Real Salt Lake general manager Garth Lagerwey has built the Claret-and-Cobalt into a perennial championship contender since his arrival on the Wasatch Front in 2007, and new reports suggest that Toronto FC are keen to lure him north to reproduce that success on the shores of Lake Ontario.
Citing “a well-placed source within the organization,” Sportsnet reported on Thursday that TFC have approached Lagerwey about taking up the position of club president at BMO Field.
Lagerwey's RSL contract expires at the end of the year. While he says “discussions are ongoing” in regards to a new deal that would keep him in Utah – he told reporters he most recently met with owner Dell Loy Hansen on Wednesday – media outlets across the US and Canada have reported on several other clubs' interest in his services.
“RSL and I have agreed that we aren’t going to comment on rumors until my situation is resolved,” Lagerwey told The Salt Lake Tribune on Friday when asked about the Sportsnet report.
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Sportsnet's John Molinaro notes that a successful capture of Lagerwey as club president “would represent a major change in TFC’s management structure.” Longtime MLS executive Kevin Payne is the only person to have previously held that title, a job he held along with that of general manager during his 10-month stint at the club in 2012-2013.
Tim Bezbatchenko took up the the Reds' general manager post in September 2013 and helped spearhead the team's dramatic offseason makeover last winter. Veteran MLS exec Tim Leiweke serves as president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., TFC's ownership group, but announced in August that he will step down from that post on June 30, 2015 or whenever his successor is appointed before that date.
