IT’S HAPPENED! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ATLANTA UNITED HAS A NEW HEAD COACH!
Atlanta announced on Friday that Ronny Deila has been hired as the new head coach on a contract through 2027. He arrives during a monstrously busy offseason that has seen Chris Henderson acquired as the club’s sporting director, Will Reilly brought in from college as midfield depth, and Mateusz Klich signed in a robbery of D.C United. Take a look at our full transfer tracker here, but this is the big news everyone has been waiting for.
For MLS fans, Ronny Deila most notably led NYCFC to an MLS Cup in 2021, and has experience coaching a variety of teams on both sides of the pond. His most recent stint was with Al Wahda FC in the UAE, where he only spent 6 months. In fact, Deila was a name floated around by many as the immediate successor to the job when Gonzalo Pineda was fired, but he’s since been let go by the middle eastern club.
“I want to thank Arthur M. Blank and Garth Lagerwey for this opportunity and couldn’t be more excited to join Atlanta United,” Deila said. “This is a club with great ownership, excellent facilities and the ambition to succeed and continue to drive the league forward. I’m happy to return to MLS, a competitive league that I enjoy, and I’m eager to arrive and get to work with our group of players.”
Deila brings with him an attacking, disciplined play style that will fit with Atlanta United’s squad right now, but he’s also known for being flexible when the moment calls. He also fits Garth Lagerwey’s boxes of a variety of experience, and success in MLS.
The Norwegian actually has 17 (!) years of head coaching experience, in which he’s won four league titles and two domestic cups. He also spent time training with and studying coaching philosophies and strategies with Manchester City, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool, and Ajax before taking over as the coach of Scottish giants Celtic.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Ronny as the new head coach of Atlanta United,” Club President and CEO Garth Lagerwey said. “He has a proven track record of winning in multiple leagues around the world, including the 2021 MLS Cup with NYCFC, and his knowledge of MLS was a key factor in our search. We believe his style of play aligns with the club’s philosophy as we look to build a team that will compete for trophies consistently.”
We’ll have more after the press conference at 1:30.
Let us know what you think!
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So is the timing as reported accurate? He was terminated and hired two days later? Has there been reporting wrt whether Atlanta had already been in talks with him while under contract elsewhere? Otherwise sounds like there weren’t other legitimate candidates and this just fell into place last minute? Sounds to me like no big names were interested in the role and the club caught a bid with a guy who isn’t terrible…not great but in this league doesn’t have to be exactly.
There’s been many comments about how they’ve been in talks for a while. So it may have been a short term idea to go there and then when ATL called he said I quit and they fired him instead lol.
That’s how I’m interpreting it
Who? What? Why?
Same response for any coach we might hire that isn’t from Portugal or South America? Just curious.
The guy’s had a lot of success in our league (which was specifically important to Garth) and has had success overseas. Also favors an attacking style, which is what we’ve oft-stated we want to have. Those are the basic reasons why. Not sure who else demonstrably better we would have been able to hire anyway, but TBH, my finger isn’t on that pulse.
Man, I’m stoked! Mark these words, Ronny Deila is going to become a legendary coach for our club that will match or exceed Tata. This is an awesome hire for our club! Let’s GOOOOO!!!!
Really feel positive about this hire
Wow. No reason he shouldn’t be great. Garth has really added organizational talent this last couple of weeks. I do think it may take a year to get players for his style but it also seems he can be very flexible so it shouldn’t be a long rebuild.
I liked what I read about him in the most recent write-up, seems like a very good hire.
Great signing and a welcome reminder of how good that 2014-15 Celtic squad was.
What an incredible signing! Super excited for what’s to come for Atlanta!!! Now, we cook 😎😎😎