Sunil Gulati: The Indian in American soccer
Sunil Gulati with Juergen Klinsmann
Sunil Gulati is a stranger to Indian soccer. Born in Allahabad, India, Gulati’s family migrated to the US when he was just 5, and since then has lived the American Dream. He played the game as a kid, and has even worked as an assistant coach for one of the elite youth level Connecticut clubs when he was just 21. Later he went on to become the administrator of the program when he was just 22.
Having climbed the pyramid of American soccer, Gulati has served at different levels of the administration over the years. He has been a part of the successful 1994 US World Cup bid that broke records in ticket collection and changed the way the sport was played and viewed in the country. Instrumental in making Major League Soccer (MLS) a backbone of American soccer, Sunil Gulati has been the driver of the system for the last few decades.
Having stepped down from his duties with the MLS, he moved on to greater administrative roles that saw him working closely with both the quintessential bodies of the sport in the country.The league and the federation grew to capture a generation of American consciousness earlier captured by football and basketball.Soccer became a recognized sport in the country that grew in popularity with the advent of the TV revolution in the 90’s. A shoe string budget body grew in number to become not only financially stable, but stable in its functioning and strategy during the last two decades.
His growth to the summit of the apex body in the country, United States Soccer Federation (USSF), has been a steady one having served as its Executive Vice President before taking charge at its helm since 2006. United States today is the 13th ranked team in the world according to the latest FIFA rankings, and though Sunil Gulati never played the sport for the country, he is seen as someone who has been a part and parcel of the system that gave a backbone to the sport in the US.
A Columbia University Economics professor, Gulati’s Sports Economics classes are one of the most popular in the campus with students camping the night out to attend his lectures. A full time economics professor in Columbia, he juggles his life around soccer with ease. Having joined the World Bank’s Young Professional program straight out of college, he has served as country economist for Moldova.
In 1996, Gulati was the Deputy Commissioner of MLS during the league’s early days , and was a part of the administrative team that undertook major steps to bring soccer into prime time television in the US. Under Gulati, soccer in the country took prime centre stage through the league’s growing popularity. Having become the President of the USSF since 2006, Gulati was unanimously re-elected in 2010 and 2014. According to the US media , the league and US soccer is in far better shape than it was in the late 80′s.
The league and the federation go hand in hand unlike in many other soccer playing countries and the working relationship between the two has been extraordinary over the years. The financial stability it has gained through this leap has helped the sport in the country immensely and it is run very strategically and professionally by Gulati and his team. As someone who clearly knows the game inside out, American soccer is in good hands as long as he is at the helm of affairs.