Since entering MLS in 2018, LAFC has switched coaches, team presidents and cycled through hundreds of players. In just seven seasons the team has had three different jersey sponsors and even the name of its stadium has changed.
But two constants have remained from Day 1: the team’s success and John Thorrington, its general manager. And those things are related because under Thorrington’s watch LAFC has won more games, scored more goals and lifted more trophies than any team in MLS. So on Tuesday, the league will reward him for that success by naming him the MLS sporting executive of the year.
“Obviously I’m very flattered by it,” said Thorrington, whose team made it to the Western Conference semifinals for a third straight time this season, the only club in the league to achieve that. LAFC was upended there, however, falling to the Seattle Sounders in extra time, failing to reach the MLS Cup final for the first time since 2021.
“The only way for me to accurately interpret this award is that it is recognition for the great work that the club continues to do,” he added. “I am just blessed to be a part of this.”
Read more: LAFC’s MLS Cup hopes shattered in loss to Seattle: ‘We beat ourselves’
Another way to interpret it is as a long-overdue lifetime achievement award because Thorrington really hasn’t done anything differently this year from what he did in the first six seasons at the helm. And the team’s record shows that.
LAFC won 19 regular-season games in 2024, finished third in the Supporters’ Shield standings and reached the Western Conference semifinals. Leave out 2021, the team’s only non-playoff season, and LAFC has averaged 18 wins, won two Shields and played in three conference finals in five full seasons.
“We were, as a club, very bold about our ambitions and our goals,” said Thorrington, who got his start in soccer on the playgrounds of Palos Verdes. “I am fiercely, fiercely competitive and that’s a blessing and a curse at times. So I do think the club’s ambition matched exactly with what I hoped we would be able to achieve together in my hometown.”
He’s kept the club a consistent winner despite a constant roster churn caused by the MLS salary cap and other byzantine rules and a payroll that has never ranked higher than fourth in the league. That’s forced Thorrington to get creative.
This season, for example, he paid less than $1.3 million in pro-rated base salary to add World Cup champions Hugo Lloris and Olivier Giroud and Kei Kamara, the second-leading scorer in MLS history, to a team that retained just six of the 20 players who suited up for the 2022 MLS Cup final.
Read more: LAFC’s MLS Cup hopes shattered in loss to Seattle: ‘We beat ourselves’
“With the budget caps and salary rules, it’s hard to retain players on a good team,” defender Ryan Hollingshead said.
“They’ve created a club where people are willing to give up a little bit to come play here in L.A. You’re able to get a little bit higher-quality player for maybe less salary-cap hit. That’s super helpful.”
More change will be coming again this winter since 17 players saw their contracts end in last Saturday’s loss, according to Transfermarkt. What’s unlikely to change, however, is the team’s success.
“I just love the group and so it is tough when you see the amount of turnover that is necessary to achieve what the supporters and this club expects,” Thorrington said. “It is very difficult. But we embrace it. We don’t use ‘I,’ it’s always ‘we.’ It’s always been a very collaborative environment and everybody aligning and getting on the same page.
“In the end, it’s certainly well worth it to be challenging for trophies.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
