How do you persuade a boyhood Barcelona fan, who grew up watching his team in the Camp Nou with his grandfather, coached for its famous La Masia youth teams and was eventually in charge of running its successful women’s team, to up sticks and move to the United States?
As it turns out, a simple phone call was all it took to light the spark which brought Domenec Guasch, former head of management for women’s football at Barcelona, to lead a new era for upcoming NWSL franchise Boston Legacy FC.
“For a few years, I’d had the desire at some point to step out of my comfort zone in Barcelona,” says Guasch from his new office in Boston. “Even though it challenged me every day and I was happy there, I knew at some point I wanted something different, to develop, to grow up.
“To me, staying in Europe did not make much sense, it would have been the same challenge, with a lot of focus on the Champions League.”
In Boston, Guasch will be responsible for everything from building the first team, to analytics, soccer operations and administration. In the US, he also saw an opportunity that most European clubs just couldn’t provide.
“The thing about the NWSL for me was being part of a women’s-only club while having the investment, infrastructure and professionalism too,” he says. “I lived in the US and in my vision, Boston is the most European city in the USA, for both the people and the culture. I have a wife and six-year-old son, and we saw we could have a pretty good life.”
Originally branded as BOS Nation FC, Boston Legacy is co-owned by an all-female leadership group, while more recent investors include gymnast Aly Raisman and Hollywood actor Elizabeth Banks.
The lengthy conversations Guasch had with the ownership group are what led him to finally leave home for a new challenge.
“It was a long process talking to the ownership here, getting to know them,” he says. “They had a clear vision for the project. They want to do it for the city, the people, to build a team the city is proud of and connects with, while also making it globally appealing.”
Guasch admits he had previous conversations with other NWSL clubs, with one going “pretty far”, but nobody gave him the feeling Boston did. Ultimately, the opportunity to do something “different” was one he couldn’t resist.
“[Barcelona] was the dream job for me. I grew up going to the stadium with my grandfather, he built the love inside me. I still have his seat to this day. I always had the dream to play for Barcelona, and when I decided to pursue this career, it was the dream job.
“I grew so much, starting as a coach in the academy and then the role I had with one of the best teams in the world was definitely something fulfilling. After 14 years, time goes by, families grow. The longer I waited, the harder it would be to leave.
“I love a challenge, and a lot of the time our challenges were repeated. When you’ve won the Champions League twice you still want to win it, but you don’t face it with the same enthusiasm. I was waiting for the right project, I could have spent another 10 years there, but this came up and with my family we felt it was right project, so then it became the right time.”
On his hopes in Boston, he adds, “That’s what fulfils me, changing society, and what will make our industry sustainable, filling stadiums. We’ll have our own stadium, used only by us [as well as Boston Public School teams]. We’re building a training facility, only for us, nothing will be shared.
“It started off as a call. At first, I was not that interested, but a few months later it was an easier decision because every single piece of the project felt right. As much as I wanted the third Champions League in a row, it was an opportunity you don’t get a lot, to start from scratch and build a squad from zero.”
With a year until Boston Legacy enters the NWSL, Guasch has to hire a head coach, coaching staff, backroom staff, support staff, as well as a complete roster of players.
He has made his first key appointment, with Scotsman Ed Gallagher joining as head of recruitment from Brighton and Hove Albion, and he’s hopeful further key moves will be made by the summer, in order to give everyone time to gel before 2026.
“There’s a lot of stuff to be done in a short period of time,” he admits, with a wry smile. “In football, you usually have less time, so I consider myself lucky. I have a year to build and make sure every step of the way we are meeting our goals.
“The longest process has been the coach because we have the goal of securing the coach around the summer, so we’re in the last part of that now. We’ve started the process for operations people, performance people, a lot of my time now is interviewing people, the directors of each area, so we can have them in the summer, and everyone has time to recruit within their own team.
“[Gallagher] is a very important part of it, both for recruitment and for the staff members. I want to focus a lot on that, having the best backroom staff possible. We’re working with Ed on that side, looking at the short-term, the European market. One thing we can do is sign players and loan them out to other teams, so we’re looking at what opportunities are available because every day that goes by more players are being signed elsewhere or signing new contracts.”
The NWSL is becoming distinctly more European, both on the pitch and in the dugouts – as evidenced by Boston’s Spanish GM and a Scottish head of recruitment. Guasch indicated that Boston may indeed go down the European route for many hires.
“The fact that women’s football has grown in Europe has woken up the NWSL,” he says. “It’s been an established league for many years, it was very transitional, mainly due to the players in the league. With how it is now, in Spain, England. et cetera, the USA national team and NWSL teams have had to grow and adapt. It’s opened up people’s eyes here to the outside world, people asking, ‘how can we get better?’
“At Barcelona, it was figuring out the missing piece or what could we improve. You always looked at the youth level first and if nothing could meet the expectations then we looked outside. This is a completely different situation, but how we approach it doesn’t change.
“We know how we want to play, attacking football, dominate the ball, we have certain player profiles we’re looking for. It might not be the level of Barcelona; it’s looking for similar profiles and perhaps looking to build the same kind of game.”
