SoccerWise - Zoran Krneta (Charlotte FC) On Winning Streaks, Playoff Format, MLS Roster Changes & More

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

A special interview on the verge of the playoffs Charlotte FC GM Zoran Krneta sits down with Tom & Gass. He talks about the clubs best season so far and Wilfred Zaha's suspension but also his impact. Then they talk big picture about MLS how the u22 initiative can be changed to create greater impact, and the transfer window adjustments.

All right, well, we have a special interview now here on soccer rise. As we head into the first round of the playoffs, some big games for a lot of teams and maybe no team more excited about the opportunity to be a home field squad and enter this playoff run. than Charlotte FC. And we have the man in charge, the chief soccer officer, the general manager, Zoran Kreneta, for the first time ever on this show. Zoran, thanks for joining us. David, Tom, thank you for inviting me.

Pleasure to be here. So give us, for starters, the feeling on the ground. Charlotte's about to be the home field team for the first playoff series as that, you know, higher-seated squad. What is the feeling in the market right now? What has the vibe been like all week? Oh, it's phenomenal.

I mean, the city is bouncing, and it's celebrating and to be honest it's obviously the Charlotte had a limited success in the previous years with all the team that we had in the major league

so this this means a lot for the for the city for the North Carolina South Carolina and obviously for ourselves boys and Dean Smith and front office and performance staff medical everybody really so it's something that

we set at the beginning of season to achieve and we got it. It's not your first ever playout game, though, because of the formats of the playoffs. I'm curious, your thoughts, big picture on this best of three opening round and this is the way it's set up. I just don't know. I still kind of trying to get used to it. It's not exactly something that I would necessarily say that works for me personally.

but I do understand the desire for everybody to get a home crowd and a home game in playoff. So from that perspective, I understand, but I think it might be a little bit too much and too many games, potentially. I mean, we only played New York City twice, and then we potentially playing it another potentially three times. I mean, he's turning into the, you know, like who wants to watch the mall. Maybe there will be a best of five in the future. I don't know. We'll see, though. So, yeah, you guys will have a great crowd, no matter what,

and again, potent, like, finishing where you did. It's a very exciting time, and that was all fueled by that winning streak over the summer. What was that like for you during that period with the team where everything kind of clicked? Was there any superstitions on your end? Were you eating the same thing or doing the same routines? Try to make sure everything stayed the same?

Yeah, we've done a little bit of voodoo kind of stuff, you know. Especially around the defense and the goalkeeper and the left back and a few other things, the positions in the team. I just think, look, we had a very good start. First nine games, we were top of the east. Then we had a slump. It happens. This is a very long, very difficult, very demanding league.

There is no to describe this league any other way. And any team would have potentially a little bit big. some bigger some smaller even even inter Miami had a few issues and few results that didn't go their way and complaints and so I think it's normal I think what affected us this kind of extended playing away streak that didn't kind of sit well with the players players got tired and we played under really huge heat and very difficult conditions and traveling and waking up and starting again and And then once you lose one or two or three, then it's difficult to kind of bounce back and win the fourth or fifth. So credit to the boys that after the very difficult period, they actually managed to bounce back and start winning. They kind of literally turned around, woke up one morning and says, okay, from now, we're not going to lose any more game. It's not a bad mindset to have in a season. And, of course, it led to the largest win streak in history.

but what you kind of just went through those are a lot of the I don't want to use buzzwords because they're true of when people talk about why is it hard to play in major league soccer what makes it different it is the weather the travel the conditions the range of fields now that you've been around as long as you have do you have different ideas about who can adapt to this league or what you're looking for when you're trying to figure out who is someone that can fit in in major league soccer absolutely absolutely I mean, I think everybody coming from Europe or the rest of the world would automatically somehow underestimate the league. And it takes some time to figure out how difficult the league is, how difficult are the grounds, the grass, turf, the climate, the altitude, the different time zones, the planes, trains, automobiles, everything is involved. it's a really specific unique league I love it now obviously and it's league that I've been involved and so so say swimming in the league

for the past five years but you know it's a very demanding very challenging league for all the players if you look at all the players we brought them let's let's start with our players and I can name other team players big DPs a big name players from coming from a top league in a world, big superstars,

and they having a period of adaptation, and some of them never adapt. And we have, like, when Ashley Westwood came with 287 starts in Premier League, he took him six months before he'd become a to resemble the Ashley Westwood that we hope to get. So it's nothing unusual. This league takes time. No, it's super interesting in, like, how many different players,

