There was a time not so long ago when the LA Galaxy were known as MLS’s most aggressive club – so much so that many skeptical fans of other clubs insisted they must be getting special exemptions from the salary budget and other roster regulations. The Gs ushered in the league’s Designated Player era with the paradigm-shifting recruitment of David Beckham, and are generally perceived to have pushed the envelope in that area ever since.
After a complex process spanning nearly three months has finally concluded with the signing of German star Marco Reus on Thursday, Will Kuntz jokes that he’d love for those conspiracy theories to be the reality.
“To the extent that those sentiments about the Galaxy getting preferential treatment were ever true, like, let's bring those days back!” the Galaxy general manager deadpanned to MLSsoccer.com a few hours before the deal was announced. “Because I promise you, I got put through my paces on this Reus negotiation, and there were no favors cut. So I am all in favor of bringing those halcyon days back, and getting special treatment.
“If anything, I think now, and not unjustifiably, we are held to a very high standard that we have to clear,” he added, an allusion to the hefty sanctions levied on LA before his arrival for violating salary budget and roster guidelines during the 2019 season. “Quite frankly, I think it's more rewarding when you really put it all together.”
Mutual interest
Most acquisitions of this magnitude hinge on haggling between clubs over fees or with a player’s camp regarding wages. Reus’ much-anticipated arrival in MLS was different. A free agent after playing out his last contract and dropping the curtain on his dazzling decade-plus stint at Borussia Dortmund, the 35-year-old and his family prioritized a move to southern California above financial considerations and set their sights on the Galaxy early in the process.
“Both parties wanted it to happen, and that really helps, when you have a good feeling that both sides are looking to make it happen,” said Kuntz. “You're not trying to convince somebody to do something that maybe they wouldn't otherwise do. So, using that as a North Star keeps the stress level maybe down compared to what it could be in other transactions.”
But Charlotte FC already had Reus on their “discovery list” and thus held the inside track on his MLS rights. So LA had to reach an agreement with The Crown – some “horse trading,” to borrow Kuntz’s phrase – in order to sign the attacker, which worked out to cost a pretty penny, at least compared to past precedent: $400,000 in General Allocation Money; $100,000 in 2024 GAM and $300,000 in next year’s.
“It's all good. We got there in the end,” said Kuntz.
He as well as anyone can relate to all sides of this process. Kuntz worked at MLS headquarters for three years, much of it with a focus on salary budgets.
“I'd love to say that my time at the league office has made me much better equipped to understand how the league works and how to deal with all these kinds of peculiarities. But I think if you probably asked people at the league office, I've been wearing them out over the last couple of weeks, trying to get these Reus documents,” Kuntz admitted with a chuckle. “I’m maybe not quite as magnanimous as I want to think I am. But I think it's really difficult to understand how this league operates from the outside … Understanding not just how things work, but why they are the way they are, is really important. It's valuable. So I think it helps us in terms of how to structure contracts.
“It may not make sense at first blush. When you peel back the onion and think about the sort of philosophical, structural underpinnings for it, you're better equipped to help explain things and aid in decision-making, which can be really difficult, especially for those people who just don't have a lot of experience with our league.”
Embarrassment of riches
While these sorts of uniquely MLSian details can infuriate club executives – last year Kuntz told a story about how former Galaxy coach and GM Bruce Arena once berated him about such intricacies when he first started working at league headquarters in 2014 – he can see the bigger picture.
“I would say the league rules exist for a reason,” said the veteran front-office wiz. “Those reasons are legitimate, and they are important to league business, but it does mean at times that you're maybe working towards something or working against a force that maybe doesn't want to see a player coming to the league. Like you have to kind of meet a blood price, for lack of a better term, in order to get something done.
“That can pose certain challenges,” he added, “but at the end of the day, really, nothing about the rules prevented us from getting a deal done. It's more of just a bump in the sort of road, so to speak, that keeps us from moving as fast as we'd like to in an ideal world.”
Now the Galaxy can focus on the fun part: Working Reus into their squad and preparing him for his MLS debut, which could arrive as early as next week, when the Gs return to league play with a home date vs. Atlanta United.
“Marco is really complementary for our group,” said Kuntz, “not just in terms of what he brings to the table on the field, but I think in the locker room, as a teammate, in the way he trains, I think is really important – and in some ways more important. Because we're already in a pretty good place in the league, but knowing that we're adding this type of character, this type of intense competitor in the training environment, is really, really important.”
A three-time Bundesliga MVP and Champions League mainstay signed via a Targeted Allocation Money deal that makes him a superb value, Reus adds to an embarrassment of riches for coach Greg Vanney in the attacking third. The Galaxy, who top the Western Conference standings on points, already have an elite orchestrator in Riqui Puig, a proven finisher at the No. 9 in Dejan Joveljic, productive, versatile veteran Diego Fagúndez and splashed out millions over the winter to sign wingers Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil. It all seems like more starting-caliber talent than there are spots for it in the starting XI.
For an organization with an MLS-best five stars above their crest, but none won in the past decade, that’s kind of the point.
“I'm really glad I'm not Greg, trying to have to work all this out,” said Kuntz. “But look, we're entering a part of the season where the games are more important. It might sound a little cliche, but the stakes are higher, and every advantage matters a little bit more.
“So we can do something that makes us more talented, more versatile, more deep, and we’re better equipped to go through a spell of some bad performances or injuries, or just provide better matchups for our opponents in these games that are most valuable. So I really do look at it as purely additive.”
Bigger goals
Kuntz is quick to credit the long-term efforts of Vanney, who handled sporting director duties in addition to coaching responsibilities before his arrival last year, and the likes of player personnel director Gordon Kljestan and scouting chief Michael Stephens. But it’s not hard to detect his own influence on LA’s upward trajectory after years of underachievement.
“We're in a really good moment,” said Kuntz. “I do think it is the culmination of something that began before I arrived with Greg and his group, and what they wanted to achieve as a club, and how they wanted to play, their vision for the club. I think I've been able to come in and sort of graft myself onto that.
“I'd say we’re really happy, but by no means satisfied, and hungry for what we have yet to come.”
Beyond his deal-making nous and deep knowledge of the MLS landscape, Kuntz is also a serial winner.
He won an NCAA Division III basketball national championship at Williams College in his youth, then helped the New York Yankees remain perennial contenders and win the 2009 World Series over a decade at Major League Baseball’s flagship team before joining LAFC ahead of that club’s 2018 debut, laying a foundation for the Black & Gold to win two Supporters’ Shields and an MLS Cup over his six years as senior VP of soccer operations and assistant GM.
Now he’s a key architect of their crosstown rival's resurgence, which he believes can crescendo this fall with a long-awaited return to MLS Cup.
“I think last year was the most I've ever lost in my 21 years working in professional sports,” said Kuntz. “We're glad that things are going better. But the history books are written in the next eight regular-season games and the playoffs. So I think for us, the most important thing is to be at our most dangerous, or hopefully our most lethal, as we come down the stretch.”
