker in recent times. Saphir Taïder, Matteo Mancosu, and Lassi Lappalainen have had moments (especially Taïder, who was a DP who was probably more worthy of a TAM spot), but were not gamebreakers.
Is there a conclusion to be drawn here? I ran this experiment to take a look at the use of networking in this league, and I came away with the impression of “some good, some bad, some meh.” We’ve seen teams use affiliates as salary dumping grounds, or utilizing it to get nice loan players. As multi-club networks like CFG and RB become more frequent, MLS will surely see more of these kinds of moves come in.
Great content!