The Scot turning LAFC into an MLS powerhouse
Neil McGuinness began by buying foreign football tapes at the Barras - he is now building an LAFC roster including two World Cup winners
Neil McGuinness is one of Scottish football’s finest exports. He spent six years at Celtic as first-team scout, where he scouted Virgil van Dijk and played a key role in the Dutchman joining Celtic for £2.6m from Groningen in 2013 (Southampton would buy him for £11.5m two years later and Van Dijk would later sign for Liverpool for £75m, a world-record transfer fee for a defender). He then took up the role of senior player recruiter for the Qatar Football Association in 2015. Three years later, Neil moved to Columbus Crew as director of scouting and player recruitment, helping the club to two MLS Cup titles (above) and a Campeones Cup, as well as a Concacaf Champions Cup final appearance. In May 2024, he came LAFC’s first-ever technical director and has built a roster which includes World Cup winners Olivier Giroud and Hugo Lloris. LAFC topped the Western Conference ahead of LA Galaxy last year (Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami were kings of the East).
As the MLS season kicks off after a winter disrupted by the Los Angeles fires, Neil spoke exclusively to Nutmeg about his amazing journey…
THE BARRAS ARE BETTER
The Barras Market in Glasgow was the first place that really exposed me to the fact that other leagues existed. I was around six or seven years old when I became fascinated with one particular stall that sold football programmes from all over the world – Europe, South America and further afield. Looking back, I don’t have a clue how the guy was getting those programmes, but I used to go on the weekends with my pocket money and buy one or two at 20p each. He had so many teams and leagues I’d never heard of, in languages I didn’t understand — but being able to see the photos, the squads and the names sparked my interest in football from other countries. As I got older, I moved onto buying video tapes from another stall that had mainly European football content with commentary I couldn’t understand – but I was able to learn more about the teams and players in those leagues. I’ve always been obsessive about knowing exactly who is playing where and for whom — I’m still like that to this day. The Barras is where I first learned about the wider football world outside of Scotland. The place should be a UNESCO World Heritage Site!
⚽ MEN v BOYS: SCOTLAND-SAUDI ARABIA IN 1989
The FIFA Under-16 World Championship was held at different stadiums throughout Scotland during June 1989. A Scotland team featuring future internationalists Paul Dickov, Andy McLaren and Brian O’Neil reached the final, where they lost to Saudi Arabia on penalties in front of a 58,000 crowd inside Hampden. Rumours abounded that the victorious Saudis had players who did not comply with the age limit
To this day, I can honestly say that it was the best tournament I’ve ever been to. I loved every minute of it and went to as many games as I could. It was my first exposure to other grounds around Scotland outside of Celtic Park. I was at most of the games played at Fir Park and Hampden with my brother, father and grandfather. All my memories of those games bring back great visions of the crowds, goals, the feeling of national pride about that side.
Paul Dickov, Andy McLaren, Brian O’Neil – the team had a ton of talent and really went for it in that tournament. It was a real shame they couldn’t win it but we now know that the Saudi team who triumphed were ‘allegedly’ much older than they were supposed to be. In later years, I actually worked with a guy from Saudi and we would always joke about that tournament — he remembered it well and said they still have the trophy locked away for fear the authorities will come and ask for it back!
💎 THE HIDDEN GEMS
I always enjoy the players who go under the radar when they are first brought in, then go on to surprise everyone and develop into key men. Stefan Johansen at Celtic was one of those. I first saw him at Stromsgodset in 2013 and started to scout him heavily, due to our positional needs at Celtic for a box-to-box midfielder. He was very much an unknown outside of Norway at that point. I became really interested in him. I was intrigued by his work-rate but also his ability to get on the ball, keep it and play forward, alongside his ability to get into the box and on the end of things.
It wasn’t an easy one to get done, though, as there was a clash of opinions internally at Celtic on whether he was good enough for us. Thankfully, in the end, sense won out and we got him. He was PFA Scotland Player of the Year in his first full season with the club — and by the second season he was one of our top goalscorers from midfield. He won three back-to-back league titles, got a transfer to Fulham, made the Norway national team and became captain, so all in all he was a really good signing.
✍️ BUILDING LAFC’S 2025 ROSTER
A lot of what we did last season was in preparation for the start of this season, 2025. Ongoing meetings throughout the year helped us to forward plan how we wanted to look this season, in an ideal world. You have to be looking far ahead down the calendar and planning how you want things to turn out, rather than being reactive to situations and ending up with fewer options due to a lack of planning. We wanted a more dynamic, technically better, younger squad — and we got to work early on that last year.
