Charlotte FC makes a bet on seasoned players
Exclusive: Q and A with sporting director Zoran Krneta, who says signing veteran players helps on and off the field; plus thoughts on new Belgian midfielder, possibility for playoffs and more
It’s time for Fútbol Friday, The Charlotte Ledger’s weekly newsletter getting you up to speed on Charlotte FC, the city’s new pro soccer team.
➡️ Need to sign up for Fútbol Friday and other Charlotte-focused email newsletters from The Charlotte Ledger? You can do that here.
➡️ Ledger subscribers can add or drop individual newsletters on their “My Account” page.
Charlotte FC loads up on players in their 30s: Dejaegere joins Arfield and Meram as latest example; ‘We needed strong characters,’ club’s sporting director says
Sporting director Zoran Krneta during a press conference in 2022. (Photo by Kevin Young of The 5 and 2 Project.)
For all the ups and downs in its young history so far, Charlotte FC is at another crossroads. Down to 12 games in this Major League Soccer season, the second-year franchise is within shouting distance of a playoff spot (sitting 12th in the Eastern Conference, in which the top nine teams qualify). But five consecutive ties and a habit of blowing leads has its fanbase feeling underwhelmed and its front office working to make changes during the summer transfer window, which is open until Aug. 2.
When you look at the players added so far, it’s easy to see a continuing trend: They’re both 30-something. Belgian midfielder Brecht Dejaegere, 32, whose signing was announced Thursday, joins midfielder Scott Arfield, 34, who got his first start for Charlotte FC on Saturday since leaving the Glasgow Rangers. This comes after Charlotte FC traded for Justin Meram, 34, the only winger in the 30-something crew, in late April. If you go back to the winter, the club added a fourth in midfielder Ashley Westwood, now 33, to go along with newcomers Enzo Copetti, 27, and Bill Tuiloma, 28.
To be a soccer player in your 30s means you’re past your physical prime. What Charlotte FC believes it has on the flipside is players who bring seasoned skills, poise and leadership on the field, and maturity and character off of it.
In an exclusive conversation with The Ledger this week, Charlotte FC sporting director Zoran Krneta gave us a closer look at what is driving his decisions and why the context of what’s happened in recent months with Charlotte FC is so important. If it seems as though there might be more than simply filling team needs to these moves, it’s because there is.
This is a team that suffered the death of 25-year-old Anton Walkes in a boating accident on an off day this preseason in Miami. In April, Andre Shinyashiki, 26, and Nuno Santos, 24, were linked to a police report in which a 23-year-old woman said she was sexually assaulted the night of Charlotte FC’s season opener. Neither player was charged with a crime, but the club was stung by a wave of negative publicity. This came just a year after the team fired former coach Miguel Angel Ramirez 14 games into the inaugural season after admitting he’d been a bad fit off the field.
In our conversation, Krneta acknowledged that these moves are about more than just making a playoff push but reshaping the reputation of the team. Krneta was frank about the impact of the off-the-field scandal, the pending departure of Santos, Thursday’s signing of Belgian midfielder Brecht Dejaegere and what more he’d like to do during the transfer window.
Krneta had just arrived back in Charlotte after a week in Europe, where he signed Dejaegere, the 32-year-old attacking midfielder, to a free agent contract through the 2025 season and pursued other defensive options. Dejaegere comes from Toulouse FC, a club he helped earn a promotion to France’s top division, Ligue 1, and one he led to the Coupe de France — similar to U.S. Cup — as captain last season.
The discussion with Krneta was edited for clarity and length:
Q. How did you all go about pursuing Dejaegere?
This was a courting for about six weeks. At the beginning, it looked like it would be difficult because he had really good offers from all over the place, including the Middle East. As you know, right now the Middle East is coming with some incredibly stupid figures, so a lot of players don’t want to miss an opportunity or simply go for money alone.
He had offers from France and Belgium. Toulouse tried everything to keep him. Toulouse president and GM Damien Comolli, who used to work for Tottenham and Liverpool as a GM, (told us), “I hope one day he comes back as a coach in Toulouse because we love him dearly.” … It’s a really interesting signing for us to get the player of Brecht’s level, as a player but also as a leader, as a professional, as a human. He comes across as a really fantastic signing both on and off the pitch. And we wanted to strengthen that area of the club, not only on the pitch but also off the pitch.
Q. The signing immediately drew criticism from fans unhappy it was another 30-something midfielder. What is your response to that?
We know what we’ve gone through this season. We lost (Walkes) tragically, which affected the younger group of players especially. Then we lost two experienced players in Nuno Santos and Andre Shinyashiki; we played most of the season without them.
I think we needed strong characters, and it’s very difficult to find 21-year-old strong character leaders that can come to MLS. These guys are usually playing for the Chelseas of this world. MLS is not on a level to attract those kind of guys, so you have to go for the next best, and next best is veterans who are coming from the end of a top career, and they will look at MLS as a “Hey, I can have another two years.”
