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Charlotte FC appear to have a new coach! Live show tonight 9pm lets discuss

cltfcfantv

By cltfcfantv,
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KatsAzz

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Charlotte FC has a new coach and they’re calling it a perfect match. Here’s why BY ALEX ANDREJEV
Miguel Ángel Ramírez joins Charlotte FC as the team’s first head coach. He spent most of his career coaching academy teams internationally and most recently was with top-tier Brazilian club Internacional.
Miguel Ángel Ramírez joins Charlotte FC as the team’s first head coach. He spent most of his career coaching academy teams internationally and most recently was with top-tier Brazilian club Internacional.
 
Charlotte FC has hired Miguel Ángel Ramírez as the expansion club’s first head coach.
Although the name of the 36-year-old Spanish manager doesn’t carry the same clout in the States as, for example, Bruce Arena or Peter Vermes — who combined have more than 20 years of Major League Soccer coaching experience — team leadership is convinced fans will relish the type of soccer Ramírez brings to the city.
 
“He has his recognizable style,” Charlotte FC sporting director Zoran Krneta told The Observer. “He has a possession-based (approach). It’s very attacking. It’s very entertaining, very dynamic.”
“I think the bottom line: Our fans would love it. Absolutely love it,” he said.
 
Ramírez joins Charlotte after a short stint coaching top-tier Brazilian club Internacional. He was let go in June after three months on the job with the team producing middling results in a cutthroat league, and Charlotte FC, deep in its coaching search, jumped at the opportunity to reconnect.
 
Krneta said that Ramírez was on the club’s radar for almost two years — since the team was first announced in December 2019. At the time, Ramírez was coming off an impressive season in Ecuador coaching Independiente del Valle to its first Copa Sudamericana championship. He had garnered interest from prominent clubs in South America, such as Flamengo and Palmeiras, according to Spanish news outlet Diario AS. Krneta also mentioned São Paulo FC.
 
“We didn’t think it would be possible for us, a startup essentially, to get a coach so highly (regarded) in the rest of the world,” he said. “Practically the entire Brazilian soccer elite wanted him.”
Krneta added that European clubs were tracking Ramírez.
 
“We actually battled some pretty interesting names,” he said, declining to elaborate.
Charlotte FC’s technical staff found crossover with Ramírez’s background coaching academy teams. The club has been vocal about its goal to develop young talent in the Carolinas, with much of its early hiring focusing on supporting its U17 and U14 academy teams. Charlotte FC president Nick Kelly also recently said that the club will aim to launch a lower-division side as part of the new MLS pro league by 2023.
 
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Kelly said that he considered Ramírez’s experience developing young players a selling point. Ramírez spent a majority of his career coaching Las Palmas’ youth teams in the Canary Islands, his home, and teams at Aspire Academy in Qatar. He also worked for multiple clubs in Greece in 2011 coaching the youth side.
 
“We want to develop talent, and we also want to play an exciting style of soccer,” Kelly said. “And his whole possession, attacking (style), that’s fun to watch, so I think that we need to bring that type of exciting soccer to the market.”
 
Ramírez met virtually with team owner David Tepper, as well as Tepper Sports & Entertainment president Tom Glick, and other technical staff last week, and leadership felt like their visions for the club matched.
 
“The moment he finished that meeting, it was clear to all of us that this is our guy, but also we are his club,” Krneta said.
 
Tepper said in a statement that after reviewing many candidates, it was obvious that Ramírez was the right person for the job.
 
“He is a process-oriented coach with a unique style of play and a proven ability to develop young talent,” Tepper said in a statement. “Those attributes set him apart from others. He will bring a winning culture to Charlotte FC and I can’t wait for him to get started and for this club to take the pitch in 2022.”
 
Once Ramírez receives his work visa, he will officially begin the role in August. The next step will be filling other coaching positions that Ramírez will have a hand in. The head coach will bring in some of “his own trusted lieutenants,” according to Krneta, although it is unclear which clubs those individuals will come from based on Ramírez’s extensive list of previous stops. Charlotte FC is expected to announce additional staff in the coming days and weeks.
 
Will any players join the team’s current six-man roster in tandem with Ramírez? That’s a separate conversation.
 
“This is not the club where we have a manager who brings a group of players,” Krneta said. “... Everything is process-based, so I’m sure Miguel has a player he likes. He’ll flag those players to us. Those players will go into a process, and then if we think they’re very good, it will be up to Miguel who he chooses out of, let’s say, five players for a certain position.”
 
It seems there will be much collaboration among the technical staff and new coach, especially as he navigates MLS in his first year. Krneta said he feels Ramírez can bring a deep knowledge of Latin American and some European markets to mix with the staff’s current global reach through Krneta, special adviser Steve Walsh and scouting director Thomas Schaling. Major League Soccer ties come through the team’s director of player personnel Bobby Belair (formerly Atlanta United) and technical director Marc Nicholls.
For now, Ramírez remains back home in Las Palmas, where Charlotte’s first signed player Sergio Ruiz is competing on loan, but he is set to arrive in the Queen City within the next two to three weeks. A formal press conference will be held at that time.
 
“I am honored to have the opportunity to work with Charlotte FC, its ownership group and senior management,” Ramírez said in a statement. “Next year will be historic for the team and for all new and existing fans as we prepare toward a remarkable inaugural campaign. I am committed to create an entertaining, competitive club with talented young players and a unique style of play, as we build a stronger soccer culture from North to South Carolina.”
 
Krneta said that Ramírez has never been to Charlotte but he expects him to be “like a fish in water” given his adaptable nature.
 
“This is a guy that’s traveled the world,” Krneta said. “This is a guy that spent a year in Athens (Greece). This is a guy who lived in Qatar in Asia. This is a guy who lived in Ecuador, lived in Brazil, lived in Las Palmas, a small island off the coast of Northern Spain.”
 
“He’s a truly international, cosmopolitan coach,” he continued. “He won’t have a problem. He’ll love Charlotte.”
 
The sporting director said he believed there was mutual excitement about the match despite all the competition with international clubs over Ramírez.
“This is not only, ‘We found him,’ ” he said. “I think he found us somehow. It was the perfect opportunity, perfect timing, perfect moment for us, and we’re both very excited and can’t wait to get started.”

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Edited by KatsAzz
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