When Jake Edwards took over as the President of the USL in 2015, the organization boasted 16 teams in a single third-tier league. Since then, Edwards has overseen expansion to more than 30 total markets across multiple professional tiers for both men and women.
Now, Edwards is out and Paul McDonough is in. McDonough's resume marks a real departure from that of his predecessor, and his recent years have been marred by controversy. There are questions if he's the right man to lead this league forward despite a familiarity with executorship in American soccer.
With the USL at an inflection point, it's worth taking stock of the situation. How did Jake Edward change American soccer, and how can his successor Paul McDonough continue the USL’s momentum?
Edwards' early consolidation
English-born, Edwards played for the Charleston Battery during his soccer career before returning home to complete an MBA and gain experience in international sports consulting. His international connections and deep understanding of lower-division soccer helped him to transform American soccer.
Edwards ascended to the top job shortly after a rebranding away from the “USL Pro” moniker, and he oversaw the rise of MLS second-teams in the league. By 2017, 10 such clubs populated a 30-team division, lending a sense of stability and lowering the burden of travel.
2018 was a red-letter year as well, marking the season in which the USL was formally granted second-division status by US Soccer. After the first season under that designation, the USL inaugurated the “USL Championship” banner for its highest-level league and introduced “USL League One” at the third-division level.
Expanding horizons for the USL
Since then, the USL has only grown stronger. Both professional leagues combine to host 36 fully independent clubs; all of the MLS affiliates have decamped to MLS NEXT Pro or ceased to exist.
Edwards abided by the creation of a USL Players’ Union and negotiated the league’s first-ever Collective Bargaining Agreement in a massive leap for labor rights in American soccer. The Black Players Alliance - now known as the United Black Players - began under his watch as the league seeks to improve on discrimination issues.
The league’s profile has continued to grow on the pitch as well. Stars like Didier Drogba joined the USL during Edwards’ tenure, and a turn towards youth development has revolutionized the organization’s direction. From Kobi Henry to Joshua Wynder to Diego Luna to a plethora of further examples, USL clubs are driving the next generation of talent in this country and engaging with the global soccer market. Six- and seven-digit transfer fees are a fact of life.
Since 2021, Edwards has been flanked by another Englishman: league Sporting Director Mark Cartwright. The former technical director of Stoke City, Cartwright played college soccer in the United States before pursuing the professional game across the pond. Cartwright also spent time as a consultant on FIFA’s advisory panel on future development of the global game.
Cartwright’s connections helped in the rise of record-setting transfers and fruitful youth development, but he also reoriented USL clubs towards a new style of acquisitions. In recent months, Charleston has inked dual national prodigy Fidel Barajas, Orange County has signed US starlets Korede Osundina and Bryce Jamison, and Tulsa has added a raft of players from the Barca Residency Academy. This group of teenagers provides quality on the pitch and, yes, will inevitably turn into a set of handsome transfer fees.
A new era?
Now, however, both Edwards and Cartwright have moved on from the USL league office. Paul McDonough, a long-time executive across American soccer, will take on both of their roles, but questions linger as to whether he’s the man for the gig.
McDonough has been a soccer coach at the college level, and he headed up Wasserman, a player agency representing well-known names like Juan Agudelo and Dax McCarty, in two separate stints.
Still, his biggest impact came at the club level. McDonough served in the Orlando City front office before and during their transition from the USL into MLS, moving from there to Atlanta United to serve as the team’s cap guru ahead of their expansion campaign. Next, McDonough moved to Inter Miami as their inaugural Sporting Director before returning to Atlanta.
That second Atlanta stint lasted roughly three months before the sides mutually agreed to part ways. After an investigation, McDonough was found to have helped manipulate roster rules to essentially bring four Designated Players to Miami. As a result, he was given a season-long suspension that ended in his exit from MLS.
The context of McDonough’s recent endeavors makes his hiring a question mark. While he has familiarity with the top level of the American game and helped lead a USL team for two seasons, the optics of hiring a recently-suspended executive to head up the organization are poor.
Furthermore, McDonough lacks the global bonafides that made Edwards and Cartwright so successful. The USL has defined its identity in recent years upon integration into the international soccer market, often through youth development.
McDonough helped to launch Inter Miami’s USL League One side, but development isn’t his bread and butter. He’s very well-connected in CONCACAF circles through his Wasserman experience, but the previous regime boasts European links that matter in terms of transfers.
The new head man also has little to no experience in the women’s game. USL W League, a pre-professional, regionalized division, marked a real step in terms of growing the pyramid behind the NWSL. The impending launch of the USL Super League as a lower professional league could be similarly impactful, and it has separate leadership underneath McDonough, but a steadier, more broadly experienced figure may have brought more confidence in this and many other areas.
It is worth noting that McDonough's role is bifurcated in a different manner than Edwards and Cartwright. Jeremy Alumbaugh has been hired as the Senior Vice President in charge of the USL Championship. Alumbaugh has tenure with St. Louis in the USL and Chattanooga at a more grassroots level, inspiring more confidence from the fan perspective but still lacking for that international or youth expertise.
In the end, one can very validly questioning McDonough’s hiring as the new President and Chief Soccer Officer of the USL on the grounds of the Miami fiasco alone. Even beyond that, his resume represents something of a zag for the USL. The broader organization has a clear sense of direction as it stands, and Paul McDonough doesn’t necessarily have the track record to execute upon it.
If the past is any measure, his hiring - like so many others in USL history - will prove rapturously successful, but the jury is out for now with Jake Edwards’ shadow looming large.