Atlanta United announce Javier Perez as Director of Methodology

Atlanta United announced today that the club has hired Javier Perez for the role of Director of Methodology, effectively taking over as the new academy director. The club described the position as leading player development, overseeing a player’s pathway from the Academy to Atlanta United 2. Former academy director Matt Lawry is transitioning to more of an on-field role and individual development coach.

Javier Perez, who will be working closely alongside Carlos Bocanegra to develop talent, is an incredibly accomplished coach, having led Real Madrid’s youth squads before transitioning over to U.S. Soccer. There, he coached the U-18 team in 2012 while assisting the U-20s, and he then assisted Jurgen Klinsmann’s senior USMNT side in 2014. Perez was then hired on as an assistant at NYCFC under Patrick Vieira. He was most recently an assistant coach at Toronto FC, where he took the interim – and then permanent – head coaching role in 2021 after Chris Armas was fired.

One of Javier Perez’s most unique and distinct achievements, however, is that he quite literally wrote the U.S. Soccer Coaching Curriculum alongside Claudio Reyna. Anyone in the country looking to gain their coaching license will need to go through the lessons and prerequisites that Perez helped write and adopt. This experience will certainly be valuable in the new role as Atlanta United continue to invest resources into the Academy pipeline and training center.

Let us know in the comments what you think of the new hire!