CARSON, Calif. -- With his long, unruly mane of red hair,
scraggly goatee and side gig as a musician, Alexi Lalas looked more
like a leftover from the Haight-Ashbury than a vanguard of U.S.
soccer.
He was quirky and edgy, not at all what Americans pictured when
-- if -- they gave the sport a thought in the early 1990s.
Turns out, he knew a thing or two about selling soccer -- long
before he brought David Beckham to America.
See, Lalas understood he had to be a world-class entertainer as
well as a world-class player. Sports -- especially ones scratching
and clawing to carve out a niche -- need personalities, colorful
characters who leave you eager to see what they'll do next.
"I loved getting in front of people, being on that stage and
having people react to that -- positively, negatively, whatever, at
least eliciting some sort of emotion or reaction," he said. "That
was back in the time where not a lot of people cared, so we knew we
had to make a noise. We knew we had to cut through the clutter. We
tried to do that individually and collectively."
Thirteen years later, the laid-back soccer star is now corporate
cool. Scruffy has been replaced by a suit. The goatee is long gone,
and the hair is now fashionably shaggy.
But this is no sellout. Lalas is still making noise and shaking
up the status quo. He's just doing it a different way.
As general manager of the Los Angeles Galaxy -- known to the
world as Beckham's team -- Lalas isn't content to build a
cornerstone of Major League Soccer. No, he's got his eyes on the
Manchester Uniteds, the Real Madrids, the Chelseas and the AC
Milans of the world.
Just as he parlayed the 1994 World Cup into a lucrative Serie A
contract, he might very well be bold enough to get it done.
"Make no mistake, we are hellbent with the vision of being the
first MLS soccer team to emerge as a SuperClub," said Lalas, who
moved to the Galaxy in April 2006 after similar jobs in San Jose
and New York. "I think what we've done in the past year has
certainly established ourselves as a global brand in that there are
people now that wake up and, when they think about American soccer,
they think about the Galaxy."
MLS hasn't seen anything like this before. League officials have
gone to great lengths to avoid the mistakes of other soccer
leagues. There is a strict salary cap, and finances are not readily
discussed. Expansion has been slow and measured; the 12-year-old
league just announced the creation of its 15th team, in Seattle,
last week.
"I admire and applaud big vision. I think it's always a mistake
in business to set your sights low, as opposed to shooting for the
stars," MLS commissioner Don Garber said. "I believe that where
we are, much of the momentum we have today, is because of the
cautious path we've taken.
"The only thing that can derail our current position is being
too aggressive."
Lalas not only understands that, he agrees with it. Although
he's occasionally chafed at the confines of the league's structure
-- he was fined $2,000 in July 2005 after saying "the training
wheels have got to come off" -- he knows it's the reason the league
has thrived.
"We are only as good as our weakest link," he said. "We don't
want a situation again where one team gobbles up everybody else and
ultimately we kill the golden goose. We can't have that."
That won't keep him from pushing the envelope. To attract fans
who don't know Ronaldinho from Ronald McDonald, MLS must have a
buzz. And nobody knows how to get people's attention like Lalas.
He helped lure Beckham, a global phenomenon on and off the
field, to the United States. He has the Galaxy trotting the globe
in their offseason like top Premier League clubs: they've already
played in Vancouver, British Columbia, and leave Friday for
Australia and New Zealand.
When Frank Yallop returned to San Jose and Los Angeles needed a
new coach, Lalas declared he wanted a "sexy" candidate. He got
him in Ruud Gullit, a Dutchman who was one of the best to ever play
the game.
Galaxy games aren't quite the Lakers' star-studded affairs, but
celebs such as Katie Holmes, Eva Longoria, Kevin Garnett and Alicia
Silverstone all found their way to The Home Depot Center this
summer.
"For us as players, we want moves that are going to help us
win. The other stuff is great, all that comes with it is great, but
we want to win," Landon Donovan said. "But you can't be blind to
some of the other realities, which is it's a business and it's
entertainment.
"There's give and take," Donovan added. "I think Alexi would
even admit that, sometimes, he's a little too much on the
entertainment side. But he gets that. I never really understood
that part of it until I got here, frankly."
That Lalas the exec would emerge as the grown-up face of the MLS
might come as a surprise. This, after all, was a guy who toured
with Hootie and the Blowfish in Europe in 1998.
But take a close look at Lalas' career, and everything he did
has led him to this point.
"Alexi doesn't take himself too seriously. That allows you to
play more loosely, in all areas of life," said Jim "Soni"
Sonefeld, the drummer for Hootie and the Blowfish. "It allows you
to have fun putting on a suit. It allows you to have fun in leather
pants. It allows you to have fun on a soccer field.
"The seriousness is in his heart," Sonefeld added. "If it
feels good and he believes in something, he's going to go 110
percent."
Lalas always has.
