Union owner Jay Sugarman believes Cavan Sullivan can be a long-sought homegrown breakout star

The Union signing Sullivan was so important that Sugarman personally made the case to MLS headquarters. “This is the type of talent that we want to see grow up in this league," he tells The Inquirer.

Union principal owner Jay Sugarman.Read moreMonica Herndon / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published May 10, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET

Union principal owner Jay Sugarman knows how many fans want him to spend big on stars. But those fans know how serious the team’s spending on youth development is, and that there must be a return on the investment.

Every step along the way is important, but one is especially crucial: getting the Union’s academy players to start their pro careers with the club. If they don’t, the investment goes up in smoke, and the team and MLS as a whole lose prestige.

That’s why Sugarman has gotten personally involved with two of the Union’s biggest recruiting efforts in recent times: bringing David Vazquez in from Los Angeles, and persuading Cavan Sullivan to turn pro with his hometown club.

“We’ve been working really hard to have the top academy in MLS,” Sugarman said. “We think that’s one of our key strengths, one of our key competitive advantages. So I do try to get involved to make sure we’re executing on what we said we needed to do, and it’s exciting to have a track record now.”

On both occasions, Sugarman lobbied MLS headquarters to let the Union make the moves. And on both occasions, he succeeded.

With Vazquez, though the Union had to pay a fine to bring him in, the move happened. With Sullivan, the league agreed to break its salary cap for homegrown players to match European clubs’ offers. It also helped with an unprecedented deal to agree in advance for Manchester City to buy Sullivan at age 18.

“I think the league has been incredibly supportive,” Sugarman said, but he also told some truths.

“This is the type of talent that we want to see grow up in this league, and it’s an important validation of the academy model the entire league is following,” he said. “So they, too, had a vested interest in a successful outcome here. The league’s rules can constrain you, but I think in this case, a lot of time was spent on what’s right for the kid.”

About more than money

When Sullivan goes to Manchester City, it won’t break the Union’s transfer fee record. In fact, the preset sum — up to $5 million — won’t even come close, even though Sullivan is perhaps the best talent the team has produced.

That’s because the Sullivan family held significant leverage. European teams have scouted Cavan for years, and he was visiting them as far back as September 2020, when he took a trip to Germany’s Borussia Dortmund.

For many months, it looked like the family would spurn the Union, and it would have been a disaster. Not only is Cavan big-time, but his oldest brother, Quinn, plays for the first team, and their father, Brendan, teaches at the club’s high school for elite prospects.

But interventions by Jim Curtin and Sugarman helped turn the tide, and create what is surely the best outcome for all involved. Cavan will develop in an environment that cares about him, gain fame in his hometown, then head to the mighty English Premier League.

“I think my involvement is sort of to clear away the clutter of all the pieces that are moving and just say, ‘What do we want to have happen here?’” Sugarman said. “We’ve built this great academy, we have this wonderful family, they’ve got a son already playing on the first team, the father is involved in our school.”

It’s even more than that. Brendan and his fatherm Larry, both from Bridesburg, coached Curtin as a collegian at Villanova. Brendan met his future wife, Heike, another Philly native, when they played for Penn’s varsity soccer teams. And Heike’s career as a lawyer has included plenty of soccer touches.

“The family is as embedded in Philadelphia as you could imagine,” Sugarman said. “It’s a wonderful story. It’s the Sullivan family story. And what’s the most important thing? It’s [Cavan] should finish his early development with us.”

Now, finally, that can happen.

“I would honestly say I don’t think we got a great financial deal,” Sugarman said, “but we got a deal where he will have the best chance to develop the potential I think everybody sees in him.”

A team of homegrowns

It’s almost to the point now where you could build a full starting lineup with significant academy products of recent years. Zack Steffen (who played in the academy before going to college) at goalkeeper; Matt Real, Auston Trusty, Mark McKenzie, and Nathan Harriel in defense; Derrick Jones (one of the Union’s first homegrowns), Jack McGlynn, Brenden Aaronson, and Cavan Sullivan in midfield; and Paxten Aaronson and Quinn Sullivan in front of them.

That’s 10 players out of 11, with only a striker missing — the one position where the Union have yet to bring someone all the way through. Perhaps it will be one of Jamir Johnson, Diego Rocio, or Anisse Saidi, Sullivan’s teammates on the Union under-17 team that won the club’s second straight Generation Adidas Cup title.

“We certainly want to make Philadelphia a destination, for our own players and others, but we take particular pride in our own players,” Sugarman said. “That’s the dream. … Can you imagine the pride Philadelphia would have in that club? Because I certainly can.”

It’s a story that should bring prestige to the Union and MLS as a whole. But it’s harder to tell when Lionel Messi commands the overwhelming majority of the league’s marketing attention — a fact that has drawn criticism from many fans, and even within league circles.

No one is trying to equate the Union’s youngsters with soccer’s greatest of all time in terms of talent or star power. But shouldn’t there be room for more than one spotlight?

“I think the opportunity Messi opens up for all of us to tell our own stories is a great thing — shame on us if we don’t take advantage of having the greatest player of all time in our league,” Sugarman said. “But we have to develop our own story around that, and young players — young American players, players like Cavan — that is our story.”

It’s also a story that the Union are one of MLS’s best teams despite perennially having one of the league’s lowest payrolls. Since Ernst Tanner’s first full year as sporting director, in 2019, the Union have tallied the most regular-season points in the league, and have the highest points-per-season average. They’ve also played in the Concacaf Champions Cup three times, reaching the semifinals twice.

‘It’s on us to tell that story’

“Maybe we’re not the individual superstar story that Inter Miami has, but we’ve got a collection of very talented players who work really hard together,” Sugarman said. “Maybe we could do a better job at telling that story. I think it’s a pretty extraordinary one. I can’t think of many leagues around the world that have a club that has gotten the most points with the lowest payroll over a five-year period.”

He knows how everyone else will respond to that: go win a trophy. The Union still haven’t won anything major other than the 2020 Supporters’ Shield for the league’s best regular-season record. They’ve lost the U.S. Open Cup final three times, and infamously blew the 2022 championship game in the final seconds.

But while much of Philadelphia still doesn’t care about them (or soccer generally), the Union have earned honest-to-goodness respect from a whole lot of people who know the sport.

If the league isn’t telling that story, the Union will work harder to tell it themselves.

“The responsibility is on us, it’s not on the league, to tell that story,” he said. “It’s on us to tell that story, to make it so compelling that Apple and the league want to make it front and center. … Our challenges of breaking through in the Philadelphia market, they’re the same challenges we have in the global football market. But we’ve got a great story and we are going to work very hard to make sure people know it.”

Perhaps Sullivan’s stardom, even at his young age, will finally bring the team a bigger spotlight. Only Brenden Aaronson has come close as an individual so far, and he rose during the COVID-19 pandemic, when fewer people could watch him in person.

“I think Cavan’s story, and the Sullivan brothers, and the Sullivan family story, is a breakout story, and should not only benefit from the attention Messi brings to our league,” Sugarman said. “Individual stories are really important. Cavan is, with almost every person I talk to — you get that sort of momentary pause, and then they say, ‘He could be the one.’ That’s exciting.”