When Atlanta United selected the top spot in the MLS Allocation Order, team president Darren Eales had in mind acquiring a U.S. men’s national team player that could give his team invaluable experience and leadership.
He wasn’t particularly thinking about adding goalkeeper Brad Guzan, just a player like Guzan, who has been capped more than 50 times by the U.S. men’s national team and has made more than 150 appearances in the Premier League and more than 80 in MLS.
“We felt that might be something that could provide us with a useful building block,” Eales said. “We wanted to be No. 1 in that.”
Guzan’s transfer to Atlanta United was made official by the club Thursday.
How Guzan agreed to join MLS and Atlanta United has a back story that involves friendship, childbirth and relationships.
Here’s how it happened:
Atlanta United knew the pool of players on the Allocation List before it selected the top spot in the Allocation Order on Oct. 16. The Allocation Order is an MLS mechanism that allows the team at the top of the order the first right to negotiate with a certain pool of players who are overseas.
Once Atlanta United received clearance from the league that it was indeed allowed to negotiate with a player (and club) of interest, Eales reached out to Middlesbrough in December.
Eales is good friends with Middlesbrough CEO Neal Bausor because Eales worked with Tottenham Hotspur in his previous job in 2012 when Bausor was hired.
“I had a chat with him welcoming to the football world and how different it was from other industries,” Eales said.
While Eales was friends with Bausor, Atlanta United Technical Director Carlos Bocanegra was friends with Guzan from their experiences as teammates on the U.S. men’s national team. Bocanegra was impressed with Guzan’s work ethic, which never varied even though Tim Howard was firmly planted as the No. 1 goalkeeper.
“It’s hard to be a No. 2 goalkeeper and continue to work hard and keep the spirit up,” Bocanegra said. “But he was one of the great guys around the team. Everyone wanted to hang around him.
“He came into camp with high spirits every single time. It says a lot about his character and a lot about him. He’s had a great career with national team, overseas and here in MLS. He’s a complete package.”
Atlanta United knew that Guzan and his wife are expecting their first child in March and were considering returning to the U.S. to start their family.
Bocanegra reached out to Guzan, as friends, to see how he was doing. It’s something Bocanegra said he does with a lot of his overseas friends. Guzan had fallen behind Victor Valdez as Middlesbrough’s starter.
A transfer can be a tricky negotiation. Not only do the two clubs have to agree on a feee, but the player has to agree on a salary with his new club. Because MLS is a single-entity league that owns the rights to all of its players, the negotiations can have a third party involved.
Eales discussed with Bausor the possibility of transferring Guzan, who had fallen behind Victor Valdez as Middlesbrough’s starter. Once Atlanta United’s leaders received the OK, Bocanegra began discussing with Guzan the vision for Atlanta United, what living in the city was like and how MLS has changed. Guzan had been following what Atlanta United was doing in building its roster, which impressed Bocanegra.
“… He knows how I go about my business that we are trying to do things properly, so hopefully that helped,” Bocanegra said.
Bocanegra said he spoke with Guzan by phone at least two dozen times — almost every day — starting in December. The discussions changed from casual conversations to let’s consider this to Guzan asking for more and more information about the city, hospitals in Atlanta, obstetricians, good neighborhoods, etc. Eales passed information about where his twins were born. Guzan couldn’t get enough information.
“I could tell then that he was going to be excited to be here,” Bocanegra said.
The parallel negotiations began in early January and were wrapped up within a few weeks, with director of soccer operations Paul McDonough handling the contract. The transfer fee and Guzan’s salary weren’t disclosed.
“They (Middlesbrough) are a great club like that, Eales said. “Other clubs could have been difficult. They were empathetic with Brad and wanted to do best for him in those circumstances.”
The news broke Wednesday that Guzan had been transferred, or sold, from Middlesbrough to MLS and Atlanta United. He can’t join Atlanta United until the Premier League season ends in late May. He can’t play for Atlanta United until the MLS secondary transfer window opens in July.
But Eales said a player such as Guzan, with all of his experience and ability, is worth the wait. It’s exactly what he hoped for when Atlanta United picked the top spot in the allocation order in October.
“We see him coming in and being one of the big leaders, big personalities in our dressing room,” Bocanegra said.
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