Orlando, Florida Local News
How Ricardo Moreira helped build Orlando City’s scouting network
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Ricardo Moreira jokingly says he can almost field a starting eleven when he takes a glance at the scouting team he’s been able to assemble during the last couple of years at Orlando City. But almost six years ago, when the Brazilian arrived at Orlando, the thought of that was just a dream, and far from reality.“When I first started, we had one scout,” Moreira told WESH 2. “Today, we have Felipe Lema, our chief scout, who’s been with us for the last three years. We have another six scouts, including for our academy, and we have a part-time scout who’s fully dedicated to helping us in our college efforts.”In counting, Lema is the team’s chief scout. That’s followed by Oliver Minatel, who’s the scouting coordinator. Orlando then has a scout embedded in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and a European lead scout responsible most recently for recruiting Heine Gikling Bruseth. The other members of Orlando City’s scouting team cover the academy and college efforts. That’s enough scouts, for now, to earn praise from other Major League Soccer clubs, Moreira says. But Moreira adds besides the large contingent of scouts the team possesses; it’s been under his leadership that other MLS clubs have poached his vanguards, losing scouts to Austin FC and New York Red Bull in the past. But perhaps Orlando is a place to learn and grow. Leonardo Baldo, the team’s head scout from 2019 to 2021, moved to AS Monaco in France to be the team’s South American scout before returning to MLS to be the current director of scouting at FC Dallas. The EvolutionMoreira joined Orlando City in late 2018 as its director of scouting. In 2022 he was promoted to assistant general manager and technical director and earlier this year, Moreira was bumped up to vice president of soccer operations after signing a new contract with the club through the 2025 season.While his ascension within Orlando’s technical staff has been gradual, he still oversees the team’s scouting efforts. “It’s still one of my responsibilities,” said Moreira. “It’s my bread and butter, it’s one of the most important areas of the club with the amount of talent it brings in.” Things began to take more shape in 2020 when the team started building its academy and Orlando City B squads, seeing a need for scouts to help grow both to solidify a pipeline into the MLS team. Moreira, though, points at the investment from the Wilf Family ownership for growing that. “The investment and resources that we have since the Wilfs arrived in terms of scouting has been great,” said Moreira. “They believe in what we’ve been doing; they believe in the project and in our ideas.” “We’ve developed an analytical approach to scouting in the last couple of years,” Moreira added. “We have an analytics department that develops for us our own software and to control our reports and develop our algorithm that translates what else we want on the field to what we’re going to see in video to see what’s coming up.” For Orlando City goakeeper coach Cesar Baena, the scouting from the team has allowed him to be set up for success. “I’ve worked in national teams, so you’re used to working with elite players. In this case with Pedro , I had the opportunity to select him to be part of Orlando City,” Baena told WESH. “One of the first things Oscar asked me when I first arrived was for a starting goalkeeper. At the time, the team already had one, so I was handed a list of 18 players from different nationalities, I had to choose and luckily, I chose well, and we’ve had Pedro since.”Trusting the ProcessBefore signing a new contract with Orlando in February, there was reported interest from other MLS clubs looking to sign Moreira. With the opportunities there for taking, Moreira opted to remain in Orlando for now. “I believe in this project. I have a lot of autonomy, I have a lot of responsibilities that, probably maybe elsewhere, I wouldn’t have,” said Moreira. “But I also know, in the long term, we want to have a sustainable success and clear strategy. And for the owners, it’s better for them because it matters for them, so we’re building the stones to be a successful club.” Moreira knows he’ll eventually leave the team. Executive Vice President of Soccer Operations Luiz Muzzi has said in the past that he sees Moreira becoming a sporting director or general manager of a team in the future. For Moreira, that’s likely the next natural step. “That’s obviously on my horizon, and I want this to happen sooner rather than later,” Moreira said. “I’m grateful to Luiz for letting me act as a sporting director as much as he can. He’s very collaborative and supportive of people growing so if it wasn’t for his support, I wouldn’t be in any sort of conversations regarding this next step of my career.”