Thankfully, the offseason went pretty smoothly, which very rarely happens. For almost all our positional needs and targets, we got the No.1 option — again, that is a rarity in this sport. We brought in three young players: Igor Jesus, a young Brazilian youth international who was playing in Portugal; Odin Holm on loan from Celtic, who we have high hopes for; and a young Ukrainian full-back, Artem Smolyakov, who has also played a lot of first-team football and is a youth international. Along with youth, we brought in tried-and-tested MLS players: Yaw Yeboah, Nkosi Tafari, Mark Delgado and Jeremy Ebobisse — which gives us that core of experience while all being first-team level players.
We also brought back Marlon, who we had on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk, and more recently we agreed a loan signing of Cengiz Under from Fenerbahce, a high-level talent who we are all excited about. That’s not to mention the outgoing players of whom we had many, from starting level to squad level, so it was a super-busy offseason and a lot of transition. We are happy with the work that’s been done and are looking forward to getting stuck into the season on all fronts.
THE ART OF RECRUITMENT: USA v REST OF THE WORLD
There are many differences between both recruitment models – more so the amount of additional rules and options within the US environment. US soccer is heavily tied into set practices such as the salary cap, which all teams must adhere to. This is in place to provide a level playing field and ensure that you don’t have specific teams running away with the trophies every year by outspending the others. With the rules in place governing spending, it’s impossible to have a Barcelona/Real Madrid type scenario — and it makes for a far more entertaining product each season, as it’s regularly a different champion year on year due to the spending constraints.
The UK and the wider European and global football market do not subscribe to the same model so whoever is spending the most money has the best chances of winning. Now that I have been in the US landscape for many years, I have become so accustomed to it that I now think in terms of salary cap constraints when aiming to recruit players. It’s fun, it’s challenging but most of all it allows everyone to have a real go at winning the cups each year, without being steamrolled by the richest owners, which is how most leagues are built.
🏆 THE ROAD TO WORLD CUP 2026
Next year’s World Cup is a really powerful catalyst for soccer in the United States — in terms of grassroots growth, amplifying MLS globally, improvement of infrastructure, investment in marketing and reach, and most importantly getting more people interested in the game – just going outside to kick a ball. I experienced the same surge in interest while working in Qatar prior to their World Cup. You can feel the change in curiosity just from people talking about it far more often and starting to ask questions about the landscape of the game in the country. It will be great for the nation. Interest in the game is already growing so fast, sometimes overshadowing the other core US sports.
THE MLS’ TARTAN INVASION
If you look at the history of Scottish players in MLS, the majority have done really well. From the early days of guys like John Spencer coming over and scoring goals, through to today with Lewis Morgan, Johnny Russell and Ryan Gauld, so many have moved here and done well. I think mentality plays a big part. I see so many superbly talented players coming into the league and failing because they arrive with the wrong mindset. They thought it was going to be easy for them. MLS is a far from easy league and the players who do well are the ones who don’t come with inflated opinions of themselves or their ability. With the success of the guys who have come before them, I think many other players from Scotland will follow.
THE LA FIRES
It’s hard to describe what it was like to people who weren’t here to experience the devastation the fires caused to so many families, businesses and properties. We were very lucky in that we were right on the edge of the Eaton fires limit and remained under emergency evacuation warnings, rather than being mandated to evacuate, which many were. It was a tier system, based on how close you were to the fires in terms of immediate danger to property. The way that the city and communities have come together to help each other in any possible way has been very reassuring to see. It will take time to rebuild but this is a city whose residents rally around each other and efforts are already well underway to recover and help those who suffered the worst.
🍴SQUARE SAUSAGE AND IRN BRU
I go through periods of missing things from back home. It’s usually foods and occasionally places. Square sausage, Irn Bru, a good chippy – you just can’t find those here! I actually miss the rain and wind sometimes as it’s pretty much hot every day in LA, but I don’t miss it enough to jump on a plane! I miss the Scottish football scene at the smaller clubs and away grounds. Scotland has a brilliant culture of making the most out of what it has and, especially at the smaller clubs dotted around the country, you always find a good crowd and everyone having a laugh, regardless of the conditions.
