From Hospital Beds to MLS Front Offices

The Rise of Vassili Cremanzidis

Andy’s note: I would like to thank all the people that took time to answer my questions and being transparent about their time with Vassili. A special thank you to Ryan Maquinana from the San Jose Earthquakes and Patrick Vallee from CF Montreal. I want to give my infinite thank you to Vassili Cremanzidis for giving me the opportunity to tell his story.

Soccer is a business that has the goal of entertaining the public eye. From your local club to the biggest clubs in the world, they each have their own goal that pertains to their reality. Most of these clubs will have a person or group that does the dirty work behind the scenes and pulls the strings to make their team’s goals possible. When I first started following CF Montreal, there was a name that kept getting mentioned as the person behind the scenes that was making every transaction for the team possible. Who was he and what was his story? I decided to ask around and find out…

Meet Vassili Cremanzidis, San Jose Earthquakes’ behind-the-scenes worker, who’s earned a reputation around Major League Soccer for being one of the best in understanding, navigating, and implementing the complex roster and salary cap rules with CF Montreal and San Jose. His story (as told by his family, friends, and colleagues) is one filled with perseverance, persistence, and bravery that shows us how hard work is the magic ingredient to success.  

A Joyful Difficult Childhood

“I learned a lot of things back then because I had no choice but to beat cancer, if not I wouldn’t be here today.”

Born in the eastern part of Montreal, Vassili Cremanzidis was raised in a Greek household, by his parents Chris Cremanzidis and Maria Pergantis. Having immigrated from Greece, Chris grew up playing soccer, “I was always involved with soccer since my days in Greece. I played recreationally once I got to Montreal and I was always involved in soccer since I was 8, except for one year when I decided to play baseball instead, and I think I nearly gave my dad a heart attack. Once I returned to soccer, I went from playing in the semi-pro league to coaching and refereeing.” Chris continued being involved in the game and could frequently be seen bringing his wife and kids to the games as they all became familiar faces in the Montreal soccer community. During the summers, he would coach at a soccer camp at Saint John’s University in Lake Placid, New York, while bringing along a young Vassili who was beginning his journey as a soccer player. It was a program that would make him improve drastically to the point of becoming one of the best players in his age category. “My mom and sister would join us from time to time, but most times it was just my dad and I and it would be soccer every day for us during that 4-to-5-week period.” Along with the summer program, the Cremanzidis family frequently attended Montreal Impact games during the season at Claude Robillard Stadium and became familiar with the Impact players, which would play a role later in Vassili’s career. 

Tragedy struck the Cremanzidis family when a then 10-year-old Vassili was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma which forced him to stop all his activities. “When we found out, it felt like we got hit in the head with a sledgehammer,” said Chris. Vassili’s health issues turned his family’s life around for the next few years as he continued battling against all odds. Maria, who had to quit her job, would take turns with Chris at the Montreal’s Children Hospital to keep Vassili company at all times while he was in isolation. “The conversations with Maria weren’t very long. We would see each other every day for half an hour at most and it almost felt like a changing of the guard” recalled Chris. At such a young age, and dealing with health issues and incertitude, Vassili was very scared. His parents kept him calm by only providing minimal information, although this often proved to be difficult, especially at a point when the doctors had told them that he had 2 weeks to live. “When I got sick, they told me that my life was going to change for a bit, but everything would return to normal eventually. As I got older, things started to get more serious after I relapsed twice. The first relapse occurred when I was 12 years old and the second at 13, but this time with a lot more complications and experiments. During the third time with the same cancer, I started questioning everything because it kept happening repeatedly” said Vassili who had been made to believe that this would only be a temporary change. This was an illness that would not go away even if it seemed that he had beaten the worst of it.

“Our role as professional players and role models for the kids was to do something to make that person’s day better, which is what we tried to do for Vassili.”

