Ricardo Villar came to the United States in 1997 as a freshman of Penn State University. He had his way through football especially at the younger categories of São Paulo so it was what prompted him into a scholarship.
He graduated as an Engineer but played during his whole graduation, which ignited once again the passion for the sport. College sports were competitive, he says, with a big structure around players, fans and the whole environment.
Villar was a First Team All American during his time, one of the best players in the country. Dallas picked him in the Major League Soccer draft and his professional career began. ‘I was already thinking about working and was on my way to an interview when the phone rang and I changed my life in order to achieve this dream,’ he remembers.
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It all paid out. As a successful football player, Villar played in the United States and Europe, always eyeing opportunities both on and off the pitch. He went on to become the founder and CEO of FC Series, responsible for the ‘Florida Cup’, a new route for European clubs in the US. This year’s edition will have Chelsea, Wrexham AFC, Juventus and Real Madrid.
The MLS is also growing alongside the preseason competition. Lionel Messi is now the main exponent of the country that will host the next World Cup together with Mexico and Canada, and also the next Copa America and the Club World Cup.
“The United States already had this strategy for a while, I played here against Beckham, then came Kaká, Ibra, now Messi, so there was always this strategy, the growth process here continues to happen. I think having the knowledge of football, which differentiated us from the rest of the market. I think that gave us an edge there, because we really care about the technical part. We care not only for the commercial side of the club. We understand that it is important for everyone there to be happy with what is being presented and the opportunities to prepare for the season, which is very important, mainly coming from countries where passion dictates what happens during the season.”
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How was the MLS when you first started playing?
I guess I got into the league in its fourth or fifth year. The US are the only country that I think manages to unite education and sport well. The entertainment has always existed, when I came here I had this impact, today, like this, it continues growing up, if you go to a college game, it’s crowded, you have the most rights to TV, the purchases, the acquisitions that happen here, happen from college basketball, from college football, anyway, etc. On the professional side, when I left college and went to the MLS, it was a step down, the structure was worse than the college, it was the beginning of the league.
And how did it change when you came back?
At first, the games were in synthetic stadiums, nobody was going to watch it, so it was still very precarious. Ten years later, when I came back, everything had changed, I went back to Dallas, which was the same team as I started, and they already had more than 11 perfect training camps, their own stadium for football, soccer, in our case, you know, the league, obviously, being broadcast, the wages better than they were in the past, so there was already a very big evolution, still far from what Europe is, but you could clearly see that everything changed, and that was very cool to see, because I think I was one of the few who had this experience, starting here at the very beginning of the league and transitioning after Europe, ten years later, and seeing all this change.
When did you have the idea for the FC Series?
I met my wife in Germany, she is German, she came here with me, I had two children at the time when I stopped playing, and you don’t prepare for it. I think it’s very difficult for a player to stop playing, you get closer to that reality and obviously you’ll think ‘What I’m going to do next? I have responsibility, I have children’. Not all players earn enough to support themselves with their own investments etc. You will have money, but you have your life ahead of you. So, being here, I had an experience already with the event, I had a sports exchange company that facilitated the coming of Brazilian athletes who were looking for this path of sport and education, which is the 2SV there with my friend Eduardo Silveira. I already had a lot of contact in this market and I experienced what was a pre-season here in the United States that was totally different from Europe.
We did the pre-season here in Orlando, two years in a row, there was more freedom, there was a strong marketing presence, an approximation of the fans, to my mind I felt better. Iit was up to me to dedicate myself to being prepared in the best way possible, but I preferred much more than staying in the mountains, in Austria, in Germany, which I did for ten years, you know, fifteen days without seeing the family, just training, that whole thing, and I understood that this was interesting. It was the moment of, you know, this internationalisation movement in 2013.
We saw the rest of the world’s leagues and other leagues trying to get close, like Bundesliga, for example, and Brazil opening for the first time a pre-season window that did not exist before, in the month of January. So, when I saw this opportunity and in a market like Orlando, which is the tourism mecca, which brings, you know, it has a focus on Brazil, it has a focus on England, mainly, but in Europe, and this combination is possible here, I understood that there was a product that could be presented in the market, which would open many doors, many opportunities.
Do you think that Messi being in the United States and Saudi Arabia making strong moves will create new players in the football world?
I think it’s a question of knowing how to differentiate and wait for time to judge who has continuity and who has their moment. China had its moment, it didn’t have continuity, Saudi Arabia has arrived now, I don’t know for how long and what is still their purpose, their final strategy. The World Cup is coming here, and I believe that Messi, the best player of the moment, recent champion of the World Cup coming here, it doesn’t matter who here in the United States who likes football, they might not know who he is, but will be more attracted to being able to watch a game, see who The Goat is and I think that adds a lot to football here at an important moment, for the World Cup, for the League itself as well, to start taking bigger steps, and now it’s a question of starting to integrate MLS in events that are a little outside the scope of CONCACAF, which is very Central America and Mexican teams, and MLS only.
I think in 2025 they will have this opportunity, I believe that with the Florida Cup, if we manage to integrate, it will also be a bit of preparation for them, even though it’s a pre-season tournament, and the League continues to grow, which adds value for everyone who work in the sport here in soccer, mainly in the United States.
Last year, you guys broke a record with Arsenal v Chelsea. Was it a surprise? This year, Real Madrid v Juventus is also a big promise.
Surprise I wouldn’t say because we knew the potential. We never had a game like this in Orlando, a London derby, some strong teams, Chelsea coming off a world title against Palmeiras, Arsenal returning to being the Arsenal we see today, and of course the appeal, not only that we understand from the Americans, who already watch the Premier League League for a long time. There is a very strong investment from the Premier League here from its clubs, the English who are here too, and what was a surprise for us was having the largest purchase and presence of the Brazilian public within our database.
Since 2015 the numbers have been growing here, because it wasn’t just a Corinthians fan, or just Flamengo fans, or just São Paulo and other teams that we brought here. There were fans of all teams wanting to watch Chelsea and Arsenal, and that for us was a big positive surprise.
Coming from the record-breaking year, we have Madrid and Juventus on August 2nd. I don’t know how to break a stadium record that hasn’t changed the size of its capacity yet, but we expect the same reach for the game itself. I don’t know how many people in Brazil follow Wrexham, but here it is a phenomenon in the United States, being Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s team, and there’s their TV show here, and we were able to have this match, their first preseason in the US, against Chelsea. The game is set for July 19th, in Chapel Hill, which is a phenomenal stadium, which has never had an international football match. We sold out all 51.000 tickets in three days.
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And what about the future, with all these competitions coming to the US in the next three years?
We’ll have two editions of the tournament starting next year, with one in January, as we did for five years in a row, and the other in the middle of the year. Brazilian teams will be invited, the focus is, of course, to bring them back, no more than two. But, yes, we have to continue independently of the market, which can always happen, it is not possible to control the calendar, there is Colombia that works very well for us, so we are coming back to focus on this South American market for this time of year, not forgetting the market American that will continue to grow.
I think there is something interesting there that complements the two events, I think they don’t compete in the middle of the year with the beginning of the year, but the footprint Florida Cup, off-field footprint, all the entertainment, the Universal partnership, games of legends that we bring inside, we already brought Ivete Sangalo, as you know, to here three years ago, we held different fanfests here, so there’s all this activation to fans and for clubs and their partners to explore without losing focus on preparation, which makes, I think, different there and I hope that a brand there that already identifies with the public Brazilian too.
