Atlanta United president and CEO Garth Lagerwey, one of MLS’s most successful executives, is stepping away from his duties after being diagnosed with cancer.
Atlanta announced the news Thursday, referring to Lagerwey’s leave of absence as ‘indefinite’ and noting that doctors gave the 52-year-old an ‘encouraging’ prognosis for a full recovery.
‘I have made the difficult decision to step back from Atlanta United to tackle my cancer treatment head-on,’ said Lagerwey in a team statement. ‘I would like to express my profound gratitude to Arthur Blank for not only his support, but by doing everything in his power to make this process as painless as possible for me and my family. I could not possibly work for a better organization than [AMB Sports and Entertainment].’
‘On behalf of myself, Atlanta United, and the entire Blank Family of Businesses, we stand fully behind Garth and his family as they navigate this difficult challenge,’ added Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank. ‘Garth’s resilience and optimism are part of what makes him such an exceptional leader, and I know he’ll carry those strengths in the days ahead.
‘I have complete confidence in our leadership team and players as we navigate this transition together. We all look forward to welcoming Garth back in the future and will be praying for him and his family’s continued strength, and a smooth recovery.’
Atlanta announced that in Lagerwey’s absence, Chief Soccer Officer Chris Henderson, Chief Business Officer Skate Noftsinger and Senior Vice President of Strategy Dimitrios Efstathiou will run their respective departments on a day-to-day basis, with Lagerwey and CEO of AMB Sports and Entertainment Rich McKay receiving regular reports.
Lagerwey’s statement expressed ‘full confidence’ in the club’s leadership to thrive during his absence, and concluded with a simple declaration: ‘I shall return.’
Garth Lagerwey: Who is Atlanta United executive?
Lagerwey began his career in MLS as a player in the 1990s, playing for the Kansas City Wiz, Dallas Burn and the now-defunct Miami Fusion. Upon retiring in 2000, Lagerwey got a law degree from Georgetown, but stayed attached to soccer by working as a color commentator for D.C. United and New England Revolution radio and television broadcasts.
However, his rise to prominence in MLS came as an executive. Real Salt Lake named Lagerwey its general manager in 2007, and by the end of its third season the club was lifting MLS Cup. Despite running one of the league’s smallest-market clubs, Lagerwey’s cap management and talent identification kept RSL among the league’s serious contenders. A focus on the long-term also saw the club start an academy in Arizona, and to this day RSL is one of the better MLS teams in terms of developing youngsters into pro-ready players.
Lagerwey left RSL in 2014 for the Seattle Sounders, and his success continued. Seattle won five major trophies during Lagerwey’s tenure, including the 2022 Concacaf Champions Cup (making the Sounders the first MLS club to win that competition in 22 years) and two MLS Cup wins in 2016 and 2019. The Sounders were a model of consistency during Lagerwey’s nine-season run, finishing in first or second place in the Western Conference six times, and only finishing outside of the top 10 in MLS’s overall standings once.
One week after Sounders season-ticket holders voted to retain him in 2022 — a formal process specific to Seattle where the team GM could lose their job should enough fans deliver a vote of no confidence — Atlanta United announced that Lagerwey was its new president and CEO. After missing the playoffs for just the second time ever in 2022, the Five Stripes returned to the postseason in the 2023 and 2024 campaigns, stunning Inter Miami in a major first-round upset last year.
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