Wow, this $#@! gets weirder by the minute. Check out @zlebmada’s Tweet: what a mess https://t.co/JIqrTunSiZ— scuffed (@scuffedpod) April 10, 2019
Wow! The LA Galaxy haven’t gotten their pathway sorted out despite having years to do it. I don’t feel sorry for them but, after following both the Kleibans on Twitter for a while, I can’t say that I am surprised that the partnership didn’t end well. Brian is not as loud as Gary but, in retrospect, they both clearly had a different agenda than the Galaxy. The Galaxy, for their part, simply have to be better at systematic player development or more fiascos will occur in the future.
To me the whole relationship between the Kleibans turned out exactly as expected. Brian/Gary are in it for themselves, and not for Brian's employer. There are not many more insufferable people on the US soccer scene than Gary Kleiban. Railing against everything MLS/US Soccer is doing. And of course he has an agenda. He's now an agent, and wants to cash in on these kids when they sign abroad instead of MLS. The whole thing was shady from the off. Brian will find another job. Quickly. Running one of the top non-MLS academies in the country would be a great gig for him. Then he doesn't have to worry about an employer with a different agenda than him. Here's an idea...…………………..the Dallas Texans. Local talent in spades. And local talent that may not want to tie itself to MLS like FCD demands.
what did the galaxy do wrong here? dtk inherited this mess, clarified it, and moved forward. efra is getting some minutes at 16 and they are aggressively signing other academy kids. just seems like this is them trying to regain control after the old regime let the conflict of interest flourish
Te Kloese didn't do anything wrong. The Galaxy needed to clean this up, and they did. Seems like its been in the works for a little while and only announced now. The Galaxy have every right to be selfish. If Brian Kleiban was encouraging his academy players to sign with his agent brother, and then head to Europe...………...then the Galaxy had no choice. Brian had to go. That's 100% the opposite of their mission at the academy level, which is to develop players for the Galaxy.
The Galaxy have underachieved for years in developing players and brought in Kleiban as a quick fix solution. If that is coming back to bite them, I don’t feel sorry for them at all. If te Close can fix years of poor organizational player development, then awesome, but this incident shows that the Galaxy’s problems are more than skin deep.
I don’t follow. We knew the old management was an issue so thats why dtk was brought in. What further proof is there that kleiban wasn’t a bad apple whose coaching didn’t excuse the conflict of interest and that’s the extent of the issue?
Some additional thoughts on the matter: 1.) With or without Brian's influence, I find it bizarre that Mendez and Llanez signed with Gary Kleiban in the first place. Best I can tell, he doesn't have any education or professional experience in finance, law or sports management; any experience in representing players, either here or abroad; or literally anything else one would consider important when vetting an agent. 2.) If you look back through his twitter, you'll see tons of overly glowing commentary regarding his two clients. Pretty disingenuous and self-serving given that I don't see anything that discloses his financial relationship with the pair. There have also been some negative comments about u20 rivals like Carleton that make a lot more sense now. 3.) While Gary Kleiban has a point from time to time, I find it very hard to respect his opinions given his arrogant and argumentative demeanor and general unwillingness to give much credit to anyone that isn't his brother. Such black and white thinking and overconfidence in one's views is typically indicative of being somewhere on the illusory superiority spectrum. 4) I'm most disappointed about Brian Kleiban, as he seems to be one of the better youth coaches out there and you ideally want someone like him working in a talent-rich and resourced environment. Not sure he'll be able to get a job where he can be as impactful for us going forward.
He started being more critical of Julian Araujo when Araujo made the decision not to sign with Gary - and sign with the Galaxy. More than one person has told me that Mendez is getting paid very, very little at Freiburg.
