Atlanta United: Chris Henderson looks to "build something really special"

It was almost exactly 10 years ago that Garth Lagerwey left Real Salt Lake to join the Seattle Sounders, becoming a colleague of Chris Henderson as the Rave Green sought to reach another level in their evolution as an MLS club.

The recruitment of Lagerwey, now Atlanta United's president & CEO, proved a vital step in Seattle’s ascension, a prelude to a historic Concacaf Champions Cup triumph, two league titles, four trips to the MLS Cup final and various other successes. And the echoes of those first days on Puget Sound reverberated again on Tuesday, as Lagerwey welcomed Henderson to Atlanta, a major coup for the Five Stripes’ ambitions of rejoining the league’s elite in 2025 and beyond.

“The reality was that the year before I came, the Sounders won the Open Cup and the Supporters’ Shield in 2014. So I've always said I was the knucklehead that was like, ‘Oh, I'm definitely gonna make this better,’” Lagerwey recalled dryly in a press conference at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground, where Henderson was introduced as ATLUTD’s new chief soccer officer and sporting director.

“Chris, from day one, was open to me, and said, ‘Hey, I'd love to have you aboard. I think we're going to work great together.’ And given his own success to that point, he definitely didn't have to do that. And so there was that trust, the fact that he wanted to work with me, that always meant a lot to me. That really was the beginning of a great relationship working together.”

"We have everything we need"

The largest fanbase in the league — at least going by home attendance — hopes, and expects, the duo can reprise that magic in Georgia, where a roaring start to life in MLS cooled markedly in recent seasons, necessitating what figures to be a sweeping overhaul over the next year or two.

In attracting Henderson to ATLUTD — and convincing their Eastern Conference rivals Inter Miami to let him leave after four impressive years of shaping the Herons into a Goliath — Lagerwey has made perhaps the biggest signing of an MLS offseason that’s mere days old.

“We have everything we need, from a player and a competitive side, to prepare to be a team that can be an elite team in this league,” said Henderson. “I'm really excited to get to work with Garth. We have a long history together. I understand his vision, his leadership style. There's a lot of really great people here that I've met in the first few days who are going to be tremendous to work with, and we're going to build something really special here.”

Reclamation project

Henderson did not wade too far into the specifics of his decision to leave IMCF some 18 months into their current paradigm-shifting, Leo Messi-driven project, where he earned immense credit for moving the squad past painful sanctions for roster-rule violations, laying the groundwork for their current lofty status and expertly juggling a tricky salary-budget situation. Instead, he emphasized the desirability of Atlanta and their rebuild, while expressing his belief that, like Seattle, he’s left Miami in good shape for the future.

“Yes, it has changed. It changed when I first arrived there, and then dealing with the sanctions and how we can get a competitive team based on the money we had,” Henderson said of his IMCF tenure in a roundtable with reporters after the press conference. “Then, obviously, since the summer of ‘23, things completely changed at the club. So I feel really fortunate to go through all those experiences. I loved those four years. They were intense. And now I'm really excited for the next opportunity.

“I just think when this opportunity came up, I was really excited for a new change, something where I can build with a group of people who I really trust and like. And Inter Miami is in a good place. Their team is good. I feel similar to when I left Seattle; the team was in a really good spot. So I'm proud of each of the clubs I've worked at, and now really looking forward to getting things started here and building something again.”

Henderson is jumping straight into the fire at his new gig. He arrives at the final stages of the Five Stripes’ search for their next head coach and will spearhead their shopping for two new Designated Players this winter and probably other acquisitions of note, with a huge war chest accrued from some profitable outbound transfers over the summer.

He’s plenty mindful of a longer-range outlook too, though.

“It's been pretty extensive. I caught up in the last 24, 48 hours,” Henderson said of the coaching hunt. “I've had conversations with the two candidates, which I won't name, but they're both very good, top quality, I would say experienced managers. So hopefully those negotiations go well. I don't know when the time you can close that, but you have to take it step by step. These are really important hires.

“With the work they've done in the past and the player sales that they have done, they're in a really good position to have some impactful players come in, which is exciting,” he added of ATL. “They also have a good infrastructure in their academy and their second team. So I think it's that combination of how you can bring the veteran players in to really impact the team in the next two or three transfer windows, however long it takes to find the right pieces that fit the profiles, and then how you have pathways for young players to come through. So I think that combination has worked well in the league.”