To start the daunting process of building a soccer team from scratch, the San Francisco Deltas have entrusted the experienced hand of Brazilian José Carlos Brunoro to lay the groundwork.
Brunoro, who was announced as the team’s Consulting General Manager Thursday night in an email to supporters, is a well known public figure and sports executive in his native country. He has a long and diverse track record of building professional sports teams in Brazil.
He was influential in professional volleyball in Brazil, as a player, trainer and coach; and was part of the men’s team that won silver in the 1984 Olympics. As a soccer executive, Brunoro reorganized Palmeiras, one of Brazil’s largest soccer teams, leading them to an unprecedented run of success in the 1990’s. While in charge of Palmeiras he identified and nurtured several world class soccer talents including future Brazilian national team stars Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos.
Brunoro also established a Brazilian soccer team from scratch called Audax, which instituted an offensive and risk-taking style of play as its soccer philosophy. To stock Audax with talent, he organized local tryouts for over 70,000 soccer players. He was also involved with Formula 1 racing and professional basketball in Brazil.
For his latest venture, Brunoro was approached by one of the Deltas Brazilian investors he had previously worked with. The investor wanted to know if he was interested in the challenge of building an American soccer team from scratch.
“My philosophy is I need to know if I am ready for the opportunity,” said Brunoro during a sit down interview in San Francisco with the SF Gate. I came here a month and a half ago to visit Kezar stadium and understand the soccer scene here.” When Brunoro returned to Brazil he spent time learning about the North American Soccer League and the development of soccer in America before deciding he was the right person for the job.
“What really excites me is to start something new especially in a country like the United States that has enormous potential,” he explained. “Soccer is consolidating here and there are so many things that we can do here in San Francisco.”
“We’re going to keep conquering more and more. Those who live for the past are museums,” joked Brunoro. “I’m focused on the future.”
It will not be Brunoro’s first work with soccer clubs outside of Brazil. He was involved with Boca Juniors (Argentina), Benfica (Portugal), and Peñarol (Uruguay).
Brunoro said his primary goals are to develop a team philosophy for the Deltas and recruit technical staff and players.
“The Deltas needs to have its own style,” Brunoro continued. “We can not be Brazilian as we are in the United States. We have to understand the U.S. but within the American style of soccer we want to be different.”
“The challenge is we want a team that plays with joy but is extremely intense and competitive. One of our core pillars [for the Deltas] is innovation and this is a characteristic of San Francisco. One of our other core pillars is community and we want to attract the community with something new and different.”
“Its not only about bringing in the best [talent] but bringing in the talent that is the right fit for us. We will be building this as a group and we are in San Francisco so we have to be innovative. Expect that from us.”
Brunoro is looking at a six-month timeline to put the framework in place. “We have some deadlines. We are forecasting to have the head coach, who is a central figure of this process, on board by October. Without his thoughts and analysis of players its going to be hard to move in the right direction.”
“We will be looking for a head coach that understands the American market. But if he is a foreigner, he must become an American, and if he is American he must become an innovator. Otherwise,” Brunoro hinted with a laugh and a smile, “he can’t live in San Francisco.”
Brunoro will not use the same blueprint for the Deltas he used for Audax. He built it with youth squads, including an under-15, then an under-17, and an under-20 team before finally becoming a professional team.
“Here the club system (for youth development in soccer in America) is not ideal,” Brunoro confessed. “We will be looking [at youth clubs] but also at the college level. This will be a huge challenge. For example, in Brazil kids play competitively starting at 15 years old. Here it is not the same. As our team is going to be a pro team you can expect that our level of training will be world class. This training level will have to recoup the years of training they are lacking in their development.”
“The player can not only play hard for a few months at university, they have to play hard year round. We have a strong plan to attract players from universities,” Brunoro promised. “For us that is very important.”
Brunoro proclaimed he can’t wait to build a team in a world class city like San Francisco. “I am extremely motivated because I’m in a city where so many things were born. We want to help a new sports project to be born successfully.”
“I really like it here because it’s a challenging place besides being a beautiful city with a spectacular quality of life. For me I already feel like a San Franciscan.”
