GM Ally Mackay takes charge at D.C. United

He ventured to the University of Evansville in Indiana to play soccer and worked as a player agent based in Orlando before joining Nashville SC’s front office ahead of its 2020 inaugural season in MLS.

Suffice to say, Mackay knows a little about going great distances to meet objectives.

In accepting United’s four-year contract offer two weeks ago, he has embarked on another long journey: rehabbing an organization that has fallen from MLS aristocracy to afterthought.

His responsibilities include hiring a head coach, installing a winning culture, identifying and acquiring players, integrating the youth academy with the first team and setting the course after four years without a playoff berth, eight without a playoff victory and 19 since winning its fourth MLS Cup title in the league’s first nine seasons.

“I have broad shoulders. I can handle it,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s part of the allure. The easy thing for me would have been staying in Nashville. You want to try in any aspect to push yourself.”

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His personal journey, he said, has fed into his hunger to succeed professionally.

“I’m from a small island originally. So to get to this point, you understand the challenges at each stage in your life,” he said. “This is another challenge, but it’s a challenge that really excites me, and I wouldn’t have taken it if I didn’t really think we can be successful.”

At 37, Mackay is one of MLS’s youngest decision-makers after serving as an assistant GM in Nashville. He has no time to waste. With about six weeks until training camp opens, United needs to replace Wayne Rooney, whose 1½-season coaching tenure ended last month.

Decisions on contract options are due this week. The free agent market will open soon. The international marketplace beckons.

Mackay will, in essence, take the reins from Dave Kasper, who was reassigned to senior consultant after overseeing the player personnel department with a variety of titles for more than 20 years.

Kasper is “going to be in the room when we’re making decisions, but it’s going to be Ally’s show,” chief executive Jason Levien said. “It’s an injection of new energy, of new ideas. We have got to capitalize on it. It’s great to feel that way. It’s another thing to get the kind of results we want to get.”

United hadn’t had a general manager since Lucy Rushton was fired after the 2022 season. Rushton reported to Kasper; Mackay will report to Levien and co-chairman Steve Kaplan.

“I’m letting [Mackay] drive the bus, so I’m excited to hear what he generates — his thoughts, his ideas, his perspective,” Levien said. “I really want Ally to put his fingerprints all over who the next coach is going to be and how that’s going to work.”

Mackay (pronounced Mack-EYE) said he is in the early stages of the search but hopes to initiate interviews next week and extend a contract offer by Christmas. He will consider domestic and foreign candidates, though a familiarity with MLS’s player-acquisition rules and other wrinkles is a plus.

“There’s a number of elements that make a lot of people interesting,” Mackay said. “We’re not tied down to anyone right now.”

He said there will need to be “collaboration and alignment” with Levien and Kaplan.

“I can have my opinions, and so can Jason,” Mackay said. “Ultimately, he’s the owner, and he has to feel good about it as well.”

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The most prominent candidate from MLS circles is Bruce Arena, the winningest coach in U.S. men’s soccer history who began his pro career with United in 1996 and had two stints leading the U.S. national team.

In September, Arena resigned after four-plus years as New England’s boss following a league investigation into his use of “insensitive and inappropriate remarks.” Details were not made public.

Arena, 72, would need to petition MLS Commissioner Don Garber to work in the league again.

Asked whether he would consider Arena, Mackay called his success “obviously historic” and said United is “assessing all options.”

“I don’t think we’ve ruled anyone out yet or anyone in,” Levien added.

During the process of hiring Mackay, Levien said, he solicited opinions from candidates and observers alike in the soccer world to assess the D.C. organization. The feedback wasn’t always pretty.

“It was that we were a little bit dated in our approach, that maybe we didn’t have fresh ideas and weren’t aggressive in our thinking and making decisions, and that we’ve missed on a lot of players,” said Levien, whose group purchased United’s operating rights in 2012. “We’ve missed on building a winning culture that has the highest expectations.

“We’ve gotten a lot of the foundational pieces right,” Levien said, citing Audi Field, which opened in 2018, and Inova Performance Complex, a two-year-old training center in Leesburg. “But we haven’t gotten the talent identification right.”

Levien — who, like Mackay, is a former agent — said he was drawn to Mackay because of his work in helping build expansion Nashville from the ground up. The Tennessee club has qualified for the playoffs in each of its four seasons and signed players, such as 2022 MLS MVP Hany Mukhtar, a German forward, via Danish club Brondby.

United has one opening for a designated player, a category for high-end talent whose salary falls outside normal guidelines. Striker Christian Benteke, the scoring leader, and midfielder Mateusz Klich, the assists leader, are expected to return. The team must decide whether to reacquire playmaker Gabriel Pirani, whose loan from Brazilian club Santos expires soon.

“The current roster is one that has shown quality,” Mackay said of a team that was on a playoff path before fading down the stretch. He said he had a “really good conversation” with captain Steven Birnbaum, the longtime center back, about club leadership and what lies ahead.

“There are elements that, from a foundational aspect, you can come in and hit the ground running,” Mackay said. “And then you can maybe sprinkle some different pieces in there, off the field and on the field. That is a really exciting project for me.”