GARY DICKER IS explaining some of the difficulties he and his family had when they moved to America in November 2024.
The Dubliner may have been a professional footballer in England and Scotland for 15 years, and spent a couple more after retirement on the coaching staff at Premier League club Brighton, but that meant nothing when he was appointed head coach of Crown Glory, the reserve team of Major League Soccer’s Charlotte FC.
“It’s as if you don’t exist unless you have lived in America,” he says.
Dicker and his wife did not qualify for a credit card. “We had no credit history as far as they were concerned. I was putting 500 dollars on a self-pay credit card and building our credit that way.”
When they looked at places to live, landlords wanted certain assurances. “We hadn’t got any bills to show them. One of them wanted six months rent up front but I was like ‘we have paid a mortgage for the last 20 years if that helps?’”
It didn’t.
Even trying to get insurance for a car was prohibitive, once he managed to pass his driving for a US licence. “We were quoted something like $3,500 for six months.”
Still, the 39-year-old knows he’s had it easy compared to others in Donald Trump’s America over the last 12 months.
Dicker and his family arrived 10 days after Trump won the 2024 Presidential election. They eventually found the ideal elementary and middle schools for their daughters after Charlotte captain Ashley Westwood pointed them in the right direction for where to live.
“We’re lucky. We live in a nice area, and the schools go off your postcode unless you’re paying for private. We’ve got a community pool, community tennis courts, basketball. My girls are really happy.”
They were not some of the 30,000 kids – 20% of the total school district – who felt compelled to stay home and avoid classes due to the deployment of Immigration Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers in November.
While no raids were carried out in schools, The Washington Post reported how parents had been arrested close to campuses in at least 10 States.
“At many schools, children were either missing or rattled. One wore a tag that read “I’m a U.S. citizen”; another carried an American passport to elementary school. Two kindergartners showed up to class with whistles around their necks to blow if they saw immigration agents,” one report in the paper detailed.
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Charlotte is a city where roughly 18% of the population is Hispanic, and MLS also estimates that 30% of the league’s supporters are Hispanic.
The actions of ICE also made international headlines earlier this year when Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot dead while overseeing ICE activities in Minnesota. This followed the shooting dead of another 37-year-old in Minneapolis, when federal agents killed intensive care nurse Alex Pretti last month.
“I think everyone back home sees the news and it’s only normal, they think it’s crazy,” Dicker says.
“I’ve not felt unsafe, if you know what I mean, or checking your shoulder walking around or stuff like that. But some people are worried. You’ll see protests and stuff at traffic lights.”
More people close to home have also become aware of what’s happening after it emerged that Kilkenny native Seamus Culleton, who is married to a US citizen and possessed a valid working visa, was detained by ICE officers after being arrested near his home in Massachusetts.
It subsequently emerged that he had entered the country in 2009 on the Visa Waiver Programme but remained there after the permitted 90 days.
“I think everywhere in the world, I don’t think the world’s ever been more apart than it’s ever been in every country,” Dicker says.
“I think you can say, sadly, when you’re in your own bubble, with your own stuff going on in your house and with your family, it can feel like a lot. It’s just sad to see so much of it everywhere. Everyone is getting a little bit frustrated and angry. The stuff happening in Ukraine, Palestine, where does it end?
The football and sense of opportunity in America was still enough for Dicker to leave England, and the “comfort” of a club like Brighton where he was highly regarded as their U-18 head coach before becoming U-21 assistant.
A year in charge of Crown Legacy led to his promotion to Dean Smith’s staff when Christian Fuchs – a Premier League winner in that historic Leicester City squad 10 years ago – took the Newport County job.
Dicker already saw one of his close friends from Brighton – Iñigo Calderón – follow a familiar path in England at the same he opted to head Stateside.
“You’re looking for security and when you get it, then you don’t want it anymore, I was that way as a player,” Dicker says. “I wanted to try something different and feel something different.”
He got another taste of how just how much they do things differently during pre-season, when Charlotte were one of 12 MLS teams to head to California for the Coachella Valley Invitational tournament at the Empire Polo Club.
The same venue hosts America’s answer to Glastonbury each year. “There was no mud pitches, that’s for sure,” Dicker says.
There will be a sense of familiarity in the coach’s office, though. While he never worked with Smith in England the pair have developed a strong relationship. Smith met his wife at the Irish centre in Birmingham and her parents hail from Mayo and Wexford.
“I think he’s been back to Ireland more than me.”
