For more than a year, San Diego’s expansion franchise in Major League Soccer has been a tantalizing dream and then a name and then a chrome-colored logo.
On Thursday, it got a face.
San Diego FC formally introduced Mexican star Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, its marquee signing from Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, at a morning news conference at Snapdragon Stadium in Mission Valley, followed that evening by a public welcome at the Rady Shell on the downtown waterfront.
“It’s an honor to join San Diego FC,” Lozano said in English before answering questions in Spanish. “I want to win championships for San Diego and to leave my mark on this league. I’m excited (to start) the season.”
He won’t start until next February.
The four-year contract with Lozano for a reported $12 million transfer fee allows him to remain at PSV Eindhoven for the first half of the 2024-25 European club season before joining San Diego FC for training camp in January.
When he arrives, the SDFC roster will be filled with additional transfers, free agent signings, trades and players selected in the MLS expansion and college drafts.
But no one figures to embody the ethos of the club more than the 5-foot-9, 28-year-old winger simply known as “Chucky” (pronounced CHOO-key).
“Why Chucky?” CEO Tom Penn said in his opening remarks. “First, he’s a winner. He’s lifted trophies at every club. In this case, we wanted a cornerstone of our club, someone who embraces the entire project.”
That’s includes the $150 million Right to Dream youth academy currently under construction on the Sycuan reservation in the eastern part of the county.
The Sycuan tribe is a co-majority owner with Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour, who is an investor in Right to Dream – a residential developmental program that was started in Ghana and has produced players in the top leagues in Europe.
Tears rolled down Lozano’s cheeks when speaking about his journey through Pachuca’s youth system in Mexico and the opportunities that Right to Dream could provide Mexican youths, noting that the coach who gave him his professional debut, Enrique Meza, was in attendance Thursday.
“He gets so emotional talking about it,” Penn said. “The tears were literally falling on his lap. It was a release that was really powerful to feel sitting next to him.”
Because the academy is located within 30 miles of an international border, FIFA rules allow San Diego FC to recruit and develop youth players from both the United States and Mexico. Lozano, then, is expected to become an ambassador to recruit players as young as 12.
He also provides other clues about the direction and identity of the club.
The newly hired head of the academy is Joaquin Escoto, who previously created a scouting network to uncover the top Hispanic soccer players in the United States.
The man targeted for sporting director, a deal that ultimately fell through, was Mexican. Multiple employees are bilingual. The flagship signing played for Mexico in two World Cups.
And Thursday’s well-attended news conference was conducted almost exclusively in Spanish with no English translation.
“It’s not for commercial purposes, it’s for practice purposes,” Penn said. “Our strategy is to be this binational club because of the one and only opportunity we have to recruit cross-border. Nobody else can do that. Within the school we’re building, within the academy that goes with the school, within the first-team structure, within the executive team, having a sensibility and expertise south of the border is super helpful.”
The other message: The ownership group, judging by its pursuit of Lozano at the height of his career and its outlay for public events — renting the Rady Shell is not cheap — is not afraid to spend money.
“To our fans, I want to say this: This is just the beginning,” Mansour said in a video welcome at the news conference. “This marquee signing proves that we are not here to make up the numbers. With Chucky at its core, we hope to build a team that will challenge for trophies and will challenge the status quo.”
One reason is that, unlike most new MLS franchises, SDFC did not have the added expense of building a soccer-specific stadium for $500 million (or more) in addition to the expansion fee reported at $500 million.
“We’re able to invest that way in part because of Snapdragon Stadium was already here,” Penn said. “There’s always a limited amount of capital and cash available for these kinds of investments. The first thing it did was unlock the whole opportunity, the fact the stadium was built versus the speculation of don’t worry, we’re going to build one.
“And then it allowed us to primarily focus on where our (Right to Dream) campus was going to be. Then you can make an investment in a player like this, and that signals where you’re going with your overall player payroll. It’s no joke. We’re in a little bit of a thoughtful go-for-it mode right out of the chute.”
The plan was to hire a sporting director next and have him hire a head coach. But a deal for AS Monaco’s Carlos Avina was scrapped just weeks before a formal announcement, and now Penn says they’ll likely skip straight to the coach for timing reasons.
“We want that coach to have enough time to plug into the Right to Dream network and understand it, see it, feel it,” Penn said. “Go spend time at FC Nordsjaelland, go see Ghana, go see Egypt, absorb all of that, because this will be the one and only time to do it.”
Lozano presumably will wear No. 11, which was displayed in a nondescript black jersey with white letters Thursday. The club unveiled its logo last fall, but a full uniform launch isn’t expected until January, a month before the inaugural MLS game.
In the meantime, Assistant Sporting Director Tyler Heaps will look for more players during the summer international transfer window to fill jerseys ahead of the Dec. 11 MLS expansion draft, when the other 29 teams are able to protect only part of their rosters.
One thing he won’t have to worry about is an outside winger with a winning pedigree and impressive international resume.
“He will bring his experience and expertise,” Heaps said of Lozano. “He’s been in locker rooms before. He’s won at every club he’s been at. He’s someone who has played at the highest level across the Champions League, across World Cups. We’re excited to welcome that into our locker room to be a leader in a new club. We expect that he will help set the culture.
“I think his game speaks for itself. He’s a dynamic winger. He’s someone who brings flexibility to the squad. He can play on both sides. He’s proven he can score goals, get assists. We see him as a fit in our style of play. … All of those boxes are checked in Chucky. He’s somebody we’ll look to build a team around.”
