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Always busy season for MLS deputy
Updated: Sunday January 21, 2001 12:42 PM
Busy season? Busy season? Ivan Gazidis laughs when he hears that January is supposed to be his busy season. "Every year I think, 'Hold on until July. Things will get easier.' And then they don't. It's become a year-round thing," Major League Soccer's new deputy commissioner said the other day. But the next two weeks, however, is a busy time for Gazidis and his staff. Gazidis said he expects the league to sign from five to 10 Project-40 and/or college players for the Feb. 5 SuperDraft. "To me, the most exciting thing we have are the young American players," he said. "That's the most important thing we do all year."
Only 36-years-old, Gazidis has become one of the most influential men in U.S. soccer. In fact, he might be one of the most experienced soccer officials in the world dealing with and signing foreign players. Because the MLS office deals with all player signings and acquisitions, he has a hand in every deal. "Between Sunil [Gulati, former deputy commissioner] and me, we might have signed more foreign players than anyone in the world," Gazidis said. "Most [European] teams deal with five foreign players a year. We deal with 20 or 30." The days are usually 12-hour marathons or longer for him and his staff, which includes vice president of player personnel Todd Durbin, director of player personnel Bill Ordower and former director of player personnel Nelson Rodriguez, who recently has taken up added duties as assistant to commissioner Don Garber. "It's seven days a week," he said. "My wife is accustomed to receiving phone calls day and night." A couple of months ago Gazidis was awakened by a phone call at 4 a.m. from an agent in England; Gazidis was in a Boston hotel the night before he was to testify in the players' lawsuit. The agent's client, who was trying out with an English team, needed the proper paperwork to play in a game that night. So, Gazidis had to wake up a U.S. Soccer official, who had to go to the organization's office in Chicago at 5 a.m. to get the proper paperwork faxed to the agent and club. Gazidis declined to give the player's name because the tryout did not pan out. "It wasn't the best of nights," he said. Because he deals with negotiations for American and foreign players, Gazidis has encountered some unusual situations the past five years. Again, he wouldn't name names. But some of those players might be apparent due to the unique circumstances. "There was one player from Colombia who insisted he got $200 in cash at the end of the game," he said. "I think he was afraid he wasn't going to get paid because of his experiences in Colombia. I think he now understands the money comes every two weeks. "We've had to relocate dogs overseas. Another player negotiated for a car. The player took us to the showroom and pointed out the car. Trump Tower has come into the negotiations as the player negotiated what type of curtains he wanted." Wonder what former Bayern Munich defender-midfielder Gazidis could have been talking about. Then there was the player who actually was willing to take less money. Honest. It happened at the very first MLS player draft in 1996. "The player hadn't been picked up and he thought it was because of his salary," Gazidis said. "The player said he wanted to make less money [so he would be more attractive to teams thinking of the salary cap], which is an unusual occurrence." Gazidis' finest moment? It could be how he signed South African international forward Shaun Bartlett at the African Nations Cup in South Africa in 1996, beating every other scout at the tournament. "All the scouts in Johannesburg were speaking with him," Gazidis said. "I missed the game. I traveled down to Cape Town instead to talk to his the owner of his team. The deal was done an hour before he scored against Ghana in a semifinal. Everyone pounced on him. I saw it on TV at the airport. I saw Bartlett score, went crazy and went on the plane." Bartlett did not pan out, playing two seasons in MLS before he moved on to Europe for what was then an MLS-record transfer fee. Bartlett now performs for Charlton Athletic in England. "We sold him for many, many multiples of what he paid for him," Gazidis said. Gazidis makes no apologies for the standard of play in MLS, which has been criticized in the U.S. but has impressed scouts and team officials in European leagues. "It's not an easy league," he said. "The pace of play is a lot higher than what people expect. I have a lot of conversations with people around the world. They say the players here are as good as theirs. We're not the English Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A or Spanish League. We have an enormous number of good, young players here." So, how did Gazidis land this plum job? Through luck and hard work. First a little background. Born in South Africa and raised in England, the lifelong soccer fan graduated from Oxford with a master's degree in law, playing twice playing at Wembley for the school's soccer team. He still plays with the N.Y. Athletic Club's over-30 team in-between family time with his wife and two sons in suburban Connecticut and player negotiations. Even Gazidis admits he was fortunate when MLS chief operating officer Mark Abbott asked him if he "was prepared to take a risk" to work for a fledgling soccer league seven years ago. After working as a corporate attorney in England, Gazidis had just completed an internship with Latham & Watkins in 1994 (yes, that's the law firm of MLS founder and former U.S. Soccer president Alan I. Rothenberg, although Gazidis said he hadn't met Rothenberg back then). Remember, the World Cup, the grandest sporting event ever to touch American soil was only months away, and very few people, if any, were breaking down doors to work for MLS at the time. Gazidis took the gamble. "Really, he was hiring me as a corporate lawyer to get investors," he said. "Finally, we got the investors. Because of my background in the game, I was asked to move over to the player side." Gazidis assisted Gulati, who was fired as deputy commissioner two years ago. Gazidis took up Gulati's responsibilities with the title of executive vice president of player relations and league operations until he was named deputy commissioner on Jan. 9. "We were all learning together," Gazidis said. "Nobody had done anything like this before." Gazidis admitted he is one fortunate soul working in a sport for which he has so much passion. "My feet still haven't touched the ground," he said. "Working in the thing I love, it's an extraordinary thing to have." Even if he's always in his busy season. Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News. On Friday, he was honored by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in the college division of its writing contest for Life is Beautiful, a column on University of San Francisco coach Steve Negoesco.
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