San Diego FC, MLS’ 30th expansion team, explores new approach to multi-club ownership with focus on youth

Multi-club ownership models are no longer a novelty in soccer, to the point that the concept has taken different forms in MLS alone throughout the league’s three-decade history. It started as a necessity for a fledgling league with a limited number of investors, to the point that Anchutz Entertainment Group backed seven clubs at one point or another, but MLS lasted long enough for the trendy, modern multi-owned version. clubs. Red Bull and City Football Group have since set up shop in New York, so it’s no surprise that another in the seemingly endless list of MLS expansion clubs is doing the same.

However, San Diego FC, the 30th MLS franchise set to begin play in the new year, is taking the multi-club ownership model differently.

The club is jointly owned by the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, a Native American tribe based in San Diego County, and Mohamed Mansour, an Egyptian-British billionaire whose previous claims to fame outside of his $6 billion conglomerate dollars were his passage through Hosni Mubarak. Minister for Transport and mega-donor to the UK Conservative Party. Mansour finances the group of soccer properties that own San Diego FC, starting his sports venture when he invested $120 million in 2021 for a majority stake in Right to Dream Academy. The Ghana-based organization has trained more than 200 graduates and was successful enough to buy Denmark’s FC Nordsjaelland in 2015, but since the Mansour acquisition, it has expanded its reach to FC Masar of the Egyptian Women’s Premier League and San Diego FC of the MLS.

Academies are naturally the focal point of every club associated with Right to Dream, but the $500 million expansion fee San Diego FC owners paid to enter MLS is Mansour’s most eye-catching sports investment yet. Mansour argued that it was worth paying one of the highest fees in the history of American sports.

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“When they offered us that license, we couldn’t say no… The World Cup will come here, in 2026. We also know that [Lionel] “Messi has come on board,” Mansour told CBS Sports. “We’re also building an academy in San Diego, which is 20 or 30 miles from Mexico… I think the growth will happen here.”

San Diego FC’s youth-first strategy

San Diego FC will be the 12th MLS expansion team in the last 10 years, a remarkable period of growth that has all but made it harder for each newcomer to distinguish itself as a unique product. The old-school approach would be to field a long list of veteran stars, such as New York City FC for its inaugural season in 2015, signing David Villa, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo. The mixed results of that venture and other trends across the league have caused subsequent expansion teams to become a bit more strategic with their designated player acquisitions, although San Diego is perhaps the first MLS expansion club to fully embrace to the youth from the beginning.

The San Diego academy, which will take advantage of FIFA rules that allow them to source players from neighboring countries within a 31-mile radius, will also open sometime in 2025. Mansour believes young players will be crucial to the success of the first team, his philosophy is similar to several long-time power players in the league despite being a newcomer to MLS. A few weeks after the LA Galaxy won the MLS Cup with a youth-centric approach, it’s not hard to see where he and other league leaders are coming from. However, NYCFC and other MLS clubs are not the only warnings about star players: Mansour singled out Manchester United, the club he supports.

“It’s about management and you can get fantastic big-name players,” he said. “We have seen many of them come to Manchester United and as a team we cannot function. [Cristiano] Ronaldo arrived at Manchester United and it is a team effort. “It’s a team game.”

Mansour also joins MLS as the latest power broker to believe the United States is just scratching the surface in terms of scouting and developing American soccer players, describing San Diego’s multicultural population and its reach as a selling point. to buy in the league. He also hopes the club’s academy will help uncover the continent’s (and perhaps the sport’s) next big talents.

“When you have a local player coming out of MLS like Michael Jordan did in the NBA, sooner or later that’s going to happen,” he said. “Sooner or later, that’s going to happen and [that’s] “The excitement for the MLS.”

San Diego’s priorities actually mark a departure from the trade rumors that have made up much of the coverage surrounding the expansion team. They have already signed Mexican international Hirving “Chucky” Lozano as their first designated player, and names such as UEFA Champions League winner Kevin de Bruyne and World Cup winner Sergio Ramos have also been linked to the club. Mansour was noncommittal about whether other stars would join Lozano on a roster that still feels a little empty two months before Opening Day, perhaps in part because he’s not really central to his long-term vision.

“What we want is to have a winning team,” he said. “We’d like to be in the playoffs in the first two years. That would be a goal… It doesn’t mean we’re not going to get a star sometimes. It doesn’t mean that, but it’s also about building on teamwork. “

Dream’s right to influence

The youth-focused strategy for San Diego FC is unsurprising considering the club’s ties to Right to Dream, but the independent organization is itself an outlier in the sport. Most professional players emerge through club-created academies, while most multi-club ownership models do not focus as blatantly on talent development. It is extremely rare to see an independent academy as financially successful as Right to Dream buy one club, let alone be the umbrella that covers several.

Right to Dream has trained more than 200 academy graduates since its creation in 1999 by former Manchester United scout Tom Vernon, including a notable group. West Ham United’s Mohamed Kudus and Southampton’s Kamaldeen Sulemana are products of Right to Dream, which also offers educational scholarships for children who do not end up pursuing professional careers in football. Kudus and Sulemana each earned more than $20 million in transfer fees when they moved to the Premier League from other European clubs, but the fees the clubs paid for their services beforehand opened up valuable cash flow for Right to Dream.

“We have income now that [didn’t have in the] “This wasn’t really what we thought, but now we have players in the pipeline, so this is what we see happening in Right to Dream.”

Right to Dream’s track record, combined with transfer fees that validate that reputation, allows it to continue to embark on the necessary, ambitious and arguably most difficult project in sport: finding the next generation of stars. Superclubs and independent academies are increasingly curious to discover untapped potential in countries that are less known for their football talent, and Right to Dream is now positioned in several countries they consider rich in talent, competing to win the designated home of the next big sport. things. This makes Right to Dream an exciting new addition to the American soccer landscape.

“To be very, very honest, they have a very scientific system at Right to Dream about how to select players, how to identify their psyche and whatever, because it’s like anything else,” Mansour said. “If you’re not ready and you’ve had big names do well one year and not do well the next year, then you still have to wait.”

The focus on youth players makes MLS seem like the natural next step for Right to Dream’s globe-trotting ambitions, and Mansour justifies the $500 million price tag that once led American billionaire Bill Foley to call his Bournemouth purchase a England as “a bargain” compared to an MLS. expansion team.

“Now sport is an asset class in itself,” Mansour said. “Maybe it wasn’t 20 years ago, but now. It’s long term, we think long term. We believe in America. You can’t bet against America, for sure, so things will develop here… I think “The potential is going to be here.”