Orlando City is heading into its second season as an MLS club, and already its undergoing a major front-office shakeup.
Orlando City announced on Monday that new chief soccer officer Armando Carneiro has stepped down due to personal reasons. Lions president Phil Rawlins will manage the club’s soccer activities temporarily while it searches for a new CSO.
“Our focus in the next few weeks will be on the upcoming drafts, finalizing our rosters and putting together a successful preseason that will properly prepare (Orlando City, Orlando Pride, and Orlando City B) to kick off their 2016 campaigns,” said Rawlins in a statement released by Orlando City. “Our goal for the coming year is nothing less than reaching playoffs with both the Lions and Pride, and we are keenly focused on achieving that goal for our fans and our club.”
Carneiro joined Orlando City from Benfica in Portugal in November, where he was the general director. Shortly thereafter, Paul McDonough, Orlando City’s general manager for its inaugural MLS season, parted ways with the club by mutual consent. Within a week, future expansion team Atlanta United snatched up McDonough as director of soccer operations.
What do you think about this development? How much of a mistake was it to let go of McDonough? Is Orlando City in trouble or will things get sorted out this offseason?
Share your thoughts below.
cant wait for the full story to come out on this one….
Can anyone name a Euro based exec who has done well in MLS? They continue to come and they always fail. The whole salary cap thing is very foreign to them it seems.
Jurgen?
Ivan Gazidis?
How about Andy Roxburgh? I wouldn’t call his time with the Red Bulls a failure. It could be a number of different reasons, maybe his family wasn’t settling in or maybe it was a better view on how the league is run differently. Or maybe he thought it was too much to take over. They have the start ups of 2 new teams (USL and NWSL) and improving the MLS team and the academy. That seems like it would be daunting task for most folks.
Paul McDonough?
Either Phil Rawlins is a pain to work with or Carneiro didn’t realize how difficult MLS parity mechanisims really were.