It was during this time that the Cremanzidis family ran into Nick de Santis (now a consultant) and Mauro Biello (now an Assistant Coach with the Canadian Men’s National team), who were still with the Montreal Impact at the time, as they were both dealing with an illness to one of their nephews, Gianluca. When Mauro and Nick visited Gianluca in the hospital, they also took the time to visit Vassili and spoke to him on the phone through the window of his isolation room, to send him positive and encouraging messages. “Our roles as professional players and role models for the kids was to do something to make that person’s day better, which is what we tried to do for him.” said Biello. Vassili would need all the support he could get in the next few years as he embarked on the fight for his life through chemotherapy, radiation, multiple bone marrow transplants, and even some experimental treatments until he was 16. When asked how this period defined whom he is today, Vassili said “I learned a lot of things back then because I had no choice but to beat cancer, if not I wouldn’t be here today. Even if it wasn’t fully in my power, there was a mental aspect to believing that I could beat it. I have a religious family as well, so we prayed that everything was going to be fine and kept our faith in God and what He had planned for me.” After all the different treatments and medications that he was prescribed, he started to notice changes in his fitness levels and his stature, which impacted on his ability to get back to playing the sport he loved and had excelled in. In terms of his education, his parents hired tutors to catch him up in his studies, “the first time the tutor came she told me that we didn’t need her because he was already a bright kid, but we asked her to stick around and continue to help him with his studies because he had already missed a lot of school.” said Chris. Even though Vassili had a rather unusual childhood, it did not deter him from continuing to move forward, while living every day like it was his last.

“There was one assignment where I had to interview someone in the industry and Nick DeSantis gladly accepted my request. Little did I know that many years later I would be working with him in Montreal.”

Vassili Starts Adulting

With his dream of a career as a professional soccer player forced to a halt, it was time for Vassili to pivot and choose a career where he could continue pursuing his passion: math and sports. Once it was time to go to university, he enrolled at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business in Montreal where he would cater his projects to involve sports topics because he knew exactly what experience he needed to get into a master’s program. Once he completed his bachelor’s degree, he moved away from home for the first time at 22 years old to continue his studies and pursue his master’s at Georgetown University in Sports Industry Management. This would turn out to be a crucial moment in Vassili’s life because it’s when he decided to chase after what he wanted to do most for his career. Vassili took classes which would further define the direction he would choose to go in, “there was one assignment where I had to interview someone in the industry and Nick DeSantis gladly accepted my request. Little did I know that many years later I would be working with him in Montreal. It was during my time at Georgetown that my interest really increased on the business and technical sides of an organization, especially when dealing with numbers and the salary cap.”

During his time at Georgetown University, Vassili also did a few internships which gave him his first taste of management in sports. His first internship was with RedPeg Marketing where he oversaw HR and staffing responsibilities, while his second internship was with Soccer Shots, which had more to do with youth soccer and focused on business development. Regarding what he learned during his internships, Vassili said that he “learned that networking was important, because one job could lead you to the next. Networking is not just giving out a business card, you need to follow up with people and the right ones are going to respond and stay in contact with you in the future.”

During his last semester at Georgetown, Vassili had to do a capstone (thesis) project which allowed him to study from home remotely and fly back to Washington DC for four classes. It was during one of these trips that his life changed forever, “I went to DC for a week to prepare and do everything that I needed to do to ace my capstone. As I was waiting for the cab in the lobby of the hotel on the day of my presentation, the whole Montreal Impact team, including Mauro Biello, walked in, as they had a game versus D.C. United the next day. I went to say hi and we agreed to meet up following my presentation.” After a game which ended in a draw, “we got together to catch up with Vassili and he told me that he was finishing his thesis for his master’s degree,” recalled Biello. “At the time, the team was looking into data analysis to see if they could utilize available data to improve the team and I thought he would be a good fit for a potential role. I knew the team had been looking for help with the data analysis department, and that’s when he agreed to come on board for the last six months of the year on an interim support role.”

“In the early days, Vassili would stay up late collecting and processing data and would work through the night to have it ready on the coach’s desk the next day”

Round 1: Montreal Impact

 It would be the start of a relationship that would last for years to come, but first Vassili needed to gain the trust of his colleagues. In 2013, having just finished his master’s program, Vassili had the opportunity to start working for the team that he had spent his childhood rooting for, but he still needed to prove his worth to the organization. He quickly gained a reputation for being one of the hardest workers in the building, “in the early days, Vassili would stay up late collecting and processing data and would work through the night to have it ready on the coach’s desk the next day” recalled Mauro. One of the people that worked closely with Vassili since his start with Montreal was Daniel Pozzi (now the First Team Director of Soccer Operations with CF Montreal). “Vassili was such a hard worker! I remember seeing him put hours into his work, however one of the most important things to him was to continue learning new things. Whether it was in his role or not, he was always willing to learn while he completed his own tasks, which says a lot about his work ethic. One time, we were setting up for our training camp in Florida and he would go to different places to get internet connection and stay up late to continue downloading data to work on his reports for the team. It was very impressive to see and once I learned more about his story, I had a better understanding of his appreciation for life and why he would live every day like it was his last” recalled Pozzi. They would both work hand in hand for the next few years as they made their way up the company ladder, and inevitably formed a strong friendship that resembles a big brother-little brother dynamic.

