Multi-club ownership models are no longer new in soccer, so much so that the concept has taken several forms in MLS alone over the league’s thirty-year history. It started as a necessity for a fledgling league with a limited number of investors, to the point that Anchutz Entertainment Group was backing seven clubs at one point, but MLS lasted long enough for the trendy, modern version of multi-club ownership. Red Bull and City Football Group have since set up shop in New York, so it’s no surprise that another of MLS’s seemingly endless list of expansion clubs would follow suit.
However, San Diego FC, MLS’s 30th franchise launching in the new year, is taking a different approach to its multi-club ownership model.
The club is jointly owned by the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, a Native American tribe based in San Diego County, and Mohamed Mansour, an Egyptian-British billionaire whose previous claims to fame outside his $6 billion conglomerate include his stint as Hosni Mubarak’s . Minister of Transport and mega-donor to the British Conservative Party. Mansour finances the collection of soccer properties that includes San Diego FC, which he launched his sports venture with when he invested $120 million for a controlling stake in the Right to Dream Academy in 2021. The Ghana-based organization has trained over 200 graduates and was successful enough to acquire Danish side FC Nordsjaelland in 2015, but since Mansour’s takeover it has expanded its reach to FC Masar, the Egyptian Women Premier League and San Diego FC the MLS.
Academies are of course the centerpiece of any club associated with Right to Dream, but the $500 million expansion fee that San Diego FC’s owners paid to move into the MLS is Mansour’s splashiest sports investment to date. The opportunity was worth paying one of the highest fees in the history of American sports, Mansour argued.
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“When that license was offered, we couldn’t say no… The World Cup is coming here, 2026. We know that too. [Lionel] Messi has come on board,” Mansour told CBS Sports. “We are also building an academy in San Diego, 30 to 50 kilometers away from Mexico… I believe the growth will happen here.”
San Diego FC’s youth-first strategy
San Diego FC will become MLS’s twelfth expansion team in the past decade, a remarkable period of growth that has made it almost more difficult for any newcomer to stand out as a unique commodity. The old-fashioned approach would be to line up a long list of aging stars, such as New York City FC signing David Villa, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo for their first season in 2015. The mixed results of that venture and other trends around the league have led subsequent expansion teams to become a bit more strategic with their designated player signings, though San Diego may be the first MLS expansion club to fully embrace youth from the start.
San Diego’s academy, which will take advantage of FIFA rules allowing them to scout players in neighboring countries within a 30-mile radius, will also open sometime in 2025. Mansour believes young players will be crucial to the first team’s success, his philosophy being similar to several of the league’s old power players despite being an MLS newcomer himself. A few weeks after the LA Galaxy won the MLS Cup with a youth-oriented approach, it’s not hard to see where he and other leaders are coming from. NYCFC and other MLS clubs aren’t the only cautionary tales about star players, though: Mansour mentioned Manchester United, the club he supports.
“It’s all about management and you can get fantastic name players,” he said. “We have seen a lot of them come to Manchester United and as a team we cannot function. [Cristiano] Ronaldo came to Manchester United and it is teamwork. It’s a team game.”
Mansour also joins the MLS as the latest power broker to believe the US has only scratched the surface when it comes to scouting and developing American footballers, describing San Diego’s multicultural population and reach as a selling point to participate in the competition. He also hopes the club’s academy will help discover the continent’s – and perhaps the sport’s – next big talents.
“When you have a homegrown player coming out of MLS, like Michael Jordan did in the NBA, and sooner or later that’s going to happen,” he said. ‘Sooner or later that will happen [that’s] the excitement about the MLS.”
San Diego’s priorities actually mark a departure from the transfer rumors that have formed much of the coverage surrounding the expansion team. They have already signed Mexican international Hirving “Chucky” Lozano as their first designated player, and the likes of UEFA Champions League winner Kevin de Bruyne and World Cup champion Sergio Ramos have also been linked to the club. Mansour was non-committal about whether any other stars would join Lozano in a squad that still feels a bit barren two months before opening day, perhaps in part because it isn’t really central to their long-term vision.
“What we want is a winning team,” he said. “We’d like to be in the play-offs the first two years. That would be a goal… It doesn’t mean we’re not going to get a star sometimes. It doesn’t mean that, but it also builds on teamwork.”
Right to Dream’s influence
San Diego FC’s youth-focused strategy is no surprise given the club’s ties to Right to Dream, but the independent organization is itself an outlier in the sport. Most professional players emerge from academies set up by clubs, while most multi-club ownership models are not so obviously focused on developing talent. It is extremely rare to see an independent academy as financially successful as Right to Dream buy one club, let alone be the umbrella that encompasses multiple clubs.
Right to Dream has developed over 200 academy graduates, including a notable number, since its founding in 1999 by ex-Manchester United chief scout Tom Vernon. West Ham United’s Mohamed Kudus and Southampton’s Kamaldeen Sulemana are products of Right to Dream, which also offers scholarships to children who do not ultimately pursue a professional football career. Kudus and Sulemana each collected transfer fees of more than $20 million when they moved from other European clubs to the Premier League, but the fees clubs paid upfront for their services provided a valuable cash flow for Right to Dream.
‘We now have income [didn’t have in the] “This wasn’t really the idea, but now we have players coming through the pipeline, so this is what we see happening in Right to Dream.”
Right to Dream’s track record, combined with the transfer fees that back up that reputation, allows the company to continue with the necessary, ambitious and perhaps most difficult project in sport: finding the next crop of stars. Super clubs and independent academies are increasingly curious about discovering untapped potential in countries less known for their football talent, and Right to Dream is now positioned in several countries they consider to be talent-rich, where they compete for the designated home of the next big thing in sports. things. It makes Right to Dream a fascinating new addition to the American football landscape.
“To be very honest, at Right to Dream they have a very scientific system on how to select players, how to identify their psyche and whatever, because it’s just like everything else,” Mansour said. “If you’re not ready yet, and you’ve had big names that have done well one year and not the next, then you still have to wait.”
The focus on youth players makes MLS feel like a natural next step for Right to Dream’s global ambitions, and Mansour justifies the once $500 million price tag prompted American billionaire Bill Foley to call the purchase of England’s Bournemouth “a bargain” compared to an MLS expansion team.
“It’s an asset class in itself, sports now,” Mansour said. “Maybe it wasn’t 20 years ago, but it is now. It’s for the long term, we think long term. We believe in America. You certainly can’t bet against America, so things will develop here… I believe the potential will be here.”