Chris Klein’s decade-long run as the LA Galaxy’s president is over.
Klein, who has been the target of fan protests throughout the 2023 season, was let go Tuesday with the club languishing at the very bottom of the MLS standings.
“The LA Galaxy have parted ways with president Chris Klein, it was announced today by Dan Beckerman, president and CEO of AEG,” read an official team statement posted to social media. “LA Galaxy head coach and sporting director Greg Vanney will continue to lead all soccer operations while reporting directly to Beckerman.”
“As a club we have not achieved our goals or met the standard that we have established for the LA Galaxy,” said Beckerman in the team statement. “We believe it is in the best interest of the club to make a change.”
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) May 30, 2023
2023 has been a miserable season for the Galaxy, historically one of MLS’s powers. Supporters groups promised to refuse to show up as long as Klein remained in his position, while an anti-Klein banner was flown by plane over the stadium during a 3-2 loss to Los Angeles FC.
Their crosstown rivals LAFC, who on Wednesday will play the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League final against Liga MX’s Club Léon, have added to the misery by taking over as the biggest club both in the city and the league, a position the Galaxy long saw as their own.
The Galaxy are in 29th place in MLS, taking just nine points from 14 games. Despite big names like Javier “Chicharito” Hernández and one of the league’s best playmakers in Riqui Puig, they’ve only scored a joint-worst 10 goals on the season. That includes three straight shutout losses in league play, with the only bright spot coming in a 2-0 U.S. Open Cup win over what was effectively LAFC’s MLS Next Pro side.
Klein’s early years as team president, after success with the club as a player, were marked by success. A year after he got the job, the Galaxy won the 2014 MLS Cup amid the glory days of Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane terrorizing defenses around the league.
However, that is the club’s last trophy, and last year’s playoff appearance (which ended at the hands of LAFC) was just the second in six years despite signings like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Giovani Dos Santos. In the meantime, the team has been banned from making transfers outside the United States and Canada in this summer’s transfer window after MLS found that the Galaxy violated salary budget and roster guidelines relating to Cristian Pavón’s contract in 2019.
MLS specifically named Klein in announcing those sanctions, suspending him from all sporting-side decision-making through the 2023 primary transfer window, which only closed late last month.
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