Vassili’s first rodeo with the Montreal Impact taught him the fundamentals of data analysis and the management side of sports, as he worked with different coaches and general managers. He, once again, connected with DeSantis to understand how the league rules worked, knowing how complicated they can be. He worked with the GPS systems, data analytics, and video with Biello and Paolo Pacione as his mentors. In 2014, when Frank Klopas was hired as the head coach, he immediately played an important role in Vassilis’ career path. Klopas saw something in Vassili and trusted him to help the coaching staff with anything that they needed. Biello, an assistant coach for the Impact at the time, said “from the time I worked with him, and I knew he was someone that could get things done. He was able to process information and bring clarity to things, which was a big quality that he had. He had that talent for filtering through the data and come up with what was essential and what we could use to help the team, and he continued to grow in that with his hard work and determination.” Vassili had earned the respect of the staff, but he knew that to further his development he needed a change of scenery.  As fate would have it, the San Jose Earthquakes were embarking on search for a data analyst at the time. “As a club in general, we wanted to add more brainpower to the organization and especially to the front office to go along with the General Manager at the time. We did an initial preliminary search around the league for a general analyst and Frank Klopas, who was working with Vassili (but had since been relieved of his coaching duties), gave us a good recommendation and we interviewed Vassili, and the rest is history” said Chris Leitch (currently the General Manager of the San Jose Earthquakes), who at the time was the club’s Technical Director.

“His resume didn’t have a ton of experience ….., but what really struck me about him was his humility and his ‘I’ll do anything attitude’.”

Round 1: San Jose Earthquakes

In 2016, Vassili made his jump to the west coast to join the San Jose Earthquakes organization as a Scouting and Performance Analyst. With the Earthquakes, he was assigned similar tasks as to what he had done with the Impact but was also given additional responsibilities. These responsibilities included scouting and assisting with MLS roster rules and regulations, since the general manager at the time was Jesse Fioranelli, who had a European background and needed to learn how to navigate MLS. Regardless of what he had done in Montreal, Vassili still had a lot to prove to his colleagues, “he was relatively unknown at the time and was a younger person that was not too far removed from school that had just gotten his start in Montreal. His resume didn’t have a ton of experience but what it did have was a good education with a good GPA. What really struck me about him was his humility and his ‘I’ll do anything attitude’. His backstory of everything he’s overcome throughout his life tells you a lot about him” said Leitch, “he came in a nondescript role and really didn’t leave my desk for the next three years. During that time, we had endless conversations about different strategies around the club, competition rules, and the salary cap where Vassili started to learn about the rules and the ins and outs of the league. I tried to share everything I knew about the league and about different strategies, salary cap and roster construction. Vassili was a quick learner and absorbed all the information, and shortly thereafter was a very worthy partner to bounce ideas from.” With every passing day, week, and month he would constantly face new challenges that became part of his learning curve of Major League Soccer’s salary cap world, “we did some good things, but we also made a few mistakes. I was fortunate enough to learn and experiment on the job at the professional level and quickly adapt, which resulted in me being more confident in providing significant input to the team.” adds Vassili. It was during these challenging moments that Vassili started to show Leitch and others around the league what he was capable of and the kind of person he could eventually become in MLS. “The thing that made Vassili different is the same thing that made me gravitate towards him over all these years which was his willingness to do whatever it took to get to get the job done. It doesn’t matter how big or small the task is, Vassili was up for the challenge, and had the chops to do exceptional work with anything he was tasked to do. If you would bring up an upcoming draft, roster mechanism, or an upcoming deadline he would take the onus on himself” said Leitch, “for example, one time I was in a meeting with our head of medical and we were talking about trying to keep track of a 100Hz GPS system, which takes a picture every second so that at the end of a training you’re going to have thousands of data points, and he says ‘We just don’t have the personnel to be able to take in all this data and make sense of it from a physical data perspective.’ Vassili told us to give him a chance to try, and he came back with an Excel sheet with different formulas which essentially scraped all this data from the KPIs that our head of medical was looking at. That one sheet continued being part of our workflow for around a year or two after Vassili left!” Vassili was promoted shortly thereafter to Head of Analysis and Associate Director of Player Personnel until December 2018 when Montreal came calling again. At the time, Montreal was making changes when Nick DeSantis and Joey Saputo reached out to Vassili to pitch their project to him, “I told them that I wanted to come back because this is my boyhood club, my city, and my family was there.” Vassili was coming back home again.