Brecht is only 32. I think he’s going to give us a fantastic two years of service, minimum. Also, we have a lot of young players around, so I think these older players are very important for them to support them, say a positive word, or push them a little bit, help them believe in themselves. It’s not always easy for the coaches to do. Sometimes the leaders are better suited to do it.
Q. So it’s a conscious decision, given the off-field troubles, to seek out more mature players?
Correct. We didn’t want that to cloud what this club has achieved the last couple of years. Also, we wanted to support the coach and basically give him ready players. We’re looking for how to improve the club the best possible way.
Q. What do you think made Charlotte a good fit for Dejaegere?
I think we loved him the most and we persuaded him the most. He’s a very family-oriented man, and we were trying to show him how much we care about families. This is what (Krneta’s wife) Rosie and the partners and the girlfriends (of Charlotte FC players) are doing (in an organized group). We wanted to show him that we will take care of his family the best out of all of the clubs. He’s moving to another continent. His wife is five months pregnant. They have a son, 3 or 4 years old. We have gone (out of the way to say) you don’t need to worry, you focus on football, we’ll take care of most of the other issues that a young family like his can face moving to a new country.
Q. Do you see him as an offensive midfielder?
I think he’s a hybrid between an eight and 10 (offensive-minded midfielders), but also he can play as a winger. He is someone who hopefully will be able to progress the ball quicker for us, which is an area where we struggle, and also he will be able to pass the final ball that also we struggle (with), especially with Enzo (Copetti). Enzo likes to do these runs behind the players, and we struggle to provide some of those balls for Enzo to make him more effective.
Q. What else are you looking to do during this window?
We are looking for another defensive player. It’s not a secret. Everybody knows what we’re looking for right now.
(Charlotte FC has been linked in reports to Moussa Diarra, a 22-year-old left back, also of Toulouse FC; and 21-year-old Bradley Locko of Stade de Reims, also in Ligue 1.)
These are players that are very difficult to find, the way that they fit in (Christian Lattanzio’s) system — as you know, Chris likes to play very specific system. I think we are on the market for maybe one more player. That also depends who we might lose. There is a possibility that we will see some departures. That’s normal in a transfer window.
Q. I've seen reports that Santos is on the verge of being transferred to Vitoria S.C. in his native Portugal. Is that something you can confirm?
Yes, we are close to agreeing on that sale for Nuno Santos to Europe.
Q. What about Shinyashiki? Has there been any movement on him?
You need to make a call to the league.
Q. Do you have the roster flexibility — in terms of salary and international spots — to acquire anyone else? Or did you have to move those two before you can do anything else?
We had to move one of them, so we moved Nuno and we are hoping that the league will help us to resolve the situation with Andre as soon as possible, because he’s hurting us big-time. Both players not playing and being on our (salary) cap are hurting us, of course. (They combine to make $1 million in base salary, according to the MLS Players Association.) … We’re trying to be as creative as possible together with the league to find ways to bring these (new) players. We managed to find ways to bring these three — Justin Meram was the first one, then Scott (Arfield) and now Brecht, and I hope for at least one more.
Meram, one of three 30-something players added in recent months, makes a move vs. FC Cincinnati. (Photo by Robert Taylor.)
Q. If you cannot move Shinyashiki, will you still be able to get a defender?
We are trying to find ways, yes.
Q. What are you looking for the league to do?
In this case, I’d rather not comment. It’s complicated. It’s messy. It’s not something that we ever wanted to be dealing with as such a young club. To have a tragedy and after that, this scandal case, it’s unheard of.
I don’t know a club that has gone through this, certainly never in Major League Soccer. From that perspective, it was very difficult for the club and everyone to deal with that and try to replace those players. Now, we’re trying to put all this past us and bring new players. We have brought six players, with a possibility for seven new players, from the 11 that played towards the end of the last season. So I hope these players are an upgrade on the players that we had last season. I think this will be enough for us to push for the playoffs in the last 12 games.
Q. Given where you guys sit in the standings and this run of ties, how do you feel about how the team is performing? I know Lattanzio made the point Saturday night of what if they’d been five losses.
I have to agree with Christian in that sense that, look, it wasn’t like we lost games 3-0, 4-0, 5-0, every weekend. Nobody beat us. But we have lost 17 points out to winning positions this year (a tally of potential points lost when a team blows a lead).
We were up 2-0 against the Red Bulls. We were up 2-0 against Cincinnati. We were up 1-0 against New York City. We were up 1-0 up against St. Louis. We were up 1-0 against Real Salt Lake. We are leading the league in that, which is a terrible statistic.
But if you look at it a little bit deeper, it is showing that this club is not far off from where they want to be. It’s a very small margin. We could easily be sitting on 8, 9, 10 points more if you look at the leads we lost. … I don’t know if it’s because of a lack of focus or maybe simply because what had happened in this club is still making this relatively young group of people a little bit unsure of themselves and maybe not focused enough. We are trying to figure it out.
