How Charlotte FC has quietly become MLS' most ambitious team

When Englishman Dean Smith joined Charlotte FC as head coach last December, he made an eyebrow-raising statement.

"Throughout the interview process, it was clear that this is an ambitious club with the right ingredients for success," Smith said . "I'm delighted to begin a new chapter in Charlotte."

Nothing about Smith's statement made sense at the time. Charlotte had just wrapped up a disappointing season, finishing ninth, and pundits ranked it 27th of 29 teams in the Major League Soccer power rankings for 2024.

Eight months later, Charlotte has blown expectations out of the water. It's sixth in the Eastern Conference and has an outside shot at a deep playoff run, and it has made headlines all summer for its exciting player transfer maneuvering.

Here's how Charlotte has changed its fortunes:

Reaping rewards of MLS' 'discovery rights' process

Small-market MLS teams are inherently disadvantaged when signing big-name stars such as Lionel Messi or Olivier Giroud. Those players are far more likely to want to live in New York, Miami or Los Angeles than, say, Charlotte.

To combat that disadvantage, MLS created a system called "discovery rights." Each MLS team is allowed to "discover" up to 10 international players at a time, and if those players reject the club that discovered them but join MLS anyway, the team that discovered them gets a hefty fee.

So, while small-market teams such as Charlotte might miss out on international superstars, they reap the benefits of a big payout from the teams that snatch them away.

Charlotte played this system masterfully this summer by "discovering" German international star Marco Reus. He rejected Charlotte and joined the Los Angeles Galaxy instead, but the Galaxy paid Charlotte $400,000 for Reus.

It's a strange quirk of MLS' strict roster regulations, and Charlotte was right to exploit it.

Keeping tabs on USMNT legends

Charlotte missed out on Reus, but it signed 36-year-old USMNT defender Tim Ream, who left his starting spot at Fulham in the Premier League.

Signing Ream — who has built immense goodwill with the U.S. soccer public — was a PR masterstroke by Charlotte. It positioned the club as a landing spot for the USMNT's favorite sons in the future.

Ream will improve Charlotte's defense, but Charlotte, which has the second-best defense in MLS, should also improve Reams.

Shooting for the moon on transfers... and not panicking when failing

Charlotte's bold transfer strategy is getting noticed.

In July, the team pursued young Dutch star Calvin Stengs from Feyenoord. Then, it launched an ambitious bid to bring Paraguayan attacker Miguel Almiron back to MLS from Newcastle.

Neither deal worked out, but Charlotte earned respect from Feyenoord and Newcastle for how it conducted itself in negotiations. Charlotte became one of the first MLS teams to demand a seat at the table of critical European transfers, thus lifting the league's global standing in the process.