“When I first saw Vassili, I immediately saw that he was a young kid who was honest, sensitive, and eager to learn and that made me want to give him a chance. I told him from the beginning that I needed him and that without him we would fail.”

Round 2: Montreal Impact/CF Montreal

 In December 2018, Cremanzidis rejoined the Montreal Impact as a Head Analysis & Assistant Director of Player Personnel, where he reported directly to the head coach and director of player personnel, Remi Garde. His role was to manage the first team’s salary cap, prepare and structure player contracts, assist in scouting, and use his expertise with MLS rules to manage the complexities of the league. During his second stint with Montreal, “there was a lot of experience around me, so I felt the need to demonstrate that I could do this and more, so I continued working hard. When I came back to Montreal, they needed me to focus on roster building, salary cap, and scouting. It was an opportunity for me to learn to focus on my new tasks and let go of the other things. I could build different departments because I had worked in most of them, and I knew what it took to do things there.”

In January 2019, the Montreal Impact hired Kevin Gilmore as President and CEO of the team, and the reconstruction began both on and off the field. Remi Garde was relieved of his duties and Olivier Renard was hired as the Sporting Director in the back half of 2019, in preparation for 2020. “When I accepted the role in Montreal, I told Kevin that I needed someone by my side who could guide me through MLS rules because being a sporting director in Europe is completely different than North America” explained Renard. The two were paired up for a massive project as the Impact were looking to shift their sporting philosophy to that of a developmental club. Their first task would be to dispose of bad contracts from previous regimes and build a younger roster with players that had the potential to be sold to other leagues. “When I first saw Vassili, I immediately saw that he was a young kid who was honest, sensitive, and eager to learn and that made me want to give him a chance. I told him from the beginning that I needed him and that without him we would fail. We complemented each other very well, and sometimes we’d call each other in the middle of the night to talk about players. I explained to him how I worked and how I would watch matches late into the night and he told me that he did the same thing with other documents and emails,” said Renard. “He guided me through MLS rules which included salary cap, discovery lists, homegrown contracts, and all those kinds of rules that don’t exist in Europe.”

“We had some difficult times with a series of negative results but that’s where Vassili and I had to stand together to encourage the staff and the players.”

At the start of their tenure, the dynamic duo inherited a relatively large spending budget, that quickly declined to a bottom third budget in 2022 and the lowest in 2023 and 2024. Fans were concerned that this new philosophy would produce poor results on the field, but on the contrary, the team became more competitive around the league. Under the dynamic duo, the club made the playoffs in 2 of their 4 full years together and missed the playoffs on the final day of the regular season in the other two, despite controlling their own destiny. Every one of these seasons brought unique storylines within the team, such as the historic 2022 season where countless club records were broken. The dynamic between the two got stronger, regardless of the results on the field, especially during a tough stretch of matches at the beginning of the 2022 campaign. In particular, during a game where CF Montreal was leading against Atlanta United FC 3-1 at the half, the game ended in a 3-3 draw, despite Atlanta being down a man in the second half due to a red card. “This brought a lot of pressure on us internally and externally because we had started the season very badly. Vassili and I stayed calm because we could see what our players were doing in practice and the quality that we had in the squad and at the end, we finished third in the whole league. We gave Wilfried Nancy time to do what he wanted tactically with his players. We had some difficult times with a series of negative results but that’s where Vassili and I had to stand together to encourage the staff and the players. This is something you must always do when you’re the sporting director, and Vassili helped me to do that too.”

Beyond the results on the field, one of the more important assignments that the Renard/Cremanzidis tandem were tasked to do was to buy players with high potential at a low price and sell high. These are very tricky waters to thread in the business of sports because of the risk that comes with signing a relatively unproven player to your club and hoping that you can develop them enough to have them contribute to your team and eventually generate a profit. “We would tell ourselves, ‘This is the budget we have; how can we make the best out of it?’ If we were able to do what we wanted and get the plan in place, then we knew that we had a good chance of being successful” says Vassili.