like John Thornton once said, like, if you were, for Manchester City or Liverpool or Real Madrid, there are 30 players in the world that you could sign that would make your team better. In MLS, theoretically, it's a much wider number, but then to your points there are on, like, there's a lot of drawbacks or potential pitfalls that aren't quite the same

when you're shopping at the top, top, top of the market. Yeah, but then also you're shopping top, top of the market. You have four four injuries, suddenly you're replacing those four very, very important players with four players who are either college drafts or the youth or the academy players and then you have to get them into the team and get them into the mold of how the first team plays

and they don't have enough minutes and suddenly you have to go and play to Colorado at night, 8 in the evening and on a 5,000 altitude and you go out of the changing room and they put all these little signs smartly you are sick, you don't feel well, you know, you should go and sleep, you should go to bed

so okay so you get you put the young player You put young and experienced player and you think, okay, maybe, maybe I should do that. So there's your, there goes your first 20 minutes of the game, you know? It's like, it's an interesting league. I'm telling you, the longer I'm in this league, the more I have time and respect for the league. Zoran, you guys are going to need to get your best minds to figure out what you guys can write in the tunnels leading out to the pitch of the Bank of America, what the, you know, food poisoning. Just random things to try to get in people's head like Colorado has for the altitude.

That's one of the funniest things about their stage. Do you bring your swimming shorts? Did you bring your sunglasses? Do you, you know, you're going to. Don't have too much fun, too many gel shots, too many fun places to hang out. So another interesting aspect, obviously, is the European leagues for right now are opposite of what is MLS. So in the summer, you guys are trying to build an ad for the stretch run for the playoffs to win drovies. And in Europe, they're starting their season,

and that's when they're most active with signing players. So you had to deal with Ajamong, a deal that ended up with him at Darby County immediately, and Melanda, who's going to go to Middlesboro, but not going to happen until the winter. So just take me through the negotiations there and how difficult it was to try to balance what's right for, I guess, the player and for the financial side of things,

but also, like, hey, there's a point here where we just really care about winning a trophy this year more than anything. Yeah, I mean, look, to be honest, the only player that was always available potentially for the right price and right moment and right club and right league was Ajamang and we said to Patrick look we want to sign your new contract but we won't

stop your leaving so we turned down the offers in January because we didn't have a ready replacement and once we've seen enough of Idanto Clumati through the pre-season and the beginning of the season then we knew that we have a ready replacement and there was only then after that

it was only the best price the best deal for the club and for the player of course and I I'm trying to kind of set up the standard for us, for our club, that our players go to the top leagues or very good leagues. And that's, I think, very important, building the brand of the club. Where are your players going, where they end up, and how, and how much, and what is the... Because I think MLS should and should be able to sell for more than they do normally sell.

So what the clubs come to MLS very often with perception of, oh, for one or two million we can get anybody. So we got this very early on for Ajumang, even in a summer, previous summer, or in January 2025, and we literally laughed like, oh, wow, great, good luck. We're trying. Once the kind of few clubs started, you know, once we started kind of seeing the interest and the few clubs started being interested, and then obviously you start playing scoring goals for US-Mayer national team, which was great, and Mauritio and his team liked him. then for us was like okay

now we have we now need to get the best possible deal for the club and but while on the other hand replacing replacing it with a with a player that will bring the same or even better so that's the only player that we considered selling moving

Malanda was never considered the only deal that I said to the few clubs was to buy him and loaning back to us so to make make sure the player is happy in a happy place because he knows that his future is secured in a very big contract long and then we don't lose him

because we can't replace Malanda not in summer not in this kind of summer window where we have a last 10 games of the season so Middlesbrough was the only one who wanted to do it all other clubs wanted to take him straight away and we said no we had more lucrative offers we had the bigger clubs than

Middlesbrough potentially although Middlesbrough is very historic traditional club and that we already had a bit of experience because we sold him Mariley McGree, who actually never even played for us. But Middlesbrough is a good customer, you know? Yeah. They buy well from us and sell well to Atlanta.

It's the new triangle. It's the trade. Yeah. It's a south. It's a south triangle. There's a lot of history in there that we don't need to get into. But I do want to ask you because you brought. I might have to buy a drink to Chris Henderson for this comment if you ever gives me.

I'm sure Chris is listening. Chris is one of the best. You mentioned Eidantoklamati and you, it feels like, have a very specific view of the U-22 initiative rule and how you want to use it in conjunction with how you see your second team. And it's not wholly unique, but it feels like you are the club that is most focused in how you go about it, bringing these players in, starting. them at Crown Legacy and then moving them through. Talk me through the process of how you've come to that decision of use because we do preseason and it's here's DP signing, here's U22 initiative signing. This is the way these teams are going to jump and a lot of them struggle and fail.

