Picture Offered by Chicago Crimson Stars
After 9 months with out an official normal supervisor, the Chicago Crimson Stars have now named Richard Feuz as the person to guide the Crimson Stars via this new chapter in Laura Rickett’s possession of the group.
Feuz will lead all soccer operations for the membership, however his personal private method goes past simply profitable. It begins with the individuals within the group — the gamers and the workers — and constantly placing individuals first.
“Perhaps most individuals will say ‘I wish to simply win the primary sport,” Feuz instructed The Equalizer of his major objective for the membership. “I don’t assume like this. I feel that profitable is a consequence of doing an excellent job each single day. My first concern will likely be: we’re speaking about my household, we’re speaking about human beings.”
“What’s going to make these gamers glad?’ Having enjoyable each single day. Feeling protected. We’re speaking in regards to the gamers and workers and feeling protected to return to work each single day. If we will deliver again this pleasure on but additionally off the pitch, I’m fairly positive we’ve the gamers to have an excellent season and to deliver again Chicago the place this group deserves to be.”
Throughout Feuz’s first go to to the Windy Metropolis, the climate determined to point out off with temperatures within the -20 Fahrenheit vary, however that didn’t scare off Feuz, as he joked in regards to the climate, “I’m prepared for a problem, I’m prepared for each single a part of the Chicago problem”
Feuz was prepared for one thing new after seven years with Servette Soccer Membership in Geneva, Switzerland. He started at Servette as an intern and made his manner as much as sporting director and vp, the place certainly one of his first initiatives in 2017 was to construct the ladies’s group up from scratch. Below his purview, the group completed on the prime of the desk of essentially the most aggressive ladies’s league in Switzerland 4 occasions, received the Swiss Ladies’s Tremendous League, a Ladies’s Swiss Cup, and the squad certified for Champions League three consecutive occasions. In 2020 Feuz additionally took on the duty of being the CEO of the Servette males’s group.
“Richard has a confirmed file in constructing championship-level organizations, having led the Servette Soccer Membership via years of success on and off the pitch,” mentioned Red Stars Executive Chairperson Laura Ricketts in a launch. “His expertise will likely be invaluable as we start this new chapter for the Chicago Crimson Stars.”
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As for a way he ended up as Chicago’s normal supervisor, Feuz spoke of the significance of needing to really feel ardour from management on the place a corporation was heading. After conversations with Ricketts, Feuz felt that the 2 had been pretty aligned on the place they noticed the membership’s future.
“[We] assume in the identical phrase, [we] have the identical imaginative and prescient, [we] share the identical perspective on all we wish to do to empower ladies’s sports activities and girls’s soccer,” Feuz mentioned of their conversations. “I shared my expertise. I shared what I wished to do in my subsequent chapter. We had been in the identical line.”
Feuz is becoming a member of the group in an fascinating stage of its rebuild. The 2022-23 offseason noticed a participant exodus via the brand new mechanism of free company, and within the months after the 2023 season ended, Chicago, as soon as once more, noticed an offseason free company exodus, with six gamers signing with new groups to this point. A part of the exodus is probably going as a result of transition in workers, which can have left key gamers cautious of the membership’s path ahead with out a membership president, normal supervisor, or head coach employed.
However in December, Karen Leetzow started her position as President, and in January, Lorne Donaldson, the former Jamaican national team coach, started his time as head coach of the Red Stars. These workers additions helped plot a course ahead – in January alone, the group signed seven gamers, and through some draft day trade magic gained extra veteran expertise and extra draft picks as nicely.
Feuz is happy to be part of the transition, reiterating his deal with the individuals. “An important factor for me, we’ve to place the participant first. [The] gamers are crucial factor we’ve right here on this group.”
Ricketts and Feuz are in settlement on Feuz’s method, they usually two share “this ardour… for a rebirth. We use the French phrase – renaissance – that I wish to deliver to this group and this superb metropolis, and I’m able to take this problem.”
Feuz has already joined the group in Florida, the place they’re within the midst of their preseason camp at IMG Academy forward of a closed door scrimmage with the North Carolina Braveness. The Crimson Stars will kick off the 2024 NWSL season, and the following steps of their renaissance, on the highway towards growth facet Utah Royals on Saturday, March 16.
