You have to pass by the classrooms of the Academy, through the players’ cafeteria, their gymnasium and the century-old corridors of the former Letourneux barracks to reach the office of Olivier Renard and Vassili Cremanzidis, at the Nutrilait Center of CF Montreal.
The two offices are at an angle in an open room, that of the sports director being a little more imposing than that of his deputy. The latter is decorated with objects bearing the effigy of the Impact and the CFM, as well as small reproductions of Orthodox icons. This is where the club’s sporting decisions are made.
And it is right next door, in a conference room surrounded on the left and right by the ancestral stairs of the old barracks, that our interview with Cremanzidis takes place.
It takes place at 10 a.m. on this morning in mid-November. “I have already spoken twice [to Olivier Renard] this morning,” his assistant reveals to us with a laugh.
“We’re in contact all the time,” he explains. When we’re not [in the office] together, our phone is always available. We talk several times a day. »
Olivier Renard confirms this. “We don’t have hours, Vassili and I,” the sports director on the phone said two weeks later. We can call each other very, very late in the day or at night. »
It was not for nothing that Renard offered Cremanzidis a promotion, seven months after the sports director took up his position in June 2019. In January 2020, at the age of 30, the Montrealer became assistant to the sports director of the CFM.
“Vassili, I know he enjoys working with me because I let him do a lot of things,” explains Renard. I am responsible for what he will do, but I trust him. »
Those who “don’t count the hours” are the ones who deserve to climb the ladder, according to the Belgian. “He’s a competent person,” he said. […] Me, in my organization, I try to highlight the people who deserve it. »
Especially since by his own admission, upon his arrival in Montreal, Olivier Renard had to “learn the rules of competition here”. That was good: it was Vassili’s specialty.
“It was an obligation on my part to have a person next to me who was used to working with the rules, so I got to know Vassili like that. »
A concrete example of the major impact Cremanzidis had at the start of Olivier Renard’s reign? It was he who smelled the good deal about Romell Quioto, who would become in four seasons one of the best scorers in the history of the club.
“I asked Vassili to make me a list of players he found interesting, who were not protected or who were not going to be. That’s how we got to Quioto. »
On this subject, Cremanzidis does not want to take too much credit. Yes, he made his boss aware of the opportunity presented by the Houston Dynamo player at the time, but they “made the decision together.”
GAM, TAM, U22 initiative and designated players: today, Renard is up to date with the intricacies of MLS.
How do they divide the tasks, then? Fox takes care of the athlete. His deputy, from “extra-sporting”.
“I’m the one who has the connections with the other teams in the league,” explains Cremanzidis. I’m the one who does the negotiations. But together, we make the offer.
“Olivier likes to say that technically he is the first scout. So he watches a lot, a lot of matches, players. I do a little of that, but it’s not my first mandate. »
He doesn’t have time.
“Vassili spends a lot of time in endless Zoom meetings [with the league about the rules], explains Renard. I watch with the scouting team, I am more responsible for the players. But I talk about it with him every time. »
“I never make a decision without talking to him,” emphasizes Olivier Renard.
It’s Vassili who explains to him whether it’s better to use general allocation money (GAM) or targeted allocation money (TAM), “move this player into the U22 initiative category, or then free up that place,” he illustrates.
“I say: look, this player from this MLS team or outside, he interests me, this will be more or less the salary, how do we get him into the payroll? »
And that’s the part of the job that Cremanzidis likes the most: “roster build.”
“I like to say that I know the MLS rules very well, and it’s nice to be able to apply it in my job. »
We know that CF Montreal operates with one of the smallest payrolls in the MLS, a directive that comes from the top of the organization. Which makes the presence of Vassili Cremanzidis on the board essential.
Far from complaining about it, he sees it as a “challenge”.
“That’s our philosophy. We have the young people, we buy, we sell, we try to put a competitive team on the field, with the budget and the means that we have. We’re really stuck on this. »
He concedes that he can’t necessarily bring in players for millions, and that those he can acquire “aren’t as ready.”
“But that doesn’t mean they can’t become those players. So we have to take them in this state, and we develop them. »
He is well aware that it doesn’t work all the time. For a Djordje Mihailovic, there are also Björn Johnsen, Mason Toye and Ahmed Hamdi. A list of our own, by the way.
“But it’s easier to be comfortable with a player you missed at $200,000, $300,000 than a player you missed at two, three million. »
