Christian Cappis fulfilled a long-awaited dream Friday night.
The midfielder stepped onto the Toyota Stadium field as an FC Dallas player for the very first time, nearly eight years after he originally joined the organization’s youth academy. It was a debut that should’ve come much, much sooner, if not for Major League Soccer’s convoluted Homegrown Territory rules. But perhaps the wait made the moment that much sweeter.
“It was nice to finally get my first game for this club, it has been a long time coming,” the 25-year-old admitted afterwards.
A Katy, Texas native, Cappis grew up playing for local youth development academy Texans SC Houston. That’s where he first met Eric Quill – the coach who’d give him his MLS debut a decade later – when he took over as the academy director and head coach.
“Eric came when I was around 14 at the time, and to have him as a coach for those years was really special,” Cappis explained. “He really helped my development a lot and just having somebody push you to be the best that you can be, looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened. I have a lot to thank him for.”
Cappis and Quill’s time with the Texans was fruitful. Together they won the U.S. Soccer Development Academy national championship in 2017, becoming the first non-MLS affiliated club to do so. A standout midfielder, Cappis was named the Central Conference Player of the Season. But afterwards, Quill knew he needed to push his top performers out of their comfort zones. Quill arranged for Cappis and future U.S. international Chris Richards to depart the Texans for the FC Dallas Academy where there was a clearer pathway to the pro level. So, on his 18th birthday, Cappis left his hometown for a new challenge in North Texas.
Cappis thrived in the FC Dallas Academy and relished the opportunity to train alongside the club’s first-team players. His performances caught the eye of Dallas’ top brass and things progressed just as Quill envisioned. After 18 months, the club approached Cappis (as well as teammate Chris Richards) with a pro contract. But, as it can often be with MLS’s rules, it wasn’t so simple.
Under the Homegrown Territory rules of the time (they were slightly changed last year), MLS clubs maintained the playing rights of all players within a 75-mile radius of their stadium, regardless of whether the player actually played in the clubs’ academy or not. As a Houston-area native, this rule tied Cappis’ MLS playing rights to the Houston Dynamo although he was never affiliated with the club in any capacity. (Chris Richards was able to sign with FC Dallas since he was from Alabama and not tied to a local MLS side.)
Cappis: “FC Dallas and I spoke to the league about how the process would work and what exactly the rules were. The league came back and basically said, ‘if you're going to sign him as a Homegrown, Dallas will need to pay Houston a transfer fee to buy his rights.’
“That was a tough period for me, because I was 18 years old and getting told by people I'd never met what I could do with my life, where I had to play, where I had the opportunity, or, in this case, where I did not have the opportunity to go. It didn't really matter my opinions or what I wanted.”
Although Cappis was a promising prospect, Dallas wasn’t ready to pay the required transfer fee to Houston to make the deal eligible. Cappis, frustrated by the situation and uninterested in playing for the Dynamo, decided to forge his own path.
“(Houston) never took the opportunity to bring me into their system and didn’t show much interest in me as a player or as a kid, really,” Cappis said. “So, to be told that I need to go to a place that never wanted me was a really difficult thing to process. But in the end, I basically said, ‘if that's your ruling, then I'll find an opportunity elsewhere.’ And going to Europe and playing in Denmark and Norway for years, I think it worked out for me in a really good way. I was able to really enjoy my time and make a decent career out of the situation.”
Even now, seven years and 150 pro games later, Cappis’ MLS rights were still tied to Houston. But Cappis isn’t just a prospect anymore. And with his former youth coach at FC Dallas’ helm, the club was quick to fork over $200,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM) to their rivals to make the signing possible at last.
“Finally we got it over the finish line and this kid can join the club he was meant to join,” said FC Dallas head coach Eric Quill. “I’ve been wanting to coach this guy again because I loved my time coaching him at the youth level for five years. He has the same mentality I do.
“He is super technical for 6-foot-1, can use both feet, can hit a diagonal at a high, high level. He sees the game and can break lines, always going vertical. He’s a warrior in the slide tackle and he’s a winner, and he trains like that because he wants to be the best. We need that in the organization and in this group.”
“It's a really nice feeling to start my development as a professional with Eric in Houston, and to go out to Europe and experience different cultures and a different type of life, and to be able to come back,” Cappis said. “For him to work his way up through the coaching ranks, and for us to time it to where we both end up in a position where we can do this now, it's fantastic. I know that he's excited for me to be here, and I'm really excited to be here to try to help the team and try to put his vision onto the field.”
