Biography
Michael Winograd has the deep soccer knowledge and experience, well-rounded skillset, and ability
to bring parties together necessary to lead US Soccer into its critical next phase of growth.
Winograd played Division I college soccer at Lafayette College and professionally in Israel. In
2005, he was a member of the silver medal U.S. Maccabiah Masters soccer team. He served as an
assistant Men’s Soccer coach at the University of Richmond, where, in addition to his coaching,
recruiting and scouting duties, he helped organize and manage the largest NCAA Division I Men’s
Soccer Final Four in NCAA history. He has coached at numerous youth soccer camps, including the
University of Virginia and Phillips Exeter Academy residential camps. In a 2013 letter to the
NSCAA Director of Coaching, former Richmond Head Coach Jeff Gettler remarked that in his 36
years of college head coaching and over 16 years of serving as a USSF and NSCAA staff coach,
Winograd was “easily” one of the top people he had worked with.” Gettler went on to describe
Winograd as “an outstanding individual with a dynamic way with people” and praised his “ability to
communicate” and “depth of knowledge.”
From 1996-97, Winograd was entrusted to co-start up a second division “A-League” franchise with
a friend and former college teammate. As Director of Youth and Team Development for the Staten
Island Vipers, Winograd, among other things, hired the head coach, drafted team policies, engaged
the Staten Island Community in a public vote on the team name, and ran a grass roots community
development program through which he organized local youth clinics and helped local youth clubs
draft curricula. Over six months after his friend left for the San Jose Earthquakes of MLS, where he
went on to become General Manager, Winograd headed to law school, leaving the team poised to
make it to the A-League Conference Quarterfinals in its inaugural season.
Since 2009, Winograd has served on the Board of his town’s soccer organization, where he has
created and implemented numerous coaching and player development initiatives, and has had the
pleasure of coaching his two children, who are currently USS DA and developmental players.
Winograd also serves on his town’s Parks and Recreation Committee where, spearheading an ad
hoc committee appointed by his town’s Council, he recently gained consensus for a joint proposal
for the development of a park and athletic field amongst a group of constituents with competing
interests who had been deadlocked for several years.
In 2008, he created, and continues to host, the annual Lafayette College Men’s Soccer Career Night,
which provides a chance for Lafayette soccer alumni to meet with current juniors and seniors in
New York City to help them network and learn about potential fields of employment after
graduation. He also remains connected to the soccer world through conversations with close friends,
several of whom are current or former front office executives, General Managers or coaches in
MLS or other professional leagues; owners, presidents, athletic directors, technical directors or
coaches within the NCAA or youth soccer landscape; or sports lawyers or executives at businesses
involved in soccer.
Winograd graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2000 and
since then has been a practicing attorney in New York City at some of the nation’s finest corporate
law firms. He has practiced law at Ropes & Gray LLP for the past six years and, since 2003, has
been an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University Law School. As a lawyer, Winograd
successfully has devised and implemented case strategies, managed teams, drafted briefs, argued
before state and federal judges, and negotiated settlements. He has represented some of the largest
banks and companies, domestic and foreign, in high stakes cases and negotiations. In 2008, he,
along with former colleagues, helped create the Legal Mentoring Program for the Harlem Education
Advancement Fund (HEAF), which recently awarded Winograd and his colleagues its long-term
volunteer service award.
“Mike is an outstanding individual,” remarks Jane Willis, who chairs Ropes & Gray’s global
litigation practice. “His leadership skills and ability to get things done in a smart, efficient and
strategic manner make him a true asset.”
As President of US Soccer, Winograd will begin by focusing on three key strategic initiatives:
- Forming and utilizing inclusive, merit-based and transparent advisory committees for critical decisions
- Ensuring equal treatment for women’s soccer
- Taking down cost barriers in youth soccer and coaching education
Winograd lives in Ridgewood, NJ with his wife, Siobhan, and children, Liam and Chloe.