A scrappy defender, nobody got more out of his talent than
Lalas, who was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in
2006. In 96 games for the United States, he had nine goals and 11
assists -- impressive numbers for a guy whose job is to keep the
ball out of the goal.
After two seasons with Padova in Serie A, he returned to the
United States as one of MLS' inaugural players. He spent seven
seasons in MLS, the last three with the Galaxy.
When he retired for good in 2003 -- his first attempt lasted the
2000 season -- there were plenty of things he could have done. But
when Anschutz Entertainment Group asked him to be the GM of the San
Jose Earthquakes, he jumped at the opportunity.
He spent 1½ years in San Jose, earning praise for improving the
financial fortunes -- attendance improved 24 percent his first year
-- of a team that later disbanded. In June 2005 he moved to New
York, where he oversaw the sale and transformation of the
MetroStars into the Red Bulls.
"When we toured Europe with Hootie, he wore a Ratt shirt on
stage. The same Ratt shirt every night for three weeks, never
washed it," said Chris Cicchino, one of Lalas' bandmates. "When
he was in New York, I went to a game at Giants Stadium. ... He
comes walking in with a suit, he's got the Bluetooth in the ear,
he's talking to two or three different guys.
"I said, 'Look at you, you have just fallen so far," Cicchino
said, laughing. "But wherever he goes, he always brings that
personality and flair."
Though his outward appearance has changed, Lalas insists he
hasn't. He may be more mellow than he was in his early 20s, but who
isn't? Now 37, he's married and has a family.
But walk into his tiny office at The Home Depot Center, and
there's a guitar sitting in the corner. With a Galaxy decal on it,
of course. A jug of red licorice is behind him -- there's another in
reserve on a shelf -- and the basket on his desk is filled with
granola bars.
On this day, at least, there's not a tie or jacket in sight.
Lalas is dressed in jeans and a sweater.
"People still come up to me today and say, 'I never thought
that I'd see you in a suit,' or 'Was it all a show? Was it all
schtick?" he said. "I recognize that it may be very interesting
for people to see this change. But I still think I'm the same
person.
"I don't think that I could do this job if I wasn't, to be
honest with you."
The Galaxy have always been one of MLS' premier teams. They've
won two MLS Cups and have Donovan, the top offensive player
American soccer has ever produced. They've led the league in
attendance every year since 2003 and were the first to turn a
profit.
But Lalas has bigger goals than being best in the MLS. He wants
the team to have global appeal -- on and off the field. It won't
happen overnight, but he envisions a day when an international
phenom such as Lionel Messi includes the Galaxy when he's
considering where to play.
Getting Beckham is, obviously, the most significant move so far.
With his Spice Girl wife, good looks and ability to set trends just
by changing his clothes, the Englishman is a marketing gold mine.
Fans packed away stadiums just to get a glimpse of him, and sales
of MLS jerseys soared 780 percent this year.
His impact on the field wasn't nearly as positive. Ankle and
knee injuries limited Beckham to just five MLS games after he
joined the Galaxy in July. Though the Galaxy were in the playoff
race until the very last day of the season, they finished with a
9-14-7 record.
"The on-the-field part of the equation has yet to come to
fruition, without a doubt," Lalas said. "It's an important part
of the equation. But when you take a step back and look at the
impact that he has had, not just on the Galaxy but on the league
and the sport, in such a short period of time, it's been pretty
phenomenal."
Lalas also gambled by hiring Gullit, a star on the Netherlands
squad that won the 1988 European Championship.
Though Gullit led Chelsea to the FA Cup -- the oldest and most
famous domestic cup competition -- in 1997, he's only coached one
season since 1999. And Gullit readily admits he knows little about
the MLS.
Cobi Jones, who retired at the end of the season, is staying
with the Galaxy as an assistant coach and will ease Gullit's
transition. But there is sure to be a learning curve.
That goes for the boss, too.
"Nobody's been thrown into a situation like Alexi has, and it's
a tough situation to be in," said Marcelo Balboa, Lalas' partner
in the U.S. backfield. "He knows all the players in the league,
and he has the respect of guys in the league. That's half the
battle."
Lalas already has taken his share of criticism, and he's fine
with that. He's never been one to worry about perception.
Without an MBA or the traditional business background of a team
executive, he's the first to say he's learning the job as he goes
along. He's made mistakes and probably will make more in the
future.
"This is the best gig in American soccer right now, and I
believe one of the best ones in sports," he said. "If you're
going to stand out there and do these things, you're going to take
your shots. That's OK, that's part of the deal."
But he's committed to the dream.
"One of the proudest moments I ever had was flying back from
Italy to start MLS," Lalas said. "The fact that I can continue to
play a part -- hopefully a positive part -- in this continuing
process, yeah, it's important to me. I take it very personally.
"I love it, and there's a lot of people who do. That's part of
the reason why we're having some success. But we've still got a
long ways to go."