FC Dallas and Benfica: forming a better marriage
With scouting and developmental pathways aligned, the clubs share similar DNA
As we look at FC Dallas’ newest relationship, can we talk for a minute about disposable marriages and the people who cycle through them?
We all know (or have heard of) someone with an almost comical history of going through husbands or wives. The thing is, I’m sure everyone was well intentioned along the way. You see something you like, something thrilling, something that makes sense – so you pursue with hopeful purpose. Pretty soon you make it legally binding, then invite friends and family to celebrate the new in-perpetuity relationship that will surely help fill the days with thrills, achievement and lasting happiness.
Until, of course, things don’t work out. So you shred the docs and then slowly, quietly let friends and family know that you’re past it. On to the next one.
FC Dallas has a new relationship with a foreign other. This one with Benfica, one of two superpowers in Portuguese soccer. FC Dallas and Benfica announced the partnership during a pre-season press conference Tuesday at Toyota Stadium.
As both sides figuratively raised a glass to toast the other, I wanted to ask FC Dallas president Dan Hunt this question: “FCD has entered into these partnerships before, some more successful than others. What have you learned about making these partnerships work to mutual benefit? What kind of communication is critical in keeping both sides happy?”
It was the equivalent of an eternal query: How do you ensure a happy marriage?
But as Hunt spoke of similar club DNAs, I understood that mine was the wrong question. If we cut these things to the bone, it’s not communication. Nor is it about any kind of relationship maintenance. Rather, it’s all about selecting the right match in the first place.
I think FC Dallas and Benfica may be onto something here.
Previous partnerships could be seen as marriages of convenience – which aren’t necessarily a bad thing. There was one years ago with Brazil’s Atletico Paranaense. A little later there was something official with Tigres, a prominent Mexican club. Along the way there may have been dalliances with Argentine power River Plate and others, but nothing official.
Then of course the big one – at least from FC Dallas perspective: Bayern Munich, not only a global brand but a damned successful club. Most years Bayern have more or less wrapped up the Bundesliga title by October. (That’s exaggerating, but not by much.)
That one also turned into “catch and release” for both sides. The trouble wasn’t that both parties weren’t well-intentioned; I’m sure they were. It’s that they were mis-matched. They didn’t share DNA.
Bayern’s model looks wholly different from FC Dallas’ model, and therefore their needs (or their desires, if we’re continuing the marriage analogy) didn’t align. FC Dallas is a developmental club; they want to build from the academy, through careful scouting and developmental pathways that makes sense.
That looks closer to the way Benfica does things. Similar scouting, similar development pathways. Put simply, Bayern is looking to scoop the bigger fish from the top of the pond, while FC Dallas and Benfica are diving further down, looking for talent to thoughtfully nurture.
Hunt talked about FC Dallas’ assembly of academy players between the ages of 10-17, about what he called an unparalleled level of potential. These are the next Pepis and Pomykals and Ferreiras. “This relationship with Benfica will help us better those players,” Hunt said. “It is another pathway, another way for us to help make them the most complete player that they possibly can be.”
Hunt talked later about the relationship with Bayern – which did actually activate in some useful ways, although the benefit seemed heavily tilted toward the German club. “Maybe our DNA is a little bit different,” Hunt said of Bayern, “and it's so much more similar to Benfica in the whole development and scouting process pathways, in the different sort of levels [of how] they develop players. I feel like this is going to be much more of a two-way relationship.”
And that’s the critical part. If needs and models and DNA can align, then both partners can mutually benefit. At the very least, it sets up the best chance for something mutually beneficial. In the case of Bayern, Chris Richards went through Munich (first on loan, then purchase) en route to his current Premier League address at Crystal Palace. Several other players went on training stints with the Bavarian giants, getting a look at the game and at facilities at a different level – perhaps creating the wandering eye that would / could eventually make them want-away players in Frisco.
Meanwhile, too many supporters around Toyota Stadium wondered: when will something meaningful migrate this way from Bayern?
With Benfica there’s a chance, at least. This may have been the best part of Tuesday’s press conference, as Bernardo Carvalho, Benfica’s Director of International Expansion, cut to the chase. “We’re not here to sell t-shirts,” he said. “This is not a marketing scheme.”
Sure, it would be nice if some FCD supporters adopted Benfica as a 2nd or 3rd club. But he laid out a scenario of potential mutual benefit that’s more the point to all this: a rising talent at the Lisbon-based club might get stuck behind another prospect who happens to man the same position. So he gets a bit stalled in his optimum pathway, which certainly isn’t ideal. That is a player who could find his way into Texas.
As with all of these relationships, we’ll have to see. But this one looks like it could last – with both sides finding fulfillment and happiness.
It is also important to "marry" at your own level. FCD and Benfica are much closer to each other than FCD and Bayern. That was a marriage too far up. But Bayern could have used FCD better by loaning players that needed playing time to us. But they didn't.
Of the various connections possible, you make a great case for the 'marriage' just announced. Was our signing of Petar Musa the door that opened for this relationship to come about?