Why FC Dallas keep winning in the MLS SuperDraft

In the complex world of MLS roster-budget accounting, $300,000 in GAM (General Allocation Money) is a healthy chunk of change.

Any club can put an amount like that to good use, be it funding a pay raise for a key contributor, acquiring an international roster slot(s), or occasionally even trading for a starting-caliber player from elsewhere in the league. So it raised a few eyebrows a year ago when FC Dallas sent Inter Miami CF that amount of GAM to acquire the Herons’ top first-round selection in the MLS SuperDraft, the No. 3 overall pick.

A draft pick? Isn’t the SuperDraft less relevant in modern MLS, particularly for clubs with a strong academy system like FCD’s? That’s what many consider to be established conventional wisdom, at least.

Dallas look at things differently, though. And their move looks pretty clever in retrospect.

Key contributors

The club used that pick to acquire striker Logan Farrington, who contributed 4g/8a in just 1,210 MLS minutes in his rookie season, tied for the team lead in assists and second in goal contributions despite making only 10 starts. He was so good, in fact, that FCD are now fielding trade offers, according to multiple reports, for incumbent starter and Designated Player Jesús Ferreira.

The club’s decision-makers say they had no doubts about the Oregon State product’s quality when they swung that deal.

“Yes, yes. For sure. For sure. We were very convinced with Logan, very convinced,” explained FCD director of scouting Leonardo Baldo in a conversation with MLSsoccer.com this week. “Last year we ended up, to the final day, trying to figure out, how are we going to go high picks to make sure that we have the players that we like”

“So we were like discussing all the week – I remember calling Toronto, calling Colorado, calling Miami, to make sure that we could have these top, high picks to have the players we wanted. Logan was one of them, and we committed with, I think, 300K GAM exactly because we were convinced.”

That’s just one of many contributions Dallas have gained from draft picks.

Key center back Nkosi Tafari, who’s started 84 league matches over the past four seasons, was a 2020 MLS SuperDraft pick. Rising attacker Herbert Endeley was a 2023 draft pick who last month led North Texas SC, FCD’s MLS NEXT Pro side, to that league’s championship trophy and will have a chance to make a first-team impact in 2025.

FCD also drafted the likes of Lucas Bartlett and John Nelson, who went on to become starters at other MLS clubs in recent years. Notably, Nelson won the LA Galaxy’s starting left back job over Under-22 initiative signing Julián Aude this year, becoming a key role player in the Gs’ MLS Cup run.

“It's something about the culture in FC Dallas,” noted chief soccer officer/sporting director André Zanotta. “We have historically drafted players that really contributed to the club in a big way. Just to mention a few: Ryan Hollingshead, Walker Zimmerman, Matt Hedges. So, players that really made an impact to the team. Dan and Clark, with the background they have as well, they always put a lot of emphasis on the draft. Since I came in, it’s something I really enjoyed with our staff here, just to look at the players and always trying to find good talent.”

NFL Draft influence

‘Dan and Clark’ refers to Dan and Clark Hunt, the brothers who serve as president and chairman/CEO, respectively, of FCD. The Hunt family’s longstanding involvement in the NFL as owners of the Kansas City Chiefs – their father Lamar, whose name graces the US Open Cup, is a founding investor in both MLS and the Chiefs – has influenced the seriousness with which Dallas approach the draft, even if all recognize that the MLS version isn’t as central to roster construction as gridiron football’s.

“We have owners that have an NFL team, and the draft is really appreciated by them, and we carry this through all the organization,” said Baldo, who previously scouted for Columbus Crew and Orlando City, helping the latter land one of the all-time SuperDraft success stories with the 2020 selection of Daryl Dike.

“So we face the draft with a lot of respect and energy. We try to do our best, scouting players, connecting with coaches, using our staff to help. It's like a collective effort from a lot of parts of the organization, and I think this, when you put it all together, with our expertise in scouting, I think you can get good players from the draft. I would say it's a mix of everything.”

Baldo says that he and his staff begin preparing for the draft in August, spending extensive time watching NCAA games (both firsthand and via a wider network of part-time scouts), conversing with coaches and other sources and crunching analytical data. While they’re also responsible for FCD’s international scouting for transfers from abroad, Baldo estimates they’re currently spending about 90 percent of their time on draft prep, even with the January window looming.

Last year Dallas were fortunate that Oregon State happened to play an NCAA tournament Round-of-16 match in their backyard, a 7-1 rout of SMU, paced by 2g/2a from Farrington. By that point, however, they’d already compiled a dossier on the big forward that allowed the final eye test to confirm their preferences.

“We had the luck to watch Logan live here, because SMU played against Oregon State. We got to that game knowing Logan already, so we were there, physically present to watch and see what we could extract from that game,” said Baldo. “Logan had a really good game, and this obviously brought a lot of confidence, because we could see clearly a player with high quality for the level that he was playing.

“I always like to say that the draft is like, you go week after week getting more confidence on the players you like, because you compare more players, you talk to people, you call coaches, you discuss with the scouts and week after week, this confidence grows.”

"It's in FC Dallas’ DNA"

This stands in stark contrast to some other organizations’ approaches. Philadelphia Union, another academy-powered club often compared to Dallas, recently shipped their entire suite of eight SuperDraft picks over the next three years to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for a package of GAM worth up to $600,000 in total.

Philly believe they have more talent rising through their youth system than they’d find in the draft and want to keep those prospects’ pathway towards the first team open. FCD’s academy is similarly prolific, yet the club’s leaders see no reason why draft picks can’t be developed just the same, usually via MLS NEXT Pro minutes with NTSC.

And if just one draft pick hits, it could produce a massive windfall for the entire club. Colorado experienced that earlier this year with Moïse Bombito, the No. 3 pick in the ‘23 SuperDraft who blossomed into an elite central defender and Canadian international, fetching a reported $7.7 million-plus transfer fee from French side OGC Nice earlier this year.

“Either short or mid-term, I believe they will help us,” said Zanotta. “There are so many examples throughout the league of players that even now financially – Bombito is the most recent one, right, that came from the draft and was not only contributing on the field, but also financially to the club.

“So for us, it's in FC Dallas’ DNA, the player development, and helping our players have the best pro player pathway in North America, and I think we have been successful in that. But the draft is something else that we can scout players, find players that can be part of our first team or second team.”

To add to the irony, both Zanotta and Baldo are Brazilian and had to adapt to the particularly North American quirk of a draft system.

“For me, this is beautiful, because it's the country. It's a huge country,” said Baldo. “It's like, soccer is growing – so in Brazil, we have soccer for 100 years, in England [the same]. Here, it's new, it's something growing. So there is a space for every type of player. There is space for the kid that comes through the academy system since younger ages, and there are spaces for Logans, or there are spaces for international players that ended up here for some reason, [maybe] to study,” he said.

He admits that he was initially skeptical of the idea that future pros could be found in this manner, but now expresses outright delight at the opportunity to dig up diamonds in the rough, many of them from overlooked pockets of the vast landscape of the US and Canada.

“If you are in Brazil, if you are in England, if you are in France, it's too late, right? It's too late, 23 – if you are not in a professional environment, you don't see players coming to the professional environment at 23 years old. But here it's possible,” he explained. “It's my seventh year working with MLS, I think sixth draft. With time, I started to understand that more and more: OK, it's possible.

“There are players coming. There are good players, there are athletes, good mentality, good professionals, and then you ended up having those situations that, for me, it's amazing. I really enjoy and appreciate working with the draft.”