And then you have these examples of players that you've slowly pushed through but have spent big money on to bring them into the club. To be honest, first of all, the U-22 initiative, I think is a great idea. but it needs to be maybe readjusting a little bit because if you go and buy four, five million player, you cannot give him $600,000, $700,000 salary because they're not going to come for that salary.

If you have five million player, you want more money. That's number one thing. So we need to readjusting a little bit so we can be competitive on the markets for those players. Second thing is we, I think we've done really well, especially Malanda was under 22 initially signing that we then buy him down.

Vargas is under 22 still. To Kloch Mattia under 22. Nicola Petco is 22. It didn't really work out for him, didn't get much chance to play. Also, interesting talent, but we'll see what happens there. And then we basically,

even for the Vargas and Malanda, if we are club right now, we will put them six months through the B team. But obviously, year one or year two, we have not developed enough, have enough players to afford ourselves to put Adilson Malanda into the

B team for six months. We didn't have anybody else so he goes straight in the first team so it was a in that sense he was great obviously maybe we we suffered a little bit on a result front because malanda three years ago and malanda today is not the same player it's it's totally you know different so obviously he was developed and had a hundred games in a you know in an MLS and is now ready to go next so we have a bunch of young players in a in a MLS Next pro and this is why we go always looking very carefully who we bring as a coach so we brought Garry Dickers from Brighton B because we think Brighton is one of the smartest club in Europe

and the way they use the youth and young players and they play young players as well. Previously we had Jose Tavares from Porto. Again, another very smart club that used the youth players and then is very active on the market. And then we give them a chance to kind of adapt, learn English, get used to on a tough way of traveling,

like an old MLS, so commercial traveling, waiting for the luggage, baggage, you know, cancellation of the flights, sleepless nights, everything else. It's not a bad thing for these young players to experience before getting on a Boeing 7-37 and lying and sleeping and tired two-hour flight, you know. And also, obviously, they helps them with playing in various conditions and then training with the first team, intensity of the first team and a B team is never the same. And so I think this is the perfect pathway for us.

And then we already now have a bike, Gulubali. You guys, I don't know if you've seen it, he made a couple of subs. 19 years old, Mali, midfielder, that we think is going to be a great addition coming into the future. Archie Goodwin would probably be the same, but Archie Goodwin, we needed him desperately because we needed another striker behind that, Oklomati,

so we put him straight into the first team. Otherwise, he would be the same. He's a 20-year-old Australian golden boot of Australia. You know, it's very interesting talent. Then we have a, you know, like a couple of wingers, one 18-year-old, Rodolfo Aloko, who plays for Benin national team. They almost qualified for the World Cup, and he's only 18 played for the senior national team.

And Emmanuel Ruchegu, and 20 years old, Nigerian, actually Nigerian Winger. So that's the strategy that's what we're doing. We're trying to build all these young players into our first team players until we can confidently say that our academy is ready to actually produce our own players. Because don't forget, our academy started five years ago, but first year was COVID. It wasn't easy to navigate anything.

So it's still a little bit baby academy and we're still making this baby toddler steps in order to produce the first couple of first team players via the Academy route. I want to go back to the first team and going quickly on, you know, more immediately when we have some more big picture stuff we want to talk to you about. But you got the first round series coming up and in that first game, unfortunately, there will be no Wilfred Zaha, who got two yellow cards in the final game of the season to be suspended. I guess just kind of any thoughts on his reaction as that second yellow happened off the ball? And I guess any thoughts on how often he's been fouled?

and if referees are protecting him enough? Well, look, he's the highest foul player in MLS. Behind him far away, behind him, far below, behind him is the Carlos Gill. So it just shows that we potentially might have to protect a little bit better our main players

because this is why the fans come, the fans come to watch the product and to watch our best players on a pitch and not being kicked and in that specific game against Philly the first 30 seconds he was kicked and then he kept being kicked, kicked and eventually the people actually react

I mean I know he shouldn't do it what he has done but he should never have got the first yellow card first yellow card was nothing to do with him he was actually trying to jump in between the two players who had a fight and he got the yellow card because he was explaining and complaining to

the referee. So I think he was handled not greatly by the officials. I think he was a cheap first yellow. I think he was second yellow. Yeah, it was fair. And red card.