Ricardo Moreira jokingly says he can almost field a starting eleven when he takes a glance at the scouting team he’s been able to assemble during the last couple of years at Orlando City.
But almost six years ago, when the Brazilian arrived at Orlando, the thought of that was just a dream, and far from reality.
“When I first started, we had one scout,” Moreira told WESH 2. “Today, we have Felipe Lema, our chief scout, who’s been with us for the last three years. We have another six scouts, including for our academy, and we have a part-time scout who’s fully dedicated to helping us in our college efforts.”
In counting, Lema is the team’s chief scout. That’s followed by Oliver Minatel, who’s the scouting coordinator. Orlando then has a scout embedded in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and a European lead scout responsible most recently for recruiting Heine Gikling Bruseth.
The other members of Orlando City’s scouting team cover the academy and college efforts.
That’s enough scouts, for now, to earn praise from other Major League Soccer clubs, Moreira says.
But Moreira adds besides the large contingent of scouts the team possesses; it’s been under his leadership that other MLS clubs have poached his vanguards, losing scouts to Austin FC and New York Red Bull in the past.
But perhaps Orlando is a place to learn and grow. Leonardo Baldo, the team’s head scout from 2019 to 2021, moved to AS Monaco in France to be the team’s South American scout before returning to MLS to be the current director of scouting at FC Dallas.
The Evolution
Moreira joined Orlando City in late 2018 as its director of scouting. In 2022 he was promoted to assistant general manager and technical director and earlier this year, Moreira was bumped up to vice president of soccer operations after signing a new contract with the club through the 2025 season.
While his ascension within Orlando’s technical staff has been gradual, he still oversees the team’s scouting efforts.
“It’s still one of my responsibilities,” said Moreira. “It’s my bread and butter, it’s one of the most important areas of the club with the amount of talent it brings in.”
Things began to take more shape in 2020 when the team started building its academy and Orlando City B squads, seeing a need for scouts to help grow both to solidify a pipeline into the MLS team.
Moreira, though, points at the investment from the Wilf Family ownership for growing that.
“The investment and resources that we have since the Wilfs arrived in terms of scouting has been great,” said Moreira. “They believe in what we’ve been doing; they believe in the project and in our ideas.”
“We’ve developed an analytical approach to scouting in the last couple of years,” Moreira added. “We have an analytics department that develops for us our own software and to control our reports and develop our algorithm that translates what else we want on the field to what we’re going to see in video to see what’s coming up.”
For Orlando City goakeeper coach Cesar Baena, the scouting from the team has allowed him to be set up for success.
“I’ve worked in national teams, so you’re used to working with elite players. In this case with Pedro [Gallese], I had the opportunity to select him to be part of Orlando City,” Baena told WESH. “One of the first things Oscar asked me when I first arrived was for a starting goalkeeper. At the time, the team already had one, so I was handed a list of 18 players from different nationalities, I had to choose and luckily, I chose well, and we’ve had Pedro since.”
Trusting the Process
Before signing a new contract with Orlando in February, there was reported interest from other MLS clubs looking to sign Moreira.
With the opportunities there for taking, Moreira opted to remain in Orlando for now.
“I believe in this project. I have a lot of autonomy, I have a lot of responsibilities that, probably maybe elsewhere, I wouldn’t have,” said Moreira. “But I also know, in the long term, we want to have a sustainable success and clear strategy. And for the owners, it’s better for them because it matters for them, so we’re building the stones to be a successful club.”
Moreira knows he’ll eventually leave the team. Executive Vice President of Soccer Operations Luiz Muzzi has said in the past that he sees Moreira becoming a sporting director or general manager of a team in the future.
For Moreira, that’s likely the next natural step.
“That’s obviously on my horizon, and I want this to happen sooner rather than later,” Moreira said. “I’m grateful to Luiz for letting me act as a sporting director as much as he can. He’s very collaborative and supportive of people growing so if it wasn’t for his support, I wouldn’t be in any sort of conversations regarding this next step of my career.”
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