I really wish I could like this post more then once. 1)there seems like there is probably more to the story and its not a good look for brian and gary. you have a coach who works literally within the mls setup; his brother is on twitter selling a 'coaching tutorial' thing, while bashing mls constantly. then on top of that the best players from the academy seem to be leaving mls setup as soon as they can and gary is their agent. 2)gary losses a ton of credibility now with what he has said in the past he should've said he was their agent. This is why I question people on this board when they say they are a 'scout' or have been scouting for years and like to name random players as brilliant prospects. Thats literally what Gary did...he said they are the best two american's and everyone else is garbage....HE IS THEIR AGENT he isn't a scout haha. gary's silence on twitter says a lot. he was silent for three days and then tweeted twice about champions league...still hasn't explained himself.
the mendez thing is very interesting because he seems like a kid that has some talent. I just was puzzled why he ended up at freiburg seems like a kid as good as gary said he was would've gotten looks from bigger clubs. if you just read some of his twitter posts now he just comes across as a trashy agent/twitter troll.
Gary never cared for me much and I just ignore him. In general, I'll never really give too much time to a person who believes everything is a huge conspiracy and that he is some sort of revolutionary who has it all figured out. These kind of people exist in all walks of life, not just soccer. Almost always, they're BS artists - at best. It's like the U.S Government. There always have been plenty of legit reasons to criticize the government on where it could/should be better. But that doesn't mean the guy who calls into talk-radio at 3:30am to rant about U.S policy or the incoherent maniac screaming about the government on the street corner are right either. Gary is too much like the street maniac.
This is the bizarre thing as he is constantly harping about expertise. He seems like he might somewhat of an expert on playing or coaching soccer and an expert in physics. I, too, am skeptical of his expertise in requisite fields required of an agent.
Keep in mind that Gary just recently suggested publicly that USSF should be getting Efra a huge Nike deal.... (someone correct me if I have a detail wrong in that story) In any case, dude is the epitome of a sleazeball agent, and limiting options for your clients is a horrible practice.
Hysterical. US Soccer should get Efra a huge Nike deal? Wait until you find out how little Mendez is getting paid right now. It's SHOCKING. If it doesn't come out in the days ahead, I'll tell you what I heard.
I think there is so Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I was looking at a random AMA Gary had on twitter and that was one of the questions: Not enough.If US Soccer really wanted him, they would work together with Nike (their partner) to come up with a multi-million dollar proposition and plan.If I were his agent, that's what would be in the works.— 3four3 (@3four3) March 30, 2019 Interesting to note that he says "If I were his agent, that's what would be in the works."....
If any of you have requests on specific player performances this week at GA Cup or Dallas Cup, feel free to let me know. I've got a laundry list of players to evaluate so I won't be able to make every game, but I am sure I will catch a glimpse of most games. I will do my best to try and report back on any player that interests you guys.
I think the catch is that he doesn't need an agent really right now. He is with the galaxy until he turns 18 and could potentially go to Europe. My guess us Gary is an 'advisor' at this point but that makes it a mostly true statement the issue is the facts he is leaving out makes it a completely garbage statement to make.
Mendez and Llanez are getting paid around €1,000 a month (€12,000 a year). This report out today matches what I heard. https://sports.yahoo.com/24-thoughts-inside-the-galaxy-laf-cs-battle-for-los-angeles-173745205.html
That is eye opening and insane. If Uly and Alex are so highly touted, and they are, then why could they not get more than that? I would have thought they were getting at least 100K a year in Europe.
Are they living in a dorm with meals provided too? There's no way €12,000 pays for room, board, utilities etc in Germany. I can only hope another agent reaches out to them and tries to help them get a better deal in the near future. That's criminal from Kleiban and quite frankly poor of Freiberg too.
Yeah I'd hope the room and board is covered. They might even live with a host family or something like some MLS teams do. What I'm curious about is what the standard pay for young Americans going to Europe is? I know the article says it's lower than McKennie's and Sargent's, but I'm curious how much lower. And I assume the LAG offer for both Llanez and Mendez would've been at least the minimum salary in MLS which is $51,000(but probably more I'd hope) if I'm not mistaken. So they now make ~$14,000 and could've made $51,000...
I believe LAG offered around $100k (I have to reconfirm) I understand Alex is living in an Academy dorm