You know, like, you know, when you lose one player for one game, you have to adjust. You know, we'll have other players. Leila Bada will come off the bench potentially and, you know, we'll be fine. Zaha will be back. And unfortunately, I think he has I think 125 fouls against him in the league

Carlos Hill has a hundred two and it's I just think the league and the referees should do a little bit more when are you talking to them about this throughout the season like how as a club can you do we talked I'm talking a lot with them and every time they say that they're hearing us and every time they say the same thing but if you look at them

that in the first half there are probably at least five fouls clear fouls on Zaha, they were not even called. Because Zaha is a specific player. He's a technical play. He wants the ball in the feet. He doesn't want to fight. He wants to control the ball. But if someone hit you in a

leg or it pushes you from the back, then you cannot control the ball. You go down or whatever. So it's just a very simple. Yeah, I'm more for the, you know, kind of tougher football or soccer and then, you know, I'm more aligned, but it has to be a consistency.

If you don't call certain fouls on Zaha, then you call them, or you don't call them across the pitch. So I think he was unfortunate. We would miss him, of course, he's a X factor.

He's a very unique player for us. I think he's done really well, considering that he wasn't fit and he's gone through the birth of his child. And he took him again. Zaha is another example. It took him three, four months to get used to it on a demand of the of the MLS.

so yeah it's it is what he is i think we are still playing in a bank of america stadium i think we still have a good team and and we'll hopefully have a great crowd to support us and and try to win on a lighter note was zaha now that you've been with him pretty much every day for for the whole year are there any are there any fun stories about him that kind of come to mind that that describe him pretty well because i know that he's got a really fun and really big personality obviously his technique and quality we've all seen it but has there been any fun stories from like being within the building with zaha day in and day out there's a lot of there's a lot of fun stories within but look zaha is uh is a often i believe

you know what you see on a pitch is not really zaha quite opposite is the zaha on the pitch he's actually very humble and very good person he has a number of charities he's supporting he's um he's a willing to help anybody he really is very unique in that sense. While you see a superstar in one hand, on the other hand, you see a very normal guy who goes around and says, look, I'm here if you need me. The boys like him. Obviously, we all like him. He's great in a changing room. He's obviously a little bit unique. He is a superstar in that sense. So he might have a demand or two or say something that other boys might say, okay, that's interesting. We didn't come before from

anybody else. But that's what you get from these guys. know. But he wants to win. He has a huge desire to win. He demands very high level performance from everybody, including himself. He wasn't happy. He wasn't happy after the game. And he's still not happy. I saw him earlier in a canteen after the training. And he's still looking a little moody about that. And I asked him, how are you? And he said to me, I'm okay, but I'm kind of still based off with what happened, you know. He's been a huge part of the team and obviously will be when he gets back. He is not a permanent member of the team.

What is sort of the work now in terms of his future with Charlotte and how you talk about it and what the plan is? Yeah, he's our player until June 30th, I believe. And we would probably start thinking, discussing something if we decide. in the beginning of the season. I don't think it will happen during the playoffs. I don't want to talk contracts during the playoffs with all the players of that level.

But I think after the playoff finishes, and hopefully that will happen in December, then I'm willing to sit down with him and his team and discuss. I think he's done really good for us. I think he likes it. I think he's in a happy place. His family loves Charlotte. he has a young family so i think this this kind of players are exactly what this club needs

the players who are happy and the families like being here he's not a party boy at all he's he's a very very much family family oriented and enjoys being in charlotte you know going around and you know it's a he really is in a in a happy place right now and as you can see that on a picture i thought that i agreed um looking you're you used to be before you got to charlotte sitting on the other end of that table where you'd be representing a player and working at it from that angle so in again in in your previous world of being an agent you had a ton of big time players you know bryanslav ivanovich mojic all these guys that we can name going down the list and then you came to charlotte and you've been a

sporting director so what was that transition like for you and and what are the challenges or the advantages that you felt going from you know again now that you've been doing this job what for six or seven years. Yeah, to be honest, recently someone asked me, I, um, what, what is more difficult being an agent or being a, a sport executive, a sporting director, a GM and I'm, there's no

even comparison. Being GM is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, first of all, being an agent, you, you, you, you, you, you, you can go on, on a on a, on a, on a holiday to Greek island, you know, uh, you know, you can go to Micronos to

kind of catch the last of the parties, you know, or I gift them. You know, unfortunately, I don't think I can afford to kind of leave this place and then go to Nikonov for Plyx in September. So that's one thing. And it's a different narrative, different, you know, you, you work, you know, you come 8 o'clock in the morning and you all day kind of meet, have meetings and trying to kind of make the team better, but also the whole organization better. You are, you are involved. in so many different levels. Luckily for me, before being an agent,