 What was different in that successful 2022 campaign? That season was a mix of everything; the team ended the season third in the Supporters’ Shield standings (the whole MLS standings), and at year’s end sold many important players for a profit, which essentially mounted to a very good return on their investments of past off-seasons. What was the magic recipe that made it possible for the fans to dream for more? “We were always having fun. If you’re having fun with the people you work with, it won’t matter if you’re winning or losing because you’re having fun and doing something that you love while working with people that are good around you. It was always Olivier, Daniel, and I, and it wasn’t necessarily all about player transactions, but doing things that were fun. During preseason or at any point of the season for that matter, we would look to catch an NBA game or do another fun activity on the road and built a genuine connection outside of work. We were able to laugh and share different experiences which brought us closer together and made us want to work with each other,” said Cremanzidis. The two built an undeniable bond that still exists today, mainly through navigating the ups and downs that come with working in the sporting industry. They came from trusting one another and getting to know themselves beyond the office and getting to know the person. “My best memories with Vassili are all the restaurants that we’ve been to and all the laughs I’ve had with him. When we ate together, we often talked about soccer but were also able to talk about other things. We’re very proud because of what we were able to accomplish with the budget we were given at CF Montreal. We finished second place in the Eastern Conference while doing what the club had asked us to do: get results, field a young team, field a maximum number of Quebecers on the pitch, and a maximum number from the academy. The major player sales we made or the Canadian Championship we won against Toronto at home, were all big victories for us because we did it all with a very small budget,” reflected Renard.

“On my way back to my hotel room for a basketball game I received the call, so I went down to the lobby and sat outside not knowing what to do, and Olivier was the first person I called.”

On February 13th, as the team was in Orlando preparing for their 2023 campaign, Vassili received a call from his dad and sister to tell him that Maria, his mom, had unexpectedly and suddenly passed away. “On my way back to my hotel room for a basketball game I received the call, so I went down to the lobby and sat outside not knowing what to do, and Olivier was the first person I called. He hadn’t even made it to his room yet either and he came down and we just sat there together. These moments that we spent together, during the hardest parts of our lives, were the ones that really brought us to another level of friendship. Daniel was the first person that we informed, knocking on his door after midnight. These were the kind of moments where I realized that these are the kind of guys that I want to go to battle with.” All three of them remember this moment as one of the most crucial to their bond that went beyond winning or losing, “Olivier and I were with him every step of the way after we had heard the news. I knew we were already close, but situations like that, you want to be there as much as possible for your friend, not just as a colleague, but as his close friend,” recalled Pozzi. Cremanzidis traveled back home to help his dad and his sister with everything that ensued. However, he continued working and taking calls from agents and teams to make sure that the team wasn’t missing out on anything, “I think that at that point, doing work was helping me. I even flew down less than 2 weeks later to be with the team for the opening game of the season against Inter Miami, because of my commitment to the team.”

At that point, other teams had started to take notice of Cremanzidis’ work ethic because of his work with CF Montreal. With Renard’s confidence, he was able to attend important league meetings with other team’s General Managers, giving him more exposure to show his expertise, “I’ve always considered Vassili to be more than just my right-hand man. I would let him do a lot of things that people in the club wouldn’t let him do before, such as meetings on zoom with other directors. He had great ambition and wanted to learn, and I showed him how to deal with players and agents,” said Renard. Pozzi had also accompanied Cremanzidis in MLS meetings as well and was equally impressed at how he handled himself, “I was with him at many events where other MLS directors or executives wanted to talk to him because of his wealth of knowledge.”

Cremanzidis was able to use his networking skills and experience to make a name for himself amongst the executives. His dynamic with Olivier allowed him to keep the chief soccer officer (CSO) role, which was usually designated to the main decision maker at each club. “We had a dynamic that I was good at building things within the league and Olivier dealt with scouting and selecting players, and we would support each other at our roles.” By being part of the CSO committee, Vassili was able to establish connections with the clubs around the league, since other clubs’ decision makers were there. During his 5 years in that committee, the last 2 were the most important because he was voted in as one of the leaders of that group to help drive positive change in MLS. This meant that he would have more responsibility within the group and other teams would call him for different issues and ideas. “We were a group of four CSOs that were leading the 25 other teams, so I was humbled by the opportunity. Despite not being the club’s sporting director or general manager and being the youngest person in the CSO group, it showed that I was respected by my peers and colleagues for the work that I was doing to progress the group,” recalls Vassili.