Q. How do you how do you feel about the job Lattanzio is doing?
He is doing a good job. There’s no doubt about that. But if you asked me if I’m happy with where we are sitting on the table and how many points we have, I’m not. I think we should have more points, and I think we have a good enough team for the playoffs as it is, even without these players that are coming. …
This whole season is a roller coaster season, partly because of what we’ve gone through, but I don’t want to find excuses. … In my opinion, we should have between 32 and 35 points right now. We lose too many points. We’ve been struggling defending the last 10, 15 minutes, but we’re trying to adjust this from the front office. We’re trying to bring new players, better players, that can have more influence on the game throughout the 90 minutes, especially in the last 15 or 20.
Q. When you watch veteran midfielders like Ashley Westwood and Scott Arfield directing traffic, do you feel like you have players in place who can see the field better?
I’ll tell you something: A few weeks ago, Ashley texted me a photo. The boys organized with their partners to go out for (dinner) on a rooftop (restaurant). Ashley texted me and said, “This is amazing. This club reminds me so much of Burnley (of the English Premier League) in the golden days. There’s so much camaraderie now. There’s so much unity. There are so many players who like each other and want to play for each other. This is an incredible culture you’re creating here.”
It’s exactly what we are trying to do.
Q. How big of a change is that from last year?
Last year, we had Miguel Angel Ramirez, who is a good coach, but failed as a leader and as a character. On the cultural front, he could not adjust to America. Everything was wrong for him in America, for some reason. And we did not detect this throughout a series of interviews. We had to change that.
And since Chris Lattanzio took over, we started changing all the players because they did not fit his style. We have moved 11 players, and there might be more coming out. It’s not easy in one season, in one year — basically, a half season and a half season — trying to sell them, trying to find them clubs, trying not to lose money, because that’s also very important.
Q. What would you like to see from here on out this season?
I’m looking for stability and no major situations happening in this club. I think with the new training camp that we are hopefully moving into in about a month, with the team that we have now, with the stability, that we support each other, we really work hard for each other now, and as always, have the support from the owner, Mr. Tepper. … And we will invest more money and bring more players. We will shift some things as well. In January, we’ll see some more players coming in and some leaving. But I think this team, right now as it is, should have a really strong push for the playoffs, same as last year.
Swiderski shines with 2 goals against Cincinnati
Karol Swiderski shows off his dynamic left foot during his two-goal effort against FC Cincinnati last week. (Photo by Robert Taylor.)
Quotable: Charlotte FC radio announcer says criticized goal call stems from ‘genuine excitement’
Charlotte FC radio play-by-play announcer Will Palaszczuk, speaking to sports radio WFNZ’s “Wes & Walker” show this week, after fans on social media and articles on the internet ridiculed his high-pitched goal call by saying he sounded “possessed by Mickey Mouse,” among other insults:
This is genuine excitement, man. …
We first saw it right after the game, that Charlotte FC had posted the video. Initially, I was like, “Oh, this is really cool. Nice publicity for us. Any press is good press.”
Then I started scrolling and seeing some of the comments people were making: “Oh, Mickey Mouse this, Mickey Mouse that,” and “Oh, this guy sounds like he has not hit puberty yet.” That started to feel a little bit mean. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that going to bed Saturday night, it didn’t feel some kind of way.
But then I woke up Sunday morning, and the thing just exploded. It was probably more positive on Sunday morning than it was negative. …
It was great to feel that [support] from the fan base, once the initial rush of commentary came through.
Up Next: Charlotte FC (6-8-8) at Montreal (8-12-2)
When/Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Stade Saputo, Montreal
How to watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. For information on how to sign up for a regular subscription, click here.
How to listen: WFNZ 92.7 FM in English. WOLS 106.1 FM in Spanish.
Charlotte FC played Montreal to a 0-0 tie June 24 at Bank of America Stadium, the team’s third in a span of five consecutive draws.
Karol Swiderski scored two goals against FC Cincinnati last Saturday, while playing striker in the absence of the injured Enzo Copetti. Swiderski, who has played an attacking midfielder role when Copetti is healthy, will be at the “9” for a while, as Copetti is expected to miss at least another five or six weeks with a calf injury.
Charlotte FC will be thin at center back, with Derrick Jones out for a few games with a leg muscle injury. Adilson Malanda has not yet returned from his leg injury, either.
Montreal recently acquired dynamic 21-year-old forward Kwadwo Opoku from LAFC for an unusually high $1.75 million in general allocation money.
Carroll Walton is a longtime baseball writer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution now cutting her teeth on soccer and the Charlotte FC just as fans in Charlotte do. She would love to hear from you. E-mail her with questions, suggestions, story ideas and comments!
Need to sign up for this e-newsletter? We offer a free version, as well as paid memberships for full access to all 4 of our local newsletters:
➡️ Opt in or out of different newsletters on your “My Account” page.
➡️ Learn more about The Charlotte Ledger
The Charlotte Ledger is a locally owned media company that delivers smart and essential news through e-newsletters and on a website. We strive for fairness and accuracy and will correct all known errors. The content reflects the independent editorial judgment of The Charlotte Ledger. Any advertising, paid marketing, or sponsored content will be clearly labeled.
Like what we are doing? Feel free to forward this along and to tell a friend.
Social media: On Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Sponsorship information/customer service: email support@cltledger.com.