Julian de Guzman understands that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
The 45-year-old Red Bull New York executive has overseen two transfer windows since he succeeded Jochen Schneider as the club’s Head of Sport in October 2025.
On Wednesday afternoon, de Guzman sat across from South Ward Central at RWJBarnabas Health Red Bulls Performance Center in Morris Township, New Jersey, and made it clear that this will not be an overnight rebuild. It will be a thorough, multiyear process.
De Guzman explained that it will take a total of four to five transfer windows for Red Bull New York to fully transform into the team that he desires.
“These are all decisions that we’re making based on the present but also for the future,” de Guzman told South Ward Central. “This rebuild of this roster that we’ve gone through from the last window to this window, it keeps going.
“I’ve always said it’s going to take us four-to-five windows to really hammer down and work on, to make sure that this all makes sense based on how we want to play with our wingers, how we want to play with our box-to-box eights, and how we also want to be young — but not just young and let’s go for it and have fun. No, young and compete, and we need to compete and perform.
“So those are the two pieces that we continue to push in each window and make sure we improve this roster from a competitive side, but also we want to continue to improve the roster where it allows us to have almost like this perfect picture where one day you look at it and now you have competition.”
De Guzman Draws on His Deportivo A Coruña Experiences To Guide Red Bull New York’s Rebuild
The former Canada men’s national team captain takes inspiration from the fiercely competitive Deportivo A Coruña teams he played in between 2005 and 2009 for a model of how he intends to build Red Bull New York.
Deportivo reached two Copa del Rey semifinals and finished 8th, 13th, 9th and 7th in Spain’s La Liga during his four seasons at Estadio Riazor.
De Guzman envisions a Red Bull New York squad where no place is guaranteed and there are constant battles at each position.
“You have four wingers that are competing for two spots,” he said. “You have now six midfielders that are competing for three spots. You have three strikers competing. You want to have that all around the pitch because that’s how I remembered it as a player when I had to compete with Leo Scaloni, Aldo Duscher and Sergio [González] at Deportivo La Coruña when we were competing for two spots. Every day was a war.
“We want to compete that on our field, where these guys are competing every day and nothing’s guaranteed to anybody.
“When you have that environment on a day-to-day basis and you’re a coach running it like Michael Bradley does, and he’s done an incredible job leading that for now, but when you have finally these bodies that you’re dealing with, every day they’re fighting for right-back, left-back, center-back — that’s the only way you get the best of the best from each player.”
De Guzman pointed to forward-turned-attacking central midfielder Mohammed Sofo as an example of the kind of desperation he wants at every position on the pitch.
Mohammed Sofo Embodies the Hunger That De Guzman Desires
After the Red Bulls defeated the Columbus Crew 1-0 last Saturday, a physically drained Sofo had to be held up by four members of staff after emptying his tank.
“If you could see the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and how much he’s run, how much ground he’s covered, the duels, the plays going forward, the plays going backwards, look at that and you’re like, wow, okay, that’s interesting,” de Guzman explained.
“You see it again against Columbus. After the game, if you were to watch him in the locker room, you had four guys holding him from our staff because his entire body was going through cramps, right? He said to himself, I have to compete for this spot. I’m giving my life to make sure I hold on to this spot.”
If Red Bull New York can succeed in discovering and acquiring a collective of young, hungry and talented players who are as desperate to represent the club as Sofo, de Guzman believes the currently 10th-place Red Bulls can climb to greater heights.
“We want that across the field, everywhere,” de Guzman stated. “So the more and more we identify these guys that are young and hungry and want to hold on to a spot and they know nothing is guaranteed for them, believe me, we’re talking more than just fighting for playoffs at that point — and that’s how we want to continue to build our roster for each window.”
Check back on Thursday for more of our conversation with de Guzman.
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