How Charlotte FC has quietly become MLS' most ambitious team

When Englishman Dean Smith joined Charlotte FC as head coach last December, he made an eyebrow-raising statement.

"Throughout the interview process, it was clear that this is an ambitious club with the right ingredients for success," Smith said. "I'm delighted to begin a new chapter in Charlotte."

Nothing about Smith's statement made sense at the time. Charlotte had just wrapped up a disappointing season, finishing ninth, and pundits ranked it 27th of 29 teams in the Major League Soccer power rankings for 2024. 

Eight months later, Charlotte has blown expectations out of the water. It's sixth in the Eastern Conference and has an outside shot at a deep playoff run, and it has made headlines all summer for its exciting player transfer maneuvering.

Here's how Charlotte has changed its fortunes:

Reaping rewards of MLS' 'discovery rights' process

Small-market MLS teams are inherently disadvantaged when signing big-name stars such as Lionel Messi or Olivier Giroud. Those players are far more likely to want to live in New York, Miami or Los Angeles than, say, Charlotte. 

To combat that disadvantage, MLS created a system called "discovery rights." Each MLS team is allowed to "discover" up to 10 international players at a time, and if those players reject the club that discovered them but join MLS anyway, the team that discovered them gets a hefty fee. 

So, while small-market teams such as Charlotte might miss out on international superstars, they reap the benefits of a big payout from the teams that snatch them away.

Charlotte played this system masterfully this summer by "discovering" German international star Marco Reus. He rejected Charlotte and joined the Los Angeles Galaxy instead, but the Galaxy paid Charlotte $400,000 for Reus.

It's a strange quirk of MLS' strict roster regulations, and Charlotte was right to exploit it.