The women behind Charlotte FC
Player wives and girlfriends group using community work, camaraderie and chat groups to support each other and help Charlotte FC attract new players
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Charlotte FC players’ wives and girlfriends are flourishing in their friendships, while easing transitions for new players
Charlotte FC players’ wives and girlfriends meet to make sandwiches for charity. From left to right: Julia Patrum (Jaylin Lindsey’s girlfriend), Kidist Bisrat (McKinze Gaines’ fianceé), Rebecca Bronico (Brandt Bronico’s wife), Becca Westwood (Ashley Westwood’s wife), Alexis Sims (partner of the late Anton Walkes), Nikolina Kahlina (Kristijan Kahlina’s wife), Maxine Meram (Justin Meram’s wife), Sara Sisniega (Pablo Sisniega’s wife) and Ariane Audett (Bill Tuiloma’s girlfriend.) (Photo by Taylor Banner, Charlotte FC.)
Sure, Charlotte FC has a knowledgeable front office, a thorough scouting department, an owner willing to spend, and a team of translators, trainers and staff whose job it is to help attract, sign and acclimate players to Charlotte. But the club’s secret weapon to bringing in players from all over the world and helping them fit in to a new city, league and team? The players’ wives and partners group.
In just its second season, while Charlotte FC built its roster — and rebuilt it after last year’s coaching change — it’s the women behind the scenes making connections and offering support to wives of prospective players that helped attract newcomers like Ashley Westwood, Scott Arfield and more recently Brecht Dejaegere. The man inking the deals — sporting director Zoran Krneta — is the first to acknowledge it.
Here’s how he described convincing Belgian midfielder Brecht Dejaegere to come to Charlotte over returning to the top-tier team he captained in France and signing lucrative offers from teams in Saudi Arabia.
“He’s a very family-oriented man, and we were trying to show him how much we care about families,” Krneta said. “This is what Rosie and the partners and the girlfriends are doing.”
Rosie is Krneta’s wife. She took it upon herself at the end of last season to start a group for players’ wives and girlfriends. She planned an event at the stadium, inviting the women to get their hair and makeup styled to raise money for two local breast cancer charities. She built on that momentum this season by organizing a welcome-back dinner, a team-building exercise, a sandwich-making social and more. All the while, she has kept the wives and partners connected via group chat.
Now, when a new player is asking Zoran Krneta questions about uprooting his family and moving to Charlotte, he can pass along a link to the wives’ WhatsApp chat group. That player’s wife is instantly connected to 20-30 wives and girlfriends who are eager to answer questions about places to live, how to get a driver’s license, local schools, the best restaurants for date nights and more.
“It’s just lovely to see that there’s something existing now that a new player’s wife can come into and it’s ready-made and it’s there and it’s welcoming,” said Rosie Krneta. “And she can see the trail of messages. You can see pictures of events we had.”
Rosie knows exactly how reassuring making connections like that can be, and how disorienting it can feel to move to a new country. In December 2019, she was the wife Zoran was trying to convince to leave her native London to move to Charlotte.
Zoran Krneta was Charlotte FC’s first hire. Outside of him, Rosie didn’t know anyone in Charlotte. It was the beginning of Covid lockdowns. To top it off, one of the conditions of her husband’s visa, Rosie said, was that she couldn’t seek employment.
“It took me a while to find my feet,” she said, adding that she ultimately found her groove working with non-profits like Roof Above. “I felt that ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if Charlotte FC had something that was established for future players coming in, where there are people who walked in those shoes before you?’”
Charlotte FC sporting director Zoran Krneta and his wife, Rosie. (Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC.)
New friendships: Becca Westwood had never lived longer than an hour’s drive from her hometown in England while her husband, Ashley, played in the English Premier League with teams like Aston Villa and Burnley. When he asked her over dinner if she would be interested in going to America, she said yes right away. But she knew she was in for an adventure.
She had seen what it was like for women from other countries when they moved to England with their soccer-playing husbands, but “you don’t appreciate what they do until your shoe is on the other foot,” she said.
“Rosie’s been brilliant on getting everybody together,” Westwood said. “I think it’s really helped a lot of people settle.”
Westwood said the group has given her a great way to get recommendations on everything from good parks for her children to where to grocery shop. It’s also provided an easy way to build friendships.
Westwood often sits beside McKinze Gaines’ fianceé, Kidist Bisrat, in the family suite at Bank of America Stadium. She’s been known to grab Bisrat’s arm in excitement, when Charlotte FC scores a goal. She has held Enzo Copetti’s baby, Mia, so his wife, Araceli, could go get something to eat. She and Maxine Meram, Justin Meram’s wife, became instant friends and traveled together with their husbands and children to Isle of Palms, S.C., for a beach vacation in June.
That was shortly after Westwood had invited the wives and partners group to the couple’s townhouse in Myers Park to watch the game on TV when Charlotte FC played in Columbus.
“Everyone brought a tray of brownies,” Westwood said. “We had about 20 trays of brownies, which, you know, I’m not complaining.”
