Alejandro Bedoya has no idea.
Don’t talk to him about the next five years; he doesn’t want to discuss them. Will his contract get extended with the Union next season? He says he has no clue.
In fact, as he arrived for an interview to discuss his career and where it’s going from here, he joked that he didn’t even know where he was supposed to go after this meeting for a scheduled team-bonding activity — one that apparently involved barbecue.
Bedoya is an enigma. Right now, he might be one of the few people whose off-the-field portfolio, at first glance, shows many avenues. But on this day, as captain of the No. 1 team in MLS’s Eastern Conference … no plans.
Well, except for one: Get back to the MLS Cup final. That’s it.
“Five years from now? I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you,” Bedoya said as he leaned back in his cushioned chair inside the Union’s film room. “What I can tell you? This team is special, and we’ve been special since preseason. We knew this team was special that long ago. I want to be a part of the team that brings an MLS Cup to this club and home to Philly.
“So, to be honest, I’m not thinking about [anything past that]. I made it a point this season, especially now that we’ve been so successful, to be focused on the team. I don’t want to think too far down the line and cause any disruptions to talk about this or that or what may happen or might not.”
It’s been an interesting 10-year run in Philly for Bedoya. He’s been the team’s leader since arriving from FC Nantes of the French first division in 2016. He’s been a vocal ambassador for ending gun violence. He’s been a staunch advocate for growing the youth game from a grassroots level.
However, this season, he’s mainly been the utilityman that first-year manager Bradley Carnell needs.
Things get real now for the Union. Coming off a high two weeks earlier after the club captured its second Supporters’ Shield, given to the team that finishes with the best regular-season record, Bedoya now leads the Union into the playoffs with every opponent looking to beat the best.
First up is Chicago in Game 1 of a best-of-three series on Sunday (5:55 p.m., FS1, Apple TV+).
“He’s our leader. He’s one of the guys who holds us together,” Carnell said earlier this season of Bedoya. “That’s why he’s here. He’s committed to doing what he has to for the club. And from a leadership standpoint, there’s no one better. He’s great with the young guys, he’s great with the guys [who] have been here, and he knows what it takes to get to where we’re trying to go.”
Taste for more
It was 2022, and the rays of a sunny Los Angeles afternoon beamed onto Banc of California Stadium (now known as BMO Stadium), the site of the MLS Cup final. Led by then-manager Jim Curtin, Bedoya, clad in the Union’s unmistakable lightning bolt kit, took the field for warmups. He didn’t start that day, but his impact to that point was immeasurable.
That season, at age 36, he’d played in 30 regular-season games for the club and started 27 of them. He played nearly 2,500 minutes and scored six goals along with six assists, highlighted by two goals against D.C. United on July 8, which made him just the third player in club history to join the 20-20 club.
The fruits of his labor culminated in an Eastern Conference title and a trip to MLS’s final. But as team captain, his leadership guided the Union to its first MLS Cup appearance — and arguably one of the greatest MLS Cup finals ever.
So what’s changed in his roles and responsibilities from that moment with that coach to this moment with this coach?
“To be honest? Not much,” Bedoya said. “I’m still one of the captains, whether it’s me, [goalkeeper Andre] Blake or [defender] Jakob [Glesnes]. I, more so maybe than others, act as like that intermediary between the coaching staff, the technical staff, and the locker room. … I’ve been more of a glue guy, if you will. And this year, more than ever.”
The glue-guy approach has been the case on the field too. Each year, Bedoya’s minutes have dwindled from everyday starter to strategic, none more than this season, when he was used in situations to which he’s unaccustomed, like in the Union’s 7-0 loss to Vancouver on Sept. 13, when he started at right back following the suspension of defender Olwethu Makhanya.
In that match, the decision — and result — spoke for itself. Bedoya even acknowledged as much. But in the same breath, he noted that ebbs and flows happen in a club-first mindset.
“We had to rotate a little bit, obviously,” Bedoya said. “Maybe I’m not the best right back. So I took that on the chin there, but we’re all about the collective here … and you have to be an unselfish guy. I think in Bradley [Carnell’s] system this year, I’ve been playing more even on the left side of midfield, which typically I haven’t played in years past. But as I said before, man, whatever it takes, I’m ready to step up and help the team out in any way.”
A plan for now
Despite a refusal to look into crystal balls right now, Bedoya’s future does have a number of paths. He has a certification from Harvard Business School and has become an entrepreneur and investor across several ventures.
He has diversified, but not necessarily in a way where all roads leads back to soccer. Instead, it’s in a way that when he’s not on the field, he can spend more time doing things with his family, namely his children, Santino, age 10, and Milena, 8.
Bedoya says the two, along with his wife, Bea Hilland, are his biggest supporters. He said he loves doing dad things, like taking them to soccer, dance, and doing school pickups when he’s not on the road.
But in true dad fashion, sometimes he wants to just sit on the couch and watch football. He says they’re cool with that, too.
“My wife will be the first one to tell you that she plays a major role in the house, with the kids, especially as much as we travel to games,” he said. “And as an old guy myself, you feel more pain, you get more sore the day after games. And you know those Sundays when maybe we have the days off, the younger guys can come in and do even more work, but I just want to sit on a Sunday and watch [NFL] RedZone all day, you know?
“I make it a routine to make sure every time I’m home, I do a drop off at school and pick up at school. I make sure that even when I do want to be lazy or try to recover on the sofa, that I got both of them next to me on my side … I get emotional sometimes thinking about after we won a Supporters’ Shield, like how happy they were. They’re FaceTiming friends saying, ‘We won the Shield,’ not just ‘Dad won the Shield.’ What I do matters to them, and to me, that’s everything.”
So how does he juggle a portfolio that doesn’t seem to stop?
“It’s finding the right balance with them,” Bedoya said. “My kids are at the age where they’re playing sports now. They’re in soccer. They’re in dance; they’re in baseball. I like being part of those special moments. I think part of the beauty of being a father and still being a player is being able to share these moments with them.”
“Let’s go finish this thing”
Over the course of his 15-minute interview, the only times Bedoya wasn’t stoic was when he discussed his family and what’s next for the Union. The latter only has a handful of more games before it could be bringing home MLS’s biggest prize.
And after 10 seasons in the same league with the same team on the same mission, Bedoya knows he’s not getting any younger. There are no more long-term contracts. His playing career has become a year-over-year proposition with a goal that has been the same since Day 1.
Bring an MLS Cup back to the Chester waterfront.
This is the year he truly feels offers the best chance to do that. Whatever happens after that, Bedoya has already affirmed is wait-and-see.
“I can tell you from that first week [of preseason training] in Marbella [Spain], I could sense that there was something brewing,” Bedoya said. “We already had a basic kind of philosophy, philosophical model of how we want to play, but Bradley and the staff came in and amped that up to another level, to another notch.
“As far as my place? Like I said, I’m maybe not a starter anymore, but I’ve shown even this year that even when I do start, I can still impact the game in a positive way.”
He paused and added:
“This team is special, I think our record and our run to this point reflects that. The standard in training and in games is high, every day. We’re the team to beat and now it’s about going out there and being dominant. Let’s go finish this thing.”
