From Kentucky to the world
It was a transfer that made headlines around the world and could very well put USL Championship side Louisville City FC on the map. As first reported by Transfermarkt, Louisville City sold 18-year-old Joshua Wynder to Benfica for a USL Championship record fee. Although this deal captured all the headlines, it was the second time Louisville had managed to transfer one of their academy players to Europe. In 2022, the club transferred left-back Jonathan Gomez to LaLiga side Real Sociedad.
A look around the training facilities reveals that Louisville City is not a normal USL Championship club. Transfermarkt got an exclusive look behind the curtains of one of America’s most exciting clubs when we visited the training facilities and the state-of-the-art Lynn Family Stadium, which was opened in 2020 at a cost of $75 million. We also spoke to President James O’Connor, head coach Danny Cruz, and youth academy director Mario Sanchez about one of US soccer’s most interesting projects.
“We have everything here to be successful,” Cruz said when asked about the training facility. “For example, today, I had seven kids from the academy in training. All the technical staff is here, and the academy director is involved as well. The facility is a big piece for player recruitment. When teams come here to train, you can see it in their faces; it is eye-opening for them. So, when I make a call for a player, it helps to convince them to come.”
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Louisville City to MLS: “Find us someone to pay $500m
In fact, a tour around the facilities begs the question, how have Louisville City been overlooked as a potential candidate for Major League Soccer expansion? “If you can find us someone to pay $500 million, we are happy to do it,” O’Connor said with a laugh to Transfermarkt in his office inside the Lynn Family Sports Vision & Training Center when we asked. But we will get to that in a moment. One thing that stood out was that there is a buzz around the facility, with staff working feverishly to prepare Louisville City’s friendly against 2. Bundesliga side Kaiserslautern. But also, there is a coming and going as the facility is shared by the Louisville City and NWSL side Racing Louisville—both clubs are owned and operated by Soccer Holdings LLC, which in turn is owned by a group of local business leaders.
“We have 1500 kids under our umbrella,” Sanchez said when asked about the size of the Louisville City academy system. Located right on the Ohio River, which separates Kentucky from Indiana, Louisville has access to the talent pool on both sides of the river and have also reached into Ohio to scout players there as well. “When I leave work at six o’clock tonight, there will be a ton of players out there training, hundreds,” Cruz said. “That goes from four o’clock to nine o’clock. It is constant.”
Furthermore, the example of Wynder, and his brother Elijah who still plays for the club, highlights that there is a significant player pool available in the state. “People have this perception of Kentucky that there is no soccer being played here,” Sanchez said. “We have proven that that is incorrect, a myth. There is so much talent. People don’t realize that Kentucky has a huge immigration population, and we feel that there are even more kids out there.”
Louisville City: “The comes out to support”
Indeed, Kentucky does not necessarily appear like a traditional soccer state. Horse racing is king here, it is also home to the famous Louisville Slugger baseball bat, and then there is the bourbon industry that dominates the streets of Louisville. When TM visited, however, there was also not a single restaurant or bar that did not have Racing Louisville or Louisville City FC stickers displayed.
“Every home game has been 10,000 plus, and the community comes out to support,” Cruz said when asked about the community engagement. “I live 25 minutes outside the city, and when I drive around, you see Louisville City stickers on cars everywhere. You see it all over the place.”
Louisville City FC have regularly filled the state of the art Lynn Family Stadium
With all that in mind, Louisville is more similar to Portland or Seattle, the Cascadia towns that have fully embraced the Timbers and Sounders, respectively, dating back to the old NASL days. “It is a testament to the great vision our owners had,” O’Connor said when asked about the backbone of the club. “The owners have made a significant investment in the club and created infrastructure. Then there is the growth of the game over the last ten years; there are so many great towns and so many more clubs that have sprung up. The growth of the game in the United States has been tremendous.”
Wynder transfer can create snowball effect for Louisville City
The growth of small clubs throughout the United States can be compared to that of baseball. Almost every medium-sized town now has a soccer club, with USL filling the MLS void. The enthusiasm for the game can be felt throughout the nation—especially with the 2026 World Cup just around the corner—and unlike MLS, entering the USL is relatively affordable. Transfermarkt learned that the operating budget of a club of Louisville’s size is just seven figures, and sending a player like Wynder to Europe means a major windfall for a USL team.
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In other words, like minor league baseball, where player salaries are usually relatively low and attendance figures strong, there is a strong place for soccer below the MLS level in America. Unlike baseball, where Major League Baseball (MLB) is the only major league, soccer, with its many top leagues in Europe, provides more pathways to the very top of the game. That, in turn, means that smaller clubs in the United States have a much more diverse market to deal with than baseball, where clubs are often directly linked to a major league franchise.
“It brings vindication to all the hard work that has gone into the academy,” O’Connor said when asked about selling Wynder for a fee above $1m to Benfica. “To put the academy in place came with a huge cost. The monetary aspect is wanting but even more important is the fulfillment that we managed to bring to a young boy and his family. I don’t think we can put a price on that; but the seven-figures are great because it sets a new threshold.” O’Connor also pointed out the snowball effect a transfer like Wynder can have on a team like Louisville. It further cements that a club like Louisville is a viable pathway for a young player to Europe, which, in turn, means more young talent is willing to commit to the club.