Rosie Krneta didn’t take for granted that it would be easy for the women to get to know each other. It’s a diverse group, with wives and partners from Europe, South America and all over the United States. So she hired a local artist who engaged the women in a team-building exercise in which they splattered paint together. He then embedded a Charlotte FC crown on it.
The team plans to hang the canvas in the new practice facility that just opened last week. Rosie said it’s a tangible way to acknowledge the importance the wives and girlfriends play. The part she enjoyed even more, though, was watching the friendships that began to develop that day.
“I’ve really seen the progression of it,” Krneta said. “I could really say now hand on heart that there are real friendships that have flourished from the club.”
Charlotte FC wives and partners painting together. From bottom left: Lucia Corujo, Rebecca Bronico, Sara Sisniega, Ariane Audett, Alexis Sims, Kidist Bisrat, Nikolina Kahlina and Becca Westwood. (Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC.)
Krneta has continued to see friendships blossom in the family suites during games, at meals together and at a charity event this summer, when the women gathered to make sandwiches for Roof Above. That was the first event Maxine Meram attended after her husband, Justin Meram, was traded to Charlotte FC from Real Salt Lake.
“I brought Charlotte, my daughter, with me because I did not have a babysitter yet,” said Maxine Meram, who came to town with a 2-year-old son, an infant daughter and another baby on the way. “It was something fun to do, and [Rosie said] the girls love when the kids come around, so I thought ‘perfect.’”
Common bonds: Even for Rebecca Bronico, who knows Charlotte well from her time as a student and soccer player at UNC Charlotte, and who doesn’t have children yet, being able to bond with women who share the ups and downs of the soccer lifestyle has been meaningful.
“Just the connection of knowing each other’s schedule because the guys’ schedule is very demanding,” Bronico said. “Soccer is a long season. … And if they’re out of town, and they’re traveling, we can lean on each other and be there, especially for the ones that have families and little ones, and ones that are moving from different countries.”
There’s one woman in the group, in particular, who has needed extra support this season, and that’s Alexis Sims. She’s the partner of the late Anton Walkes, who was killed in a boating accident in Miami during the preseason. She decided to stay in Charlotte with their daughter, Ayla. Alexis has been a regular at both Charlotte FC games at Bank of America Stadium this season and at the wives and partners events.
“She’s really wanted to stay a part of it,” Rosie Krneta said. “I think it’s really hard for her, and it’s bittersweet. There are moments that I think she finds really painful, but there are moments where she is smiling and laughing. It’s been so beautiful to see.”
Krneta said just looking around the family suite at games, where she used to see families sitting separately, she now sees friends interacting.
“Now, there’s just this energy that I truly believe has an impact on the field,” Krneta said. “I think we’ll see that grow. It’s still the early days in the club’s existence, and it’s hard to know what’s the recipe for success, but I think this little part of it is helping.”
Messi says he has no problem playing on artificial turf
On the eve of Lionel Messi’s arrival in Inter Miami last month, MLS commissioner Don Garber lobbied publicly for teams like Atlanta and Charlotte to install temporary natural grass in their stadiums to accommodate Messi, whom a British tabloid had reported would not play on artificial turf.
He had played exclusively on grass during his European and World Cup careers. Both Atlanta and Charlotte are scheduled to host Inter Miami later in the MLS season in stadiums they share with NFL franchises.
An ensuing debate raged over whether MLS clubs should install natural grass to accommodate one star player or leave the artificial turf intact and risk drawing the ire of fans who were spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars on tickets to see Messi play. For its part, Charlotte FC released a statement saying it had no plans to install grass for the Inter Miami game at Bank of America Stadium on Oct. 21.
It’s safe to say now that Garber would have saved himself and those two cities a fair amount of grief if he had discussed the issue with Messi first. In public comments Thursday, the international soccer sensation told reporters (translated from Spanish) that he has “no problem with turf.”
“I played my entire youth career on synthetic turf,” Messi told reporters. “It’s been a while since I played on it, but I have no problem on adjusting again.
Lionel Messi of Inter Miami — seen here in last week’s win over Charlotte FC in Miami (middle, in pink) — should have no problem playing on turf at Bank of America Stadium on Oct. 21. (Photo by Kevin Young/The 5 and 2 Project)
Up next: bye week
Charlotte FC is off this week after being eliminated from Leagues Cup by Lionel Messi and Inter Miami 4-0 in the quarterfinals. The MLS game scheduled for Sunday between Charlotte FC at Miami in Fort Lauderdale was postponed after these two met in the quarterfinals and it was clear at least one of them would be playing Saturday night in either the Leagues Cup final or the third-place game. The date for the makeup game has not yet been announced.
Charlotte FC returns to action on Saturday, Aug. 26, against defending MLS champion LAFC at Bank of America Stadium. The upper deck will be open for the game. It’ll be Charlotte’s first game at Bank of America since July 29, when the team hosted Necaxa of Liga MX in group play of the Leagues Cup. They haven’t played a regular season MLS game at home since July 8, when they tied FC Cincinnati 2-2.
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!
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