The energy within Mercedes-Benz Stadium when Atlanta United defeated Inter Miami 2-1 in Game 2 of their MLS playoffs series Nov. 2 is what Five Stripes president Garth Lagerwey said he wants to experience again and again.
After hiring David Tenney as director of high performance a week ago and introducing Chris Henderson as sporting director Tuesday, on top of other hires he has made within the past year into positions that didn’t previously exist, Lagerwey feels the club is very close to experiencing sustainable success within the next two transfer windows. Lagerwey described Tenney as the best in sports science and Henderson as the best talent evaluator.
“We missed the playoffs the year before I arrived,” Lagerwey said. “We made the playoffs in year one. We won a round in year two. Now we need to use that as the floor going forward. That’s the minimum expectation for this group as we try to roll out a legitimate championship contender.
“Another cliché of mine, once it gets fixed, it stays fixed. So we believe, again, the best leaders in places across the organization, or that’s the same success. So there’s both no rush and a whole great big rush in the sense of we’re going to build off this year and take what was one game that felt really good.”
Henderson joined Atlanta United from Inter Miami, where he spent the previous four seasons. The Herons won the Supporters Shield in 2024 and the Leagues Cup in 2023. Before joining Miami, Henderson and Lagerwey worked together at Seattle from 2015-21. They won the MLS Cup in 2016 and ‘19. Before Lagerwey was hired in Seattle, Henderson helped it win four U.S. Open Cups (2009, ‘10, ‘11 and ‘14) and one Supporters Shield (’14).
Henderson said he left Miami, which will be in next year’s Club World Cup, has the world’s best player (Lionel Messi) and is scheduled to open a new stadium in 2026 because of the ambition of Atlanta United.
“We have everything we need, from a player and competitive aside, to prepare to be a team that can be an elite team in this league,” he said.
Henderson got a close look at Atlanta United during last year’s playoffs. After Atlanta United won Game 2, it stunned Miami 3-2 in Game 2 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to advance to the next round of the playoffs. Henderson said he believes the contributors to that shocking series are good building blocks for 2025. The key pieces from that team, Saba Lobjanidze, Alexey Miranchuk, Stian Gregersen, Bartosz Slisz, Jay Fortune, Brad Guzan and Pedro Amador, return.
Henderson said he is excited that there are two Designated Player slots open for January’s window. Lagerwey said that Atlanta United didn’t fill one of its available DP slots in last summer’s transfer window because he wanted to hold it back for the next technical director and manager. He said he hoped that interim Rob Valentino would have won the job.
Henderson said he’s not locked into spending DP money for both slots on goals and goal-creating positions, but that seems most likely for one of the slots. He said the scouts have narrowed their list of targets.
Outside of signing the DPs, Henderson said he will try to build depth so that the team can compete in multiple tournaments.
“There’s huge potential for how we can build this team,” he said.
There’s also the important matter of hiring a coach. Lagerwey said the club will hire the best possible candidate, mirroring the other hires he has made, which has included Sarah Kate Noftsinger to run the business side of the club in October 2023, and Javier Perez as director of methodology in April 2024.
Henderson already has had conversations with the finalists for the coaching job.
Lagerwey said he and Henderson already have a great deal of trust in each other because of their time in Seattle, as well as their results.
“I’m actually really excited to see how much Chris has evolved and how much Chris has grown beyond where we worked together in Seattle, but I think we’ve had individual success, we’ve had collective, collective success, and that’s what gives me a lot of faith that we’re going to have success together again this time.”
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