Louisville has never lost a single talent to an MLS club
Another big upside that Louisville or other USL teams have over MLS is that they are not operating in a single-entity system. That means a club like Louisville can negotiate with a club like Benfica more directly rather than going through the league and not only ensure that their shareholders directly reap the benefits but also make the process less bureaucratic and quicker. “It is a much more open market,” Sanchez said. “Once families see the difference, it opens their eyes, and it is our job to educate them. I can say we haven’t lost a single kid to an MLS club yet.”
The man in charge of providing those opportunities is head coach Danny Cruz. The 33-year-old played 137 games in MLS and also had a stint in Europe before retiring in 2018 to become a coach. In 2020, Cruz was first appointed technical director and then took over coaching duties from John Hackworth, who has since joined MLS club St. Louis CITY SC. Since taking over Louisville, Cruz has averaged 1.95 points per match and has become one of the hottest coaching prospects in US soccer.
In fact, what makes Cruz remarkable, is his ability to have success on the pitch as well as integrate young players into Louisville City’s system. “I hope that my actions have shown that it doesn’t matter whether you are 16 or 17; if you are good enough and have the right mentality, you will get opportunities,” Cruz said. “When you are a young player coming to train for me, you can look at the other young players already in the squad and look at the process that they have come through. I think that is very important.”
Louisville is building a track record of developing talent
Another aspect, of course, is that despite being a very young club still, Louisville City, which was founded in 2014, is building a track record of giving young players a chance and then allowing them to leave if there is an opportunity elsewhere. Gomez and Wynder have already been mentioned, but Canadian men’s national team midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye also went through the Louisville City setup before being picked up by LAFC. And the next wave is already on its way with Travis Smith, Issac Cano, and Colin Elder. And more immediately, Wynder’s brother Elijah and winger Enoch Mushagalusa are players who have already caught the eyes of clubs from outside the USL.
“We want to understand the player’s ambition before they get here,” Cruz said. “We ask them: ‘What do you want to do.’ And then, we create a development plan to help them to get there. Make no mistake; we are in the business to win games. But we also have an obligation to develop these kids and help them where they want to go. With Joshua [Wynder] and JoGo [Jonathan Gomez] are prime examples. We were very clear on the path, and we did everything we could to help them get there.”
Part of the development plan is having an honest conversation with the player. Those conversations are not always easy and also involve reality checks for some talents who might not have it what it takes to go to Europe. “Young players go through ups and downs,” Cruz said. “They have to understand that there is a learning curve and that you have to learn from mistakes.”
Louisville City wants to promote from within
There is also a learning curve for the Louisville coaching team. At 33, Cruz is still a young coach, and despite a strong record overall, this season has not been optimal for Louisville. A big part of that has been injuries but also Wynder being absent with the U20 US men’s national team at the World Cup. President O’Connor and the ownership group, however, are patient enough to understand that short-term challenges along the way are all part of the club’s development. “It is one thing I love about this club,” Cruz said. “From our owners to our president, they believe in promoting from within, and they give you time to develop. This is a great place from a development standpoint for players and coaches; I couldn’t be in a better place.”
There is no doubt that player development is an important pillar for Louisville going forward. But in an ecosystem without promotion and relegation, what can Louisville do to keep growing? Without a billionaire investor, and MLS having now expanded to 30 teams with the San Diego announcement, where will the club be in 10-15 years?
“I hope we have done three things,” Cruz said. “First to have won as many championships as we possibly can. The second thing is to engage the community and develop young players to be good people. The third thing is continuing to see academy players contribute to our team and move on to whatever their ambitions are and see them fulfilled.”
Louisville City: “Our goal should be to become the best academy in America”
O’Connor, too pointed out that player development needs to remain the pillar on which the club can grow in the current US soccer ecosystem. “I think when you take a look around, and you would say that there a minimum standard in MLS; it is safe to say that we already meet those,” O’Connor said. “The country is set up to have a single entity system. We’re not able to control that, but what we can control is the development of players and the product we put on the field, and that is something we take great pride in. We have been consistent about that and want to continue to provide young players opportunities.”
A soccer mural in Butchertown, Louisville. Louisville City and the NWSL club Racing Louisville are ever present in the city.
Sanchez, too was optimistic when asked about Louisville’s ceiling. “Our goal should be to become the best soccer youth academy in America,” Sanchez said. “I think the only limits we have are the once that we put on ourselves. The ownership group never viewed themselves as a USL club, they just want to be the best club they can be, and I don’t think we have limitations on what we can control. Outside of that, let’s just produce as many young players as we can.”
Despite the limitations, the sky appears to be the limit for Louisville, and there is no doubt that the club has turned Louisville into a true soccer city. One anecdote told by Cruz underlines the impact the club has had on the community: “I was having pizza with my son down the road from here, and the waiter comes over to tell me that the bill was taken care of,” Cruz said. “And it was a family with kids that paid for it. The mom tells me: ‘We are just really proud of what you do for this community.’ It is the thing I am the proudest of; it is the biggest compliment anyone has ever given me and is more important than a trophy. It shows that we have roots in the community, and in the next 15 years, we want to grow those roots and make them stronger.”
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