“Vassili put all his problems aside to help me and the club.  That, to me, sums up Vassili as a person”-Olivier Renard

Outside of the pitch, both Renard and Cremanzidis were about to face another big test as colleagues and friends, as they were both struck with personal problems. In December 2023, Renard’s son was hospitalized, and he was forced to abandon the team’s pre-season trip to Arizona, “I had to be in the hospital with my son every day and Vassili had other problems with his family too. If he had left the team at that point, CF Montreal would have been in trouble because I couldn’t leave my son at the hospital. I know that Vassili stayed longer in the club to help my family and me. He could have left before me, but he didn’t because he knew I had a big problem at home. Vassili put all his problems aside to help me and the club.  That, to me, sums up Vassili as a person,” recalled Renard, who was able to rejoin the team near the end of the 2024 preseason.

Even though Vassili was intrigued by other opportunities, he saw that the club was in a time of need with Renard leaving the team temporarily and decided to prioritize the team, ensuring that it continued to operate without missing a beat. “I saw the struggles that Olivier was going through with his son and when something’s not going well with your family, which I’ve seen firsthand, it’s not easy to continue working. Even if I had opportunities at that point, I couldn’t just let the team drop because it wouldn’t have felt right to just leave.” Once Renard was back with the team, CF Montreal had a very strong start to their season, where they played 6 games on the road. The fans were excited for what the 2024 campaign would bring with new head coach Laurent Courtois and several off-season signings that brought a lot of hype to the club. Unfortunately, behind the scenes things did not look as good. Rumors started circulating of power struggles and disagreements with club president Gabriel Gervais. On May 9th, 2024, the club announced a “mutual termination” with Renard citing divergences in the club’s vision. Naturally, the CF Montreal fanbase questioned what this would mean for his right-hand man, who had been a crucial part of the club’s success during the past five years.

Behind the scenes, Cremanzidis had begun exploring some of the opportunities that had been put on hold, but the decision was not as easy as it may seem because he never wanted to leave home. “I was home in Montreal with my family and I had a good position at the club and loved working with Olivier” reflected Vassili, but his second stint with CF Montreal came to an end on May 30^th, 2024, after the club announced that he would be stepping down from his position. “There were a lot of teams who were looking for people like Vassili, because his position is very special. It’s not just about choosing a player or a coach, it’s about being reactive to the CBA and MLS rules. People saw that Vassili was a loyal person and that’s important in soccer. He was loyal to me because he never wanted to take my place while I was still there, which is very hard to find in soccer,” said Renard. This marked the end of one the most successful eras that CF Montreal had known since their induction into MLS in 2012. The Renard/Cremanzidis duo had not only built a sustainable project for Montreal with the budget they were given, but managed to build a bond that is still strong until today, “We were two people who had to laugh every day because if you go to work and you’re not ready to laugh, you probably won’t have a good day. We both tried to put a sense of humor into everything we did but we’ve also had difficult times together, which is not necessarily losing a match or negative results, because that’s just sports sometimes. We’ve had some hard times where we were both like brothers in dealing with that and that had nothing to do with the team. It was just the Renard family and the Cremanzidis family, navigating through these moments together. These are the moments that will keep us as friends for life” recalled Renard. Despite all his success with CF Montreal, Cremanzidis was ready for a change of scenery to continue his inevitable rise in the league when an old friend reached out.

“He came back with the same attitude and characteristics that he had before and after he left us. He has a set of different experiences that he can lean back on and be able to refer this second time around.”