More than just that, Dicker says Smith has given him the licence to have a proper impact on training, witnessing up close the positive effect his man-management has on players and staff.
“He’s got really good people skills. He’s got lots of patience. Just knowing when not to react to something or when to let stuff go and how much you need the players. You give some an inch and they will take a fucking mile but he’s no pushover, he’s just very in control of his emotions and dealing with the different pressures.”
Charlotte finished fourth in the regular season of the Eastern Conference – just behind Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami who eventually lifted the title – but lost in the first round of the play-off series.
Wilfried Zaha is the club’s highest paid designated player on just shy of $3 million per year, Liel Abada was signed from Celtic on a salary of $2.6m, while USA captain Tim Ream was tempted back from Fulham on a salary of $1.1m, as per the published records for the league.
Last season, Charlotte’s average of 28,975 at each home game placed them third in the attendance table behind Seattle Sounders (30,993) and Atlanta United (41,435).
Charlotte share the 75,000-capacity Bank of America Stadium with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. Billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper owns both and he secured Charlotte’s place in MLS since 2022. While it wasn’t in time for the city to be one of the host venues for this summer’s World Cup, Scotland will use the club’s training base as their hub before playing Haiti, Morocco and Brazil. Steve Clarke, Dicker’s old Kilmarnock boss, leads the Tartan Army and he hopes to make it down to Miami for that Brazil clash.
The prospect of Ireland joining them is another tantalising prospect. “We already seen what those games [against Portugal and Hungary] to qualify for the play-off did for the country. If Ireland were to get here it could be something special for so many people.”
Before that, Dicker takes The 42 on an impromptu video tour of the training complex, swinging the phone around to show the large dinning room, patio and barbeque area that looks out towards the training pitches.
Charlotte took a two-hour charter flight to St Louis for their opening MLS game tonight and will be back in the air next week – and a change of time zone – for a trip to LA Galaxy.
“There are good players in every league, there are average players in every league and there are players in every league that people will always say ‘how is he playing at that level?’ But there’s different things you look for over here,” Dicker says.
“I think it is a lot more attacking and it gives teams a chance to go out and have a go at each other more, teams go out and have a crack. This is why I’m here, to learn and be successful.”
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The Irish coach in America - 'Everyone back home sees the news and they think it's crazy'
GARY DICKER IS explaining some of the difficulties he and his family had when they moved to America in November 2024.
The Dubliner may have been a professional footballer in England and Scotland for 15 years, and spent a couple more after retirement on the coaching staff at Premier League club Brighton, but that meant nothing when he was appointed head coach of Crown Glory, the reserve team of Major League Soccer’s Charlotte FC.
“It’s as if you don’t exist unless you have lived in America,” he says.
Dicker and his wife did not qualify for a credit card. “We had no credit history as far as they were concerned. I was putting 500 dollars on a self-pay credit card and building our credit that way.”
When they looked at places to live, landlords wanted certain assurances. “We hadn’t got any bills to show them. One of them wanted six months rent up front but I was like ‘we have paid a mortgage for the last 20 years if that helps?’”
It didn’t.
Even trying to get insurance for a car was prohibitive, once he managed to pass his driving for a US licence. “We were quoted something like $3,500 for six months.”
Still, the 39-year-old knows he’s had it easy compared to others in Donald Trump’s America over the last 12 months.
Dicker and his family arrived 10 days after Trump won the 2024 Presidential election. They eventually found the ideal elementary and middle schools for their daughters after Charlotte captain Ashley Westwood pointed them in the right direction for where to live.
“We’re lucky. We live in a nice area, and the schools go off your postcode unless you’re paying for private. We’ve got a community pool, community tennis courts, basketball. My girls are really happy.”
They were not some of the 30,000 kids – 20% of the total school district – who felt compelled to stay home and avoid classes due to the deployment of Immigration Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers in November.
While no raids were carried out in schools, The Washington Post reported how parents had been arrested close to campuses in at least 10 States.
“At many schools, children were either missing or rattled. One wore a tag that read “I’m a U.S. citizen”; another carried an American passport to elementary school. Two kindergartners showed up to class with whistles around their necks to blow if they saw immigration agents,” one report in the paper detailed.
Charlotte is a city where roughly 18% of the population is Hispanic, and MLS also estimates that 30% of the league’s supporters are Hispanic.
The actions of ICE also made international headlines earlier this year when Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot dead while overseeing ICE activities in Minnesota. This followed the shooting dead of another 37-year-old in Minneapolis, when federal agents killed intensive care nurse Alex Pretti last month.
