The Major League Soccer coaching carousel is busy these days. Last week, Toronto FC and John Herdman parted ways on Friday, just five days after New York City FC announced that Nick Cushing was let go with one year remaining on his contract. When the 2025 season gets underway, 12 of the league's 30 clubs will have new head coaches in place.
Six of those clubs parted ways with their longest-serving head coach this year. Philadelphia Union let Jim Curtin go after more than ten years in charge, while both Nashville SC and Austin FC fired their only head coaches in the short histories of their clubs.
Next year, the average tenure of an MLS head coach will be 1.8 years. But that number is distorted by the unusually long career of Peter Vermes at Sporting Kansas City — take him out of the equation, and the average tenure of an MLS head coach is just 1.3 years.
MLS | Current Head Coaches
| Club | Name | Appointed | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Sporting Kansas City | Peter Vermes | 2009 | 595 |
| 2. | Seattle Sounders | Brian Schmetzer | 2016 | 341 |
| 3. | Orlando City | Óscar Pareja | 2019 | 195 |
| 4. | LA Galaxy | Greg Vanney | 2021 | 155 |
| 5. | LAFC | Steve Cherundolo | 2022 | 143 |
| 6. | Real Salt Lake | Pablo Mastroeni | 2021 | 138 |
| 7. | FC Cincinnati | Pat Noonan | 2021 | 130 |
| 8. | Columbus Crew | Wilfried Nancy | 2022 | 94 |
| 9. | Houston Dynamo | Ben Olsen | 2022 | 93 |
| 10. | Colorado Rapids | Chris Armas | 2023 | 43 |
| 11. | New England | Caleb Porter | 2023 | 43 |
| 12. | New York Red Bulls | Sandro Schwarz | 2023 | 40 |
| 13. | Charlotte FC | Dean Smith | 2023 | 39 |
| 14. | CF Montréal | Laurent Courtois | 2024 | 40 |
| 15. | Portland Timbers | Phil Neville | 2024 | 38 |
| 16. | DC United | Troy Lesesne | 2024 | 37 |
| 17. | Minnestoa United | Eric Ramsay | 2024 | 36 |
| 18. | Nashville SC | BJ Callaghan | 2024 | 11 |
| 19. | Austin FC | Nico Estévez | 2024 | - |
| 20. | Chicago Fire | Gregg Berhalter | 2024 | - |
| 21. | Inter Miami | Javier Mascherano | 2024 | - |
| 22. | FC Dallas | Eric Quill | 2024 | - |
| 23. | San Diego FC | Mikey Varas | 2024 | - |
| 24. | San Jose Earthquakes | Bruce Arena | 2024 | - |
| 25. | St. Louis City | Olof Mellberg | 2024 | - |
| 26. | Atlanta United | TBD | TBD | |
| 27. | Philadelphia Union | TBD | TBD | - |
| 28. | New York City FC | TBD | TBD | - |
| 29. | Toronto FC | TBD | TBD | - |
| 30. | Vancouver Whitecaps | TBD | TBD | - |
That prompted us to look at the employment history of each club to see which ones prize stability (see: Seattle Sounders, which had exactly two head coaches since joining the league in 2009), and which ones are more erratic (see: Toronto FC, which are looking to hire their fifth head coach in five years). Then we placed each organization in one of three categories: Clubs with Tenure, Looking for Mr. Right, and Revolving Doors.
True, some clubs are tricky to classify. Philadelphia were a Club with Tenure, but now they're Looking for Mr. Right. Others are more straightforward: Sporting Kansas City are a Club with Tenure, while New York Red Bulls have a Revolving Door unlike any other in the league. And a few, such as New York City and Orlando City, might surprise you.
