Above It All

Just a short walk up North Almaden Avenue from this city’s downtown district you come to a building with blue awnings and you know you have arrived.

These are the offices of the San Jose Earthquakes, and once inside a secretary guides you past the framed jerseys on the walls, past the spot just upstairs where the glass cabinet is being constructed to house the Earthquakes’ 2001 and 2003 Major League Soccer championship trophies.

Eventually you come to a large office and are shown inside. A man slips some papers into a folder, pushes back his chair and stands up to greet you.

Now is the time to do the double-take.

Yes, it is Alexi Lalas.

In a suit. Behind a desk. With a title.

Wasn’t it only nine months ago that he was playing for the Galaxy? Wasn’t it exactly 10 years ago today (July 4) that he was playing in the World Cup for the United States against Brazil in nearby Palo Alto?

And yet here he is.

In a suit. Behind a desk. With a title.

He is president and general manager of the defending MLS champions, no less. Who would have thought it possible?

Certainly not Lalas, who took over as the Earthquakes’ head man this spring and is riding a roller coaster of a learning curve so steep that it almost doubles back on itself.

“There are times when the light goes on and there’s a moment of clarity,” Lalas says. “And there are other times where it’s utter and complete confusion as I’m swimming through a murky kind of sea trying to figure it all out.

“But throughout it all it’s a blast. I’m having a great time.”

Didn’t he always?

Lalas, as much as any American player in the last 15 years, has been a pioneer, an iconic figure willing to try just about anything, and more often than not succeeding.

He was the player who, at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, played with a broken foot, ignoring the pain just to be on the field.

He was the player who parlayed the 1994 World Cup into a place with Padova in Serie A, the first American to play in Italy’s top flight.

In 1996, he was one of the first to sign for MLS, tracing a transcontinental curve from the New England Revolution to the New York/New Jersey MetroStars to the Kansas City Wizards to the Galaxy.

Most of all he was the ginger-haired, bearded, guitar-strumming, CD-recording symbol of a generation that put American soccer on the map, the bright kid from Detroit who far exceeded his expectations.

And still is doing so.

The first MLS player to rise into a high-profile, front-office position in the league, Lalas, 34, looks upon it as a just another challenge.

Offered the post by Tim Leiweke, president of the Anschutz Entertainment Group that operates five MLS teams, Lalas did not hesitate. He and his wife, Anne, sold their Hancock Park home in Los Angeles and headed north.

“It came out of left field,” Lalas says of the offer. “But I said, ‘I can do that, I can definitely do that, and I want to do that.’

“I took it because first and foremost it afforded the same if not more challenges than actually playing.”

But Lalas in a suit in an office? The fit seems strange, almost bizarre, to those who know him. Surely it would be more like a strait-jacket to the free-thinking Lalas, who has long been known for his outspoken honesty, hardly a quality the corporate world takes to heart.

There are signs in his office, though, that this is a different sort of MLS leader-in-the-making.

For one thing, there are all those photographs on the wall showing Lalas glad-handing every politician and businessperson from here to San Francisco. Yes, he is wearing a suit. No, he’s not wearing a tie. You can only carry things so far.

And, anyway, it was the politicos and car dealers and such who wanted the photos taken, not Lalas.

“I’m a GM who gives autographs,” Lalas says, laughing at the notion.

Then there is that guitar that leans against the wall behind his desk. Music and Lalas are inseparable. He wasn’t going to give it up. No way.

“I promised both my wife and Mr. [Philip] Anschutz that I wouldn’t,” he says.

“He asked me about it a couple of weeks ago and I told him, ‘Listen, this is an important part of my life and I know that whatever it was that enabled me to have success as an athlete, part of it I can attribute to having the music in my life, so I would be stupid to give that up now.’ ”

So the music remains, but the short work days are a thing of the past. Asked how many hours he now puts in, Lalas simply shrugs.

“Lots and lots and lots,” he says. “My wife is a saint at this point.

“You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, is what they say. It’s a wonderful gig when you play soccer. Those afternoon naps after you’ve done two hours of work in the morning are long gone.”

What Lalas now has, even a mere five months into his new career, is a completely different view of soccer’s place in the American sporting landscape.

“The realities of soccer as a game and as a business are very, very apparent to me right now,” he says. “If they weren’t before, they certainly are now. I wish all the players could go through this, because their perspective on the league that they play in and the sport that they know and love would be enhanced.”

Lalas took over the Earthquakes at a time when San Jose was in turmoil. The team had won the MLS title for the second time in three years, but Frank Yallop had left as coach to take over Canada’s national team, and Lalas’ predecessor, U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame member Johnny Moore, had retired.

Then too there was talk of Club America of Mexico buying the team, ongoing rumors of MLS relocating it, problems with playing at soccer-unsuitable Spartan Stadium on the San Jose State campus, attendance issues, all sorts of things.

“If I was going to learn, this is the greatest place to learn because I’ve dealt with absolutely everything,” Lalas says. “Whether it’s the rumors of the team moving or somebody taking over, the stadium issue, the situation with the team on the field now trying to defend the championship, a brand new coach.

“All these things I’ve just kind of plopped myself into. If you’re going to do it, then trial by fire, right?”

The Earthquakes’ new coach is Dominic Kinnear, Lalas’ friend and former teammate on the U.S. national team, so that makes things easier. Lalas has been happy to leave the on-field issues to Kinnear and concentrate on other matters.

“I’m smart enough to know that if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it,” Lalas says. “Two championships in three years. Basically the same core of players back. Stay away from the coach and let him do his job. If there’s something that Dominic needs or something the players need, I’m here.

“I’m also here to explain to them the realities of soccer that maybe they don’t understand.”

What that means is MLS finances, contracts, the salary cap, the overwhelming need to put people in the stands, and the difficulty of doing so.

“A lot of times when you’re a player, you’re so insulated and apart from what goes on, you don’t understand the individual and collective effort that goes into what these people do,” Lalas says.

“Look at the people who sell tickets. It’s not an easy gig. Every time some player complains about this or this or that, I can take them in and I can show them a sales account guy and tell them, ‘Hey, you think you’ve got a rough gig out there on the field? Come try to do what he or she is doing. That’s a rough gig, trying to sell soccer.’

“So I have a newfound respect for all the people who not only work in this front office but all over the league. That’s not to say we can’t do things better, but I do have a new perspective.”

He also likes the job immensely.

The Club America takeover rumors have not entirely disappeared, and they led to one amusing incident involving Chilean international Ivan “Bam Bam” Zamorano, who played for the Mexico City-based team.

“Zamorano gave an interview the other day where he said he was going to be the president of San Jose,” Lalas says. “Which is nice. I told him he can pry it out of my cold, dead hands.”

Yes, Lalas likes his job, but he also misses playing.

“Every once in a while I’ll go out and play with a men’s league team or something like that,” he says. “I haven’t trained with the [Earthquakes] team or anything like that. I certainly miss it and maybe I’ll miss it more when expansion happens [in 2005] and the talent pool is a little bit diluted.”

Is there a hint there? Could Lalas once again return to the field?

“You never know,” he says.