“I think everyone back home sees the news and it’s only normal, they think it’s crazy,” Dicker says.
“I’ve not felt unsafe, if you know what I mean, or checking your shoulder walking around or stuff like that. But some people are worried. You’ll see protests and stuff at traffic lights.”
More people close to home have also become aware of what’s happening after it emerged that Kilkenny native Seamus Culleton, who is married to a US citizen and possessed a valid working visa, was detained by ICE officers after being arrested near his home in Massachusetts.
It subsequently emerged that he had entered the country in 2009 on the Visa Waiver Programme but remained there after the permitted 90 days.
“I think everywhere in the world, I don’t think the world’s ever been more apart than it’s ever been in every country,” Dicker says.
“I think you can say, sadly, when you’re in your own bubble, with your own stuff going on in your house and with your family, it can feel like a lot. It’s just sad to see so much of it everywhere. Everyone is getting a little bit frustrated and angry. The stuff happening in Ukraine, Palestine, where does it end?
The football and sense of opportunity in America was still enough for Dicker to leave England, and the “comfort” of a club like Brighton where he was highly regarded as their U-18 head coach before becoming U-21 assistant.
A year in charge of Crown Legacy led to his promotion to Dean Smith’s staff when Christian Fuchs – a Premier League winner in that historic Leicester City squad 10 years ago – took the Newport County job.
Dicker already saw one of his close friends from Brighton – Iñigo Calderón – follow a familiar path in England at the same he opted to head Stateside.
“You’re looking for security and when you get it, then you don’t want it anymore, I was that way as a player,” Dicker says. “I wanted to try something different and feel something different.”
He got another taste of how just how much they do things differently during pre-season, when Charlotte were one of 12 MLS teams to head to California for the Coachella Valley Invitational tournament at the Empire Polo Club.
The same venue hosts America’s answer to Glastonbury each year. “There was no mud pitches, that’s for sure,” Dicker says.
There will be a sense of familiarity in the coach’s office, though. While he never worked with Smith in England the pair have developed a strong relationship. Smith met his wife at the Irish centre in Birmingham and her parents hail from Mayo and Wexford.
“I think he’s been back to Ireland more than me.”
More than just that, Dicker says Smith has given him the licence to have a proper impact on training, witnessing up close the positive effect his man-management has on players and staff.
“He’s got really good people skills. He’s got lots of patience. Just knowing when not to react to something or when to let stuff go and how much you need the players. You give some an inch and they will take a fucking mile but he’s no pushover, he’s just very in control of his emotions and dealing with the different pressures.”
Charlotte finished fourth in the regular season of the Eastern Conference – just behind Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami who eventually lifted the title – but lost in the first round of the play-off series.
Wilfried Zaha is the club’s highest paid designated player on just shy of $3 million per year, Liel Abada was signed from Celtic on a salary of $2.6m, while USA captain Tim Ream was tempted back from Fulham on a salary of $1.1m, as per the published records for the league.
Last season, Charlotte’s average of 28,975 at each home game placed them third in the attendance table behind Seattle Sounders (30,993) and Atlanta United (41,435).
Charlotte share the 75,000-capacity Bank of America Stadium with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. Billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper owns both and he secured Charlotte’s place in MLS since 2022. While it wasn’t in time for the city to be one of the host venues for this summer’s World Cup, Scotland will use the club’s training base as their hub before playing Haiti, Morocco and Brazil. Steve Clarke, Dicker’s old Kilmarnock boss, leads the Tartan Army and he hopes to make it down to Miami for that Brazil clash.
The prospect of Ireland joining them is another tantalising prospect. “We already seen what those games [against Portugal and Hungary] to qualify for the play-off did for the country. If Ireland were to get here it could be something special for so many people.”
Before that, Dicker takes The 42 on an impromptu video tour of the training complex, swinging the phone around to show the large dinning room, patio and barbeque area that looks out towards the training pitches.
Charlotte took a two-hour charter flight to St Louis for their opening MLS game tonight and will be back in the air next week – and a change of time zone – for a trip to LA Galaxy.
“There are good players in every league, there are average players in every league and there are players in every league that people will always say ‘how is he playing at that level?’ But there’s different things you look for over here,” Dicker says.
“I think it is a lot more attacking and it gives teams a chance to go out and have a go at each other more, teams go out and have a crack. This is why I’m here, to learn and be successful.”
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Gary Dicker lay of the land MLS Soccer