I had a spell in a corporate world in a financial markets in London. So that helped me kind of translate into this role. I think this role is more demanding. Being agent is also potentially can be way more lucrative depending on the plan that you have. So that's another thing. But I'm actually quite enjoying being here

and building something from zero. And that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, the carot for me. And always was and always will be, and I would never regret moving from one side to another, from dark side, as they will say, to the, it just think, I just think it's a, it's a, it's a more, seeing what we build, seeing the expansion and the progress of the Charlotte FC and every year we get better and every year game better, results and more points, more wins, more this, more that. So that's, you know, when we build a strategy for us, how are we going to go with

Shrout we see, the FC, we said, we don't want to be a yo-yo club. We want to be a club that gets better, better, better, and then we want to be clubs similar to Seattle Sanders and similar clubs who are always there. You know that they're going to be in playoffs. You just don't know whether they're going to be sixth or second or first, but they will be in playoffs and they will be difficult to beat in playoffs and they might go all the way and with it so that's the that's the aim and we're not yet there but we're not far off going into the playoffs as the four seed in the eastern conference it was a monster eastern conference this year before we let you

go and get ready for the games coming up and and hang out in charlotte and feel all the energy we want to talk big picture about the league because as you said you have a ton of experience across the global game and now working in this role for a number of years. There are some hot button topics for people thinking about how does MLS take advantage of the World Cup? How does MLS grow? How does the league step forward? Schedule change is a big conversation.

Roster rule changes as well. When you're in these conversations or on your own thinking about this or people maybe reach out from outside the league, what are the big steps you'd like to see and what sort of do you think are the pressing issues? I think there's some steps are already being taken and there are a lot of discussion. and negotiations and talks and I've likely been involved in most of them not all of them but most of them and I think league is doing some really smart things I think we need to do we need to speed up a little bit in my opinion we need to move from the second or third gear to fifth to sixth we need to be a little bit more decisive we need to schedule change is going to be massive I think the salary cap needs to change I'm not saying we need to add tons of money I don't think I like salary cup as an idea, but I think we need to increase it. We need to change the under 22 initiatives, so we basically can compete with the best possible players in Latin America, for example.

So if you go and pay 10 million, he's not going to play for 600,000, no chance. So what happens? You either have to cheat, if you like, somehow find out a way to kind of bring that player that is 10 million and then officially present that he's on 600, 700, or much better in my opinion. just give us the ceiling of 1.5 million. And then we just go in and compete. I think we need to change a little bit how the DP rules work, maybe add another DP or semi-DP.

One of my ideas was always, like, why don't we have a goalkeeping DP? Because, you know, nobody wants to bring a goalkeeping DP because it's a one position. There's a one player who plays the whole season. If you have a midfielder, then there's a six you have. You have a strike. You have a three.

you have five wingers but the goalkeepers you have a tool and if you spend out of three spots on a goalkeeper then you weakening the team so why don't we have a specific category for the goalkeepers so we can go and get the really good goalkeepers on a world market

that will improve the product, improve the league so those kind of little things we can do a little bit quicker a little bit faster and a little bit more kind of decisive and spend a little bit more money on a building the roster and improving the product

because I think the league is past the phase where you bring up yeah we have we have us now son and everyone talks about son Thomas Moore and they're improving the league great but I think that they're not necessarily winning every single game when they're in a team

and 15 years ago if you have a DP he scores two three goals again not anymore now you have a DP like Zaha who struggles for us three months or you have a DP's in other clubs you know them, I don't need to mention them who are struggling big time

or takes time for them to kind of start working. So I think these are the changes the league needs to do and I think the time is kind of ticking slowly because we have a messy for almost two and a half seasons now and no much has been changed. So

I think we have a unique moment now with the World Cup just after the Club Rock Cup, you have World Cup, Messi is still in the league an ambitious club. You mentioned the Eastern Conference. Look at ambition in the Eastern Conference. Look at the clubs you're competing against.

We have one New York Red Bull, part of Red Bull, massive big organization, not even qualifying for our playoffs, you know. So it's a really competitive league right now, and I think the changes need to come sooner rather late. We are excited to watch the playoffs. We are excited for Charlotte. We're excited to watch PEP us in the crowd in a playoff atmosphere.

It's been one of the most fun. When I'm there, it's fun from afar. We'd love to see an MLS Cup in downtown Charlotte, and me and Tom can go to the pub before and walk over to the stadium and everything like it. So good luck the rest of the way. Appreciate you taking the time in Zoran postseason. We'll have you on again,

and we could dig into some of these salary cap conversations. Thank you, and I'm paying for drinks if you're in the final, so don't worry. You don't need to bring the bullets, guys. Well, then you don't need any voodoo because you've got all the bad juju right here between the two of us. Thank you for the time.

All the best. All right. Thank you. Good, Matt, Lord.