San Diego FC, MLS’ 30th expansion team, explores new approach to multi-club ownership with youth focus

Multi-club ownership models are no longer a novelty in soccer, so much so that the concept has taken different forms in MLS alone over the league’s three-decade history. It began as a necessity for a fledgling league with a limited number of investors, to the point that the Anchutz Entertainment Group backed seven clubs at one point or another, but MLS lasted long enough for the trendy, modern version of multi-club ownership. Red Bull and City Football Group have since set up shop in New York, so it comes as no surprise that another one of MLS’ seemingly endless list of expansion clubs would follow suit.

San Diego FC, MLS’ 30th franchise set to begin play in the new year, is going about the multi-club ownership model differently, though.

The club is jointly owned by the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, a Native American tribe based in San Diego County, and Mohamed Mansour, an Egyptian-British billionaire whose previous claims to fame outside of his $6 billion conglomerate were his stint as Hosni Mubarak’s Minister of Transportation and being a megadonor to the U.K.’s Conservative Party. Mansour funds the collection of soccer properties San Diego FC belongs to, kicking off his sports venture when he invested $120 million in 2021 for a controlling stake in the Right to Dream Academy. The Ghana-based organization has developed 200-plus graduates and was successful enough to buy Denmark’s FC Nordsjaelland in 2015, but since Mansour’s acquisition, it has extended its reach to Egyptian Women Premier League side FC Masar and MLS’ San Diego FC.

Academies are naturally the focal point of each club associated with Right to Dream, but the $500 million expansion fee San Diego FC’s owners paid to enter MLS is Mansour’s splashiest sports investment yet. The opportunity was worth forking over one of the highest such fees in the history of American sports, Mansour argued.

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“When that license was offered, we couldn’t say no… The World Cup is coming here, 2026. We know, also, that [Lionel] Messi has come on board,” Mansour told CBS Sports. “We’re also building an academy in San Diego, which is 20-30 miles away from Mexico … I believe the growth is going to be here.”

San Diego FC’s youth-first strategy

San Diego FC will be MLS’ 12th expansion team in the last 10 years, a remarkable period of growth that has almost made each newcomer harder to distinguish themselves as a unique product. The old-school approach would be to line up a long list of aging stars, as New York City FC for their inaugural season in 2015 by signing David Villa, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo. The mixed results of that venture and other league-wide trends has seen subsequent expansion teams become a bit more strategic with their designated player acquisitions, though San Diego are perhaps the first MLS expansion club to fully embrace youth from the start.

San Diego’s academy, which will take advantage of FIFA’s rules allowing them to scout players in neighboring countries within a 31 mile radius, will also open sometime in 2025. Mansour believes that young players will be crucial to the first team’s success, his philosophy similar to several longtime power players in the league despite being an MLS newcomer himself. A few short weeks after the LA Galaxy won the MLS Cup with a youth-focused approach, it’s not hard to see where he and other league leaders are coming from. NYCFC and other MLS clubs  are not the only cautionary tales about star players, though – Mansour singled out Manchester United, the club he supports.

“It’s all about management and you can get fantastic name players,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of them come to Manchester United and as a team, we can’t function. [Cristiano] Ronaldo came to Manchester United and it’s teamwork. It’s a team game.”

Mansour also joins MLS as the latest power broker to believe the U.S. is only scratching the surface in terms of scouting and developing American soccer players, describing San Diego’s multicultural population and reach as a selling point for buying into the league. He also hopes the club’s academy will help to discover the continent’s – and perhaps the sport’s – next big talents.

“When you have a homegrown player that comes out from the MLS like Michael Jordan did to the NBA – and sooner or later, that’s going to happen,” he said. “Sooner or later, that’s going to happen and [that’s] the excitement about the MLS.”

San Diego’s priorities actually mark a departure from the transfer rumors that have made up much of the coverage around the expansion team. They have already signed Mexico international Hirving “Chucky” Lozano as their first designated player, and names like UEFA Champions League winner Kevin de Bruyne and World Cup champion Sergio Ramos have also been linked to the club. Mansour was noncommittal on whether any other stars would join Lozano on a roster that still feels a little bare two months before opening day, perhaps in part because it is not actually central to their long-term vision.

“What we want to have is a winning team,” he said. “We’d like to be in the playoffs in the first two years. That would be an objective … It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to get a star sometimes. It doesn’t mean that but it’s also building on teamwork.”

Right to Dream’s influence

The youth-focused strategy for San Diego FC comes as little surprise considering the club’s ties to Right to Dream, but the independent organization is itself an outlier in the sport. Most professional players come up through academies set up by clubs, while most multi-club ownership models are not as blatantly focused on developing talents. It is exceedingly rare to see an independent academy as financially successful as Right to Dream buy one club, let alone be the umbrella that covers multiple.

Right to Dream has developed 200-plus academy graduates since its 1999 creation by ex-Manchester United head scout Tom Vernon, including a notable bunch. West Ham United’s Mohamed Kudus and Southampton’s Kamaldeen Sulemana are products of Right to Dream, which also offers educational scholarships for children who do not end up pursuing professional soccer careers. Kudus and Sulemana each fetched $20 million-plus transfer fees when they moved to the Premier League from other European clubs, but the fees clubs paid for their services beforehand opened up a valuable stream of cash for Right to Dream.

“We have a revenue now that we [didn’t have in the] beginning,” Mansour said. “This wasn’t really the thought, but now we have, coming through the pipeline, players, so this is what we see happening in Right to Dream.”

Right to Dream’s track record, combined with the transfer fees that validate that reputation, allows it to continue to embark on the necessary, ambitious and arguably hardest project in the sport – finding the next crop of stars. Superclubs and independent academies are increasingly curious about discovering untapped potential in countries that are lesser-known for their soccer talent, and Right to Dream is now positioned in several countries they consider talent-rich, competing to win the designated home of the sport’s next big things. It makes Right to Dream a fascinating new addition to the American soccer landscape.

“To be very, very honest, they have a very scientific system at Right to Dream of how to select players, how to identify their psyche and whatever because it’s like anything else,” Mansour said. “If you’re not ready, and you’ve had big names that have done well one year and then the next year they don’t, so you still have to wait.”

The focus on youth players makes MLS feel like a natural next step for Right to Dream’s globe-trotting ambitions, and Mansour justifies the $500 million price tag that once led American billionaire Bill Foley to call buying England’s Bournemouth “a bargain” compared to an MLS expansion team.

“It’s an asset class in itself, sports now,” Mansour said. “Maybe it wasn’t 20 years ago, it is now. It’s long-term, we think long-term. We believe in America. You can’t bet against America, for sure, so things will develop here … I believe the potential is going to be here.”