Let’s hope team owner Mark Wilf is right.
Let’s hope City of Orlando East thisclose to the signing of a new contract with Oscar Pareja, the greatest coach in the history of the franchise.
But it seems strange that it’s even a topic of conversation after Orlando City’s historically successful regular season and 1-0 playoff-opening victory over Nashville SC Monday night at the Purple Palace – aka Exploria Stadium.
It seems truly strange that the Lions began their stated goal of winning the MLS Cup in front of nearly 20,000 adoring Oscar fans on Monday night, and yet the man of the hour – Oscar Pareja himself – was actually coaching under an expiring contract.
And yes, it seems strange that Pareja and Luiz Muzzi, the team’s executive vice president in charge of football operations, are both without contracts for next season. That’s right, the man in charge of coaching the team and the man in charge of building the team are playing the final games of their current contracts with Orlando City.
Just so you know, Wilf said before Monday night’s playoff opener that Orlando City has had “good discussions” and is in a “good position” when it comes to negotiations with Pareja and Muzzi , but he did not say that a deal had been reached. .
Before the playoffs began, Pareja and Muzzi were very vague about the status of their contracts and didn’t seem at all eager to discuss their futures.
When Muzzi was asked about the status of his contract as well as the future of Pareja and some of Orlando City’s current players, he replied: “Right now we are focused on the playoffs and the Cup MLS. Once this is over, we’ll talk about these other things.
Pareja said, “I had a great trip here to Orlando. Really. I have this opportunity for a club that I wanted to coach in a city where I wanted to live, but at the moment we want more. … We’re just focusing on the playoff games.
Obviously there’s something going on behind the scenes that we’re not really privy to at the moment. The Wilf family – the billionaire owners of Orlando City and the NFL Minnesota Vikings — has seen enough to know that the Pareja-Muzzi tandem works and works well.
Muzzi arrived in Orlando in 2019 and hired Pareja a year later. Prior to Pareja’s tenure, Orlando City had never made the playoffs in its five-year history under three different head coaches. Since Pareja’s arrival in 2020, Orlando City has made the playoffs in all four of his seasons and this year set club records in wins, points, road wins and goal differential.
Although the Lions have never won the MLS Cup, they are one of the few teams in recent years to make at least the playoffs every season. As someone wise once said, “You have to be in it to earn it.” »
“Only four clubs out of 30 have reached the playoffs in the last four years,” Muzzi points out. “It’s no small feat, but we’re always looking to do more and you can’t be satisfied. We want to win an MLS Cup. We want to bring the Cup to town.
Mark Wilf admits he is happy and “excited about the direction in which the entire football brains” of Pareja, Muzzi and assistant general manager Ricardo Moreira have taken the franchise. Which leads you to wonder what the delay is in the brain trust signing new contracts?
Could it be that Pareja is specifically evaluating his options? After all, he has many means of pressure. He is considered one of the best coaches in MLS and likely wants a huge pay raise from the estimated $300,000 per year he currently makes. Given that the Wilfs own an NFL team and are used to paying exorbitant salaries, you’d think they could find $1 million a year in their couch cushions to pay Pareja.
Hopefully they will reach a deal soon, as Pareja has shown in the past that he is not afraid to change jobs and take on a new challenge if the situation demands it.
Let’s not forget that he began his coaching career in MLS with the Colorado Rapidsbut left after two years to join Muzzi in FC Dallas. In fact, because Pareja had one year left on his contract with Colorado, Dallas had to give the Rapids a 2015 first-round pick and allocation money to hire him. Pareja left Dallas five years later as the most successful coach in club history to join Club Tijuana in Liga MX.
Orlando City fans can only hope that Pareja isn’t considering another career move.
“We’re all in a good position,” Wilf said of the negotiations, “but right now we’re in the position of wanting to fully focus on the MLS playoffs and aiming for the Cup.”
There is no doubt that winning the coveted Cup is Orlando City’s No. 1 priority.
However, bringing back Pareja and Muzzi – the two men most responsible for building this championship-caliber team – comes in a close second.