Round 2: San Jose Earthquakes

Vassili was leaving Montreal again, but this time around he had more options on the table. During his first stint with San Jose, he had shown up as a young adult that was looking to gain experience in a different environment. On June 5^th, 2024, Vassili Cremanzidis was named Head Sporting Strategist of the San Jose Earthquake for his second stint in California. When I asked Leitch what his impressions of Cremanzidis the second time around, he said “he looked a little more seasoned. In this league, because of the parity and how it’s constructed, you won’t have a great season every year. You’re bound to build up some battle scars that make you tougher. He came back with the same attitude and characteristics that he had before and after he left us. He has a set of different experiences that he can lean back on and be able to refer this second time around.” One of the most important things for Cremanzidis when moving on from Montreal was that he could still stay close to his family, “he made a really good deal for himself where he will be working out of Montreal and travelling to San Jose. He discussed it with Chris [Leitch], and they were both convinced that this was the perfect balance!” claims Chris Cremanzidis with joy in his voice knowing that his son won’t be far from him too often. One of the conditions of rejoining the Earthquakes was that he would be allowed to work from Montreal, but travel during important periods. As the avid MLS fan knows, the calendar doesn’t really have much time for executives to rest since the perfect transaction could happen on any day, at any time. How does Vassili do it? “My schedule is extremely packed. I travel just as much as I used to, if not more, but rather than for a couple of days at a time during the season, I travel for much longer periods, centered around the transfer windows, the offseason, and the preseason. When I’m working remotely, I know my role and how to prepare for different parts of the season. I believe I’m a very self-motivated individual and I remain available for anything that is needed, at any time of the day, despite the time difference” he says. Everywhere he’s been, Vassili has always shown that family is one of his most important values and being close to his loved ones was a must for him, to accept this position.

“This is the kind of organization you want to work for because the people here are so nice, positive, and happy, and really make you feel like you’re a part of something special.”

We saw what Leitch’s impression was of Cremanzidis when he saw him the first time around, but what was Vassili’s impression of the Earthquakes’ organization after leaving Montreal for a second time to re-join them? “When I came back, I was immediately re-introduced to the great culture and environment that the organization showcases. The Earthquakes pillars are unity, devotion, and heritage and they really demonstrate those three things. This is the kind of organization you want to work for because the people here are so nice, positive, and happy, and really make you feel like you’re a part of something special. Unfortunately, we are not where we want to be in the standings, which is one of the reasons why I’m here, to help turn that around as soon as next season. I can feel the energy and commitment from the people in the club, who are all putting in the work that will help us succeed in the future” he says.

The Earthquakes have plenty of reasons to look forward to the future, because even though things might not be looking good right now, the team has been putting the right pieces in place for the future, including adding Vassili to the organization. He is a fast-rising talent, one of the brightest young minds that is revolutionizing the way MLS teams run, and his track record proves that he can deliver a successful mandate. I asked Chris Cremanzidis if there was something that we would be surprised to know about Vassili? “He’s brave and not afraid to take risks. I remember one time as a kid, he had a port-a-cath inserted into his chest to deliver all the medication directly to a large vein, and the needle in the port would remain there for a week at a time, so that they didn’t have to poke him multiple times a day. One time, he still had a needle in him, and he wanted to go play a soccer game with his team and the ball came to his chest and he chested it perfectly and without fear!”

Are you excited yet Earthquakes fans? If not, I decided to ask his present and former colleagues what Vassili brings to an organization, and this is what they thought:

Renard: “His work ethic, generosity, and loyalty because those three words are lost in the world of sports these days. Sport is sport and emotion, and sometimes emotion makes you say and do nonsense, but when you have a person like Vassili next to you, you can quickly put things into perspective and realize that there are far more important things in life than winning and losing a match. When Vassili has won the war against cancer three times, and you look him in the eyes, you realize that it’s no big deal to lose a soccer match when you’re next to Vassili.”

Leitch: “He brings his now wider expertise because he knows the league inside and out, but he also brings his work rate because you’re going to be hard pressed to outwork him. He’s going to come with a humble attitude that’s available for anyone and he comes from a genuine place of wanting to do good work and help people out. That combination of characteristics is a pretty good recipe for success, and Vassili encapsulates all those things.”

Pozzi: “His honesty and his integrity. He is the kind of person that believes in winning but not at all costs. He absolutely wants to win. As a matter of fact, he would do anything to win except if it’s unethical and I think that rubs off on other people. He’s a good influence on people. He brings a completely different mindset to that of former players and his educational background helps put different scenarios and solutions to certain problems. I know that with Olivier, they complemented each other perfectly because Olivier, being the former player, and Vassili, being more of a scholar, they balanced out the sporting department. I think Chris is very lucky in San Jose to have Vassili with him, because I think he’ll bring him that great balance as well.”

Biello: “His work ethic and his ability to see things clearly. He works hard by watching games and players and puts everything together to determine what works and what doesn’t work for the team.”

-Andy Coronado