When a new player arrives to Orlando City SC in Orlando, Florida, there is a lot more to getting settled than learning a new training schedule.<\/p>\n
There are bank accounts to open, homes to find, schools to research, cars to arrange and immigration paperwork to navigate for international players. Behind much of that work are Head of Player Care Pedro Cox and Team Administrator Danny Quesada, whose job is to make the transition into Orlando as seamless as possible for the Club\u2019s players and their families.<\/p>\n
Both Cox and Quesada share an office and a vision for Orlando City\u2019s players, but their paths to those roles were very different.<\/p>\n
Cox, a Rio de Janeiro native, moved to the United States for university with no friends or family nearby. He\u2019s been in some of the players\u2019 shoes, learning a new language and having to figure out a new culture in a foreign country. He started at the Club in the camps and clinics department in the early days of MLS, moved to working stadium events in 2018 and, in April 2021, was tapped to be the first manager of Player Care & Administration.<\/p>\n
With a background in multiple languages and his own experience coming from a different country, he was a natural fit. He started in April 2021, the day before the season kicked off.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack then it was just myself,\u201d Cox said. \u201cIn 2022 we were able to have a second and third care person, and that just kind of shows the investment from ownership and the view from leadership to understand the need for something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quesada\u2019s road was longer, with a few more forks along the way. A UCF graduate who has spent most of his life in Orlando, he joined the Club during its final USL Pro season in 2014, starting as an account executive in ticket sales before moving to group sales through the first three seasons of MLS. When the Club decided it was ready to move the MLS side to a different training facility in Kissimmee, Quesada was asked to be the project manager for turning the former Houston Astros spring training facility at Osceola Heritage Park into a soccer complex.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunity came when Osceola Heritage Park was going to be a possible site for our training facility, and I was approached to come and take part in the project to revamp this place from a baseball ground to a football training facility,\u201d Quesada said. \u201cSo I took the leap, became the project manager for the renovation of this place, turning baseball fields into soccer fields. Learning as I went, honestly, a lot of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quesada spent an equal amount of time planning as he did doing some of the work. At times, he was the one painting walls and building furniture himself. He went on to help remodel the Orlando Health Training Ground at Sylvan Lake Park for the Orlando Pride and then became the operations manager for the training facility at OHP from 2020 to 2022. In 2023, when the opportunity came to join team operations, he took it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gets me to work closer with the team, be more impactful with the team,\u201d Quesada said. \u201cI knew the guys day to day. They knew my face day to day. Obviously, it wasn\u2019t as close of a relationship as it is with Player Care, but it definitely was a huge help in the transition. We had a level of trust that wasn\u2019t as complete as what we have now, but it was there, so it was important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, as far as what Player Care actually does, it essentially entails a little bit of everything. When an international signing joins the Club, they need bank accounts set up, schools vetted for their kids, phone plans set up, cars purchased, houses secured and, especially, a work visa and green card. All of those things, for the most part, fall on the shoulders of the Player Care team.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayer Care serves as the bridge between a player\u2019s professional life and everything happening around it, coordinating across immigration, relocation, housing, transportation, banking, education and family support while helping players understand the systems and responsibilities that come with living and working in the U.S.\u201d Cox said. “We\u2019re very unique because we\u2019re different from most MLS teams. We sign a lot of international guys, and obviously we handle all players, not just international. But the international players take more of our time just because we\u2019ve got to set up more things. It\u2019s more to adapt to a new country. If you\u2019re moving here from Oklahoma, sure, there\u2019s an adaptation period, but at the end of the day it\u2019s a lot easier than moving here from Argentina, being the first country you\u2019ve ever lived abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cox\u2019s own immigration experience has proven useful. He went through the green card process himself, so he knows the small details of tracking down documents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an attorney that helped me do mine, but the little details of getting documents and everything, it\u2019s one of those things you don\u2019t learn in school,\u201d Cox said. \u201cI learned it because I did it for myself, and it helped a lot on the transition of helping the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hardest part for the team sometimes is getting players to see why that paperwork matters. For most of their lives, soccer has been the only thing that has been a primary focus, with everything else coming after it as secondary. Now, as they become adults with adult responsibilities in new countries, those small things can become big learning curves.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting the players to understand how important the stuff that we ask them is can be the toughest part,\u201d Cox said. \u201cFor the green cards, we need a series of documents, and these guys don\u2019t necessarily recognize the importance either for them or for the Club. We\u2019ll ask for a birth certificate, and it sometimes takes a month to get it. It shouldn\u2019t take a month, but the guys never understand: Hey, if I\u2019m asking for something, it\u2019s because it\u2019s important for you or for the Club or both.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as the work itself goes, Cox and Quesada don\u2019t divide it by player. Whoever a player texts first handles it, and it works out either way. The Brazilians tend to gravitate toward Cox because of his background. When Cox is out of the office, Quesada gets by with Portu\u00f1ol, a mix of Portuguese and Spanish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand probably 90-95% of Portuguese when they\u2019re speaking,\u201d Quesada said. \u201cWe manage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Language is also a big part of the job. First-year players attend English classes in person twice during the week. Due to Orlando being one of the easiest MLS markets in which to live as a Spanish or Portuguese speaker, the Player Care team is always pitching learning English to help with life after Orlando.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to prepare them for the world in Cincinnati or the world in Minnesota, where that\u2019s not going to be the case,\u201d Quesada said.<\/p>\n
