Jay Sugarman

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, they're lucky enough now that like virtually everybody involved except for Jay Sugarman is like obscenely wealthy.

I don't know how Philly's owners snuck in there.

Everybody else seems to be either obscenely wealthy or like the Red Bull Corporation.

But look, this is a player that's coming in at the prime of his career, 27 years old, and, uh, this is one of those deals where I think we have to give credit to John Sher first and foremost for, for getting this deal done.

I, I think Jay Sugarman, Richie Graham, uh, Richard Leiverich, the rest of the ownership group, I think they deserve a lot of credit too, going out there, being ambitious, getting in a player that just represented the US at the World Cup this past World Cup in the US.

This is a player that's had multiple appearances with the national team.

This is a player that's played in Champions League, Conference League, Europa League, has been in multiple different, uh, countries now in Europe, in Belgium, and now France with Toulouse.

Gavin Sullivan's a ri- And if you're MLS, [laughs] like, and I'm not trying to be conspiratorial.

If you're Larry Berg, I'd be, I might put in a call to Jay Sugarman and say, "There is no number." Like, there is no negotiation, right? Like...

[laughs]

My guess would be the way this hap- the way this would happen is City sells his contract, because they need to, and the team buying it comes in on a bigger number that they combine with Philly, right? So if City, because of all this, all of a sudden Borussia Dortmund comes and says, "We'll give you $12 million."

What was that like for you to see them succeed? And how can you see Philadelphia Union's influence start to span throughout the world?

It's really special, and I think the vision that Richie Graham and Jay Sugarman had years ago of wanting to start this, which really didn't exist in the United States, of a European model of a school and a residency and really leaning into youth development, I think What a special time to have the World Cup in your own country and then see some academy alumni and first team alumni part of that.

It's every player's dream.

When I was a young soccer player, you just you're in the basement kicking the ball, thinking about you at the World Cup.