Thomas Schaling, Director of Scouting: “We want to create our own stars”

It has been a little over two years since Thomas Schaling was given the responsibility of recruiting for Charlotte FC’s inaugural roster.

In that time, the Director of Scouting and his global scouting team have assembled a group of players from 15 different nations, whose qualities match the club’s sporting philosophy and Head Coach Miguel Ángel Ramírez’s game model. 

Schaling’s rationale centers on finding value in the market: he seeks to unearth gems who will shine on the Major League Soccer stage, and therefore to maximize the efficiency of the Salary Budget.

“We want to create our own stars,” says Schaling in conversation at Charlotte FC’s Uptown office. “We want to find players who are lesser known, who can become Designated Player-level, or Best XI-type players.

“Like Sergio Ruiz, for example. He wasn’t a well-known player when we signed him, but we firmly believe he will be a star in this league.”

While many franchises in MLS history have built around a ‘star name’ on their rosters, the pursuit of well-known players doesn’t always correlate with success.

“I take no additional gratification in bringing in a ‘megastar’ player,” says Schaling. “For me, that’s not what’s exciting about building this club.

“Besides Karol Świderski, our first DP, I think we already have a few DP-level players who are not officially DPs. We will add some more attacking strength, but I’m really happy with the roster where it is now.”

Testimony to the success of Schaling’s scouting department has already been found in the recent sale of Riley McGree. The midfielder was discovered in the Australian A-League and generated a large profit when sold to English Premier League promotion contenders Middlesbrough.

“We didn’t expect it to happen so soon, but the McGree deal is fantastic in terms of being active on the transfer market already,” says Schaling. “I’m really happy we got such a good deal—-a deal that puts us at the very top, in terms of players brought into the league and sold for profit -—and full credit to [Sporting Director] Zoran Krneta, who is very good at getting the right deals for our club.

“We’ll want players to be successful with us as part of the process in the future, but it’s a sign of what’s to come in terms of being able to sign, develop and sell talent.”

McGree’s sale aligns with MLS’ emerging identity as a successful selling league, and it opens up opportunities to reinvest in the CLTFC roster.

“The deal puts us in a better spot, as we can convert a certain amount of the transfer fee into allocation money—and transfers and trades are the only way to add to your allocation money.

“So, if you have a sale like this every year, you could convert that same amount into allocation money, and it would give you a competitive advantage over other MLS teams every season.”

After working remotely from the Netherlands for the majority of his Charlotte FC tenure, Schaling secured his visa and arrived in the Queen City shortly before the Expansion Draft.

“I certainly hit the ground running!” says Schaling of his family’s move from mainland Europe to the Carolinas. “The runup to the Expansion Draft is difficult, as you’re trying to figure out which players will be unprotected—and you don’t know for sure until around 48 hours prior.

“With the SuperDraft, we already knew we had first pick so there was no competition there, but after that it became more difficult. We were surprised Kyle Holcomb and George Marks were still available in the second and third rounds respectively, but were delighted, as both guys were high on our lists.”

Schaling is pleased to have settled in well in Charlotte, and benefits from regular in-person interactions with colleagues he previously met via video conference.

Head of Technical Scouting Lisandro Isei has joined Schaling in the Queen City, while Davor Brasanac, Vincent van Raam and Ryan Johnson complement the scouting team from Europe and the west coast.

“My team has been incredible over the past few months, and it has been wonderful to be able to consistently count on Davor, Lisandro, Ryan and Vincent.”

After two years of scouring the globe for talent, Schaling’s part in constructing the inaugural roster is almost done. Soon, his role will focus on the long-term success of the team

“Putting together the inaugural roster has been truly amazing,” says Schaling. “The opportunity to build a squad from scratch probably won’t happen again for any of us. It’s very unique and I can’t wait to see the results on the pitch.

“From here, we can start thinking ‘long term’ again. We’ll start preparing for the summer window, for our B team, and for 2023.

“After such a hectic period,I’m looking forward to getting more in touch with the bigger picture for our club.”