It matters for the players\u2019 careers, too. Many of the Club\u2019s young South American signings have dreams and aspirations to move to Europe or elsewhere, and clubs abroad want players who can assimilate with their colleagues from day one.<\/p>\n
The language learning goes the other way. English-speaking players often take Spanish classes in their free time, and the locker room does its own teaching. Former Lion Facundo Torres once went around the training grounds telling everyone \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d after learning it one day in his classes, while Dagur Dan Th\u00f3rhallsson took the same approach of repeating the same word over and over in Spanish.<\/p>\n
It helps, as well, that the group of players within the locker room is always welcoming to new players and helps them feel at home in the new environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this group, in particular, the guys try to bring anybody new that comes in and make them feel part of the group,\u201d Quesada said. \u201cThe English guys are always helping point out directions of where to go and telling them where to live, but they also like to hear from the perspective of a peer. Somebody that\u2019s their age, somebody that\u2019s in their position. So it\u2019s great having that environment within the locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n
For most players, Cox and Quesada are the first people they see on arrival, often when they’re at their most vulnerable. That’s why their office has a couch right behind both of their desks that ends up getting a lot of use.<\/p>\n
“A lot of times they’ll come in, sit and chit-chat for 10-15 minutes and talk about their lives,” Cox said. “They don’t have a problem. They just want to come and talk. I always joke the couch is one of the best signings we\u2019ve ever made.”<\/p>\n
While the players themselves are the main focus, that trust and work extends to the players\u2019 families. Making sure they are equally taken care of so that players can perform and not have to worry about things at home is equally important to the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy wife, happy life,\u201d Quesada said. \u201cIf your wife and kids are happy and you\u2019re thriving, then you can perform on the field better. You can be scoring 10 or 15 goals in a season, but if your wife hates Orlando, or the kids don\u2019t like their school, it impacts your decision to stay or leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
The higher the profile of the player signed, the more complex the planning can become. When the Club signed Antoine Griezmann in March, they knew he wouldn\u2019t be arriving until a few months later in June. The extra time let Cox and Quesada line up his new house, his car and the school for his children ahead of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we bring in a guy like Griezmann, naturally everything scales up. He\u2019s very easy to work with, but obviously it took a lot of planning and talking ahead of time,\u201d Cox said. \u201cBut it was great that we had enough time for him to get everything even before he landed. So when he actually got here, his kids were already enrolled in school. He was basically the fastest onboarding we\u2019ve ever done because he was onboarded as soon as he stepped off the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n
For both Quesada and Cox, the Club itself holds a lot of meaning to them on a personal level. While they both started out working for the team in the early days, Quesada was around when Orlando City was announced as a team back in 2010. He has a longer view of the Club than almost anyone in the training facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of people that I feel like they\u2019re family to me because of the growth of the Club,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen it grow together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, the Club has staff across three locations and a full pyramid from the Academy to Orlando City B to the first team, all on one campus. That makes life easier for Player Care as well. A Homegrown player who visited the office years ago as a young, up-and-coming prospect is now a First-Team player who still comes back to see the same familiar faces.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny seeing a guy like Alex [Freeman] going from sitting on the couch and talking with us to scoring in the World Cup,\u201d Quesada joked.<\/p>\n
Cox remembers the good parts of the job, too. Players like Ant\u00f4nio Carlos, who gave him a jersey when the Houston Dynamo came to town earlier this year and still meet up with him for lunch when they\u2019re both in Rio. Former players stop by the office whenever they\u2019re back in town and are sure to say hi and catch up. The goodbyes, Cox admits, are the hardest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very good people, and they leave, and you\u2019re just sad. But a lot of times they\u2019re going for something better.\u201d<\/p>\n
For all the work they do, the goal of both men is a bit unusual: to be unnecessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere won\u2019t be a Pedro there or a Danny there for the rest of their lives, or there might not be one for the next club they go to,\u201d Cox said. \u201cSo at least be able for them to learn English, develop themselves as adults, and be able to survive without us. That\u2019s my life goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal, at the end of it, is for us not to have a job,\u201d Quesada added.<\/p>\n
While that may be the goal at the end of the day, it\u2019s still a long way away. For now, as new players keep arriving and favors keep piling up, Cox and Quesada will be ready to help at a moment\u2019s notice. And, naturally, they\u2019ll keep the couch ready for whoever pops into their office next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a new player arrives to Orlando City SC in Orlando, Florida, there is a lot more to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3969,115,139,4786,4788,141,140],"class_list":["post-417575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-austin-david","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city","tag-orlando-city-sc","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}