He’s back, y’all. Tata Martino is officially returning to Atlanta United as head coach.
The man who delivered MLS Cup in only the team’s second season, who made Atlanta United the hottest attraction across North American soccer, is coming home. Atlanta United announced on Thursday that our ol’ pal Gerardo “Tata” Martino has been hired as the club’s newest head coach, ending a coaching search that kicked off after Ronny Deila was fired the day after the worst season in Five Stripes history.
The contract is through 2027, dispelling any rumor that he’d only be here for one season.
It’s the kind of move that will immediately rejuvenate a fanbase that endured an atrocious 2025 campaign. Atlanta has cycled through Frank de Boer, Gabriel Heinze, Gonzalo Pineda, and Ronny Deila – not to mention interim stints by Stephen Glass and Rob Valentino (x2) – since Tata left after hoisting MLS Cup in 2018.
“We are thrilled to welcome Tata back to Atlanta United,” said Arthur M. Blank, Owner and Chairman, Blank Family of Businesses. “Tata is an exceptional manager who set the standard for excellence within our club and helped establish our identity in Major League Soccer. Since then, he has continued to achieve success on the global stage. There is a lot of work to do for us to get back to championship form. This moment is not about revisiting the past but about looking ahead and building a new foundation while embracing the continuing evolution of what it takes to contend in MLS on a regular basis. Tata is a steward of our club’s values with a proven leadership record, and he carries a championship mindset to everything he does. We are excited for the future of Atlanta United with Tata back at the helm.”
Tata’s journey since leaving Atlanta has been a roller coaster, to say the least. After his MLS Cup triumph in 2018, he coached Mexico’s national team for three years, winning the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup before the 2022 World Cup ended in disappointment. That opened the door for his unexpected return to MLS in 2023 when Inter Miami snagged him only a few weeks prior to also acquiring Lionel Messi. Together, they won the 2023 Leagues Cup and set the MLS regular season points record with 74 points in 2024. After Atlanta knocked Miami out of the playoffs last November, Tata stepped down citing personal reasons and returned to Argentina.
Now, almost a year later, he’s back where it all started in Major League Soccer.
“The further along we went in our coaching search, the clearer it became that Tata is the best candidate to lead Atlanta United to the standard of excellence that our fans deserve, a standard that he helped create,” Henderson said. “Tata’s teams have a clear identity, and his playing style and leadership qualities align with our club values. His success, along with his understanding of our league, is well established and we look forward to welcoming him back to Atlanta.”
The connection to Chris Henderson, Atlanta’s chief soccer officer, can’t be understated. Henderson and Tata worked together at Inter Miami, and Henderson moved quickly to bring Tata back to Atlanta United rather than going through the typical, lengthy search firm process.
Perhaps more important, though, is Tata’s relationship with none other than Miguel Almiron. Tata was Almiron’s idol growing up in Paraguay thanks to Tata’s legendary work coaching the Paraguayan national team and clubs there. It was Tata who convinced Miggy to take a chance on a brand new MLS expansion team back in 2017. Now they’re reunited again after Almiron’s blockbuster return in January.
Clearly, Tata’s task won’t be easy. He’s inheriting a roster that barely avoided the Wooden Spoon on Decision Day. He’ll need to work closely with Henderson to reconstruct the roster and maximize the talents of Atlanta’s DP trio of Almiron, Emmanuel Latte Lath, and Alexey Miranchuk – all of whom have to step up massively in 2026.
What Tata brings is a clear tactical identity that’s seen a smorgasbord of revisions going back to his immediate successor, Frank de Boer. His high-pressing, attack-minded style built around quick passing made Atlanta games must-watch in 2017 and 2018. He turned Josef Martinez into an MVP, helped Almiron establish himself as one of the best players MLS has ever seen, and created a culture that attracted top South American talent. Almiron, as we all know, would go on to Newcastle thanks largely to his success and cultivation under Tata.
The man has multiple league titles across various countries, coached Barcelona plus two national teams at World Cups, and won essentially everywhere he’s been. With the 2026 World Cup coming to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Atlanta heading into a pivotal season, the timing couldn’t be better to get the proverbial train back on track.
Welcome home, Tata! Let’s get to work.
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[…] off in a few days, the countdown to the 2026 MLS season is rapidly winding down. The Five Stripes, once again under the legendary Tata Martino, will look to improve significantly after a disastrous 2025 […]
[…] Pita is excited to work with next season. He will be coached by the legendary Argentinian manager Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino, an icon in MLS and South America, who returned to the club ahead…. Martino had successful stints at Atlanta United (2017-18) and Inter Miami (2023-24), where he […]
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[…] on Tata Martino returns to Atlanta United as head coachNovember 13, […]
I’m glad we hired the coach before re-making the roster. Hopefully the Tata magic is still there.
I think if he has a say in the transfers, the future could look very bright. TBH, I don’t think the current roster fits his style (*ahem Miranchuk) so its gonna take a lot of work this offseason by him and the front office. But for now, I’ll rejoice and welcome El Tata back.
We’ll know soon enough whether Tata had input – the year end roster changes (option exercises / declines) should be out pretty soon (7 clubs have already announced their initial moves).
I got a feeling that Mira is gonna be fine under Tata. I see him being the key/entry pass guy (a la Gressel circa ’18) that gets the offense forward-faster allowing us to be much more dangerous in ’26.
So how does this impact our roster decision predictions? Hopefully we will know the answers pretty soon anyway, but just for fun…what do we think Tata will want Henderson to do?
I think he for sure pushes to keep Hernandez and Hibbert. I’m afraid that his distrust of young players may spell the end for Fortune, Edwards, and Reilly. Maybe they stick around because of low salary implications, but as depth… even though I’d argue Fortune deserves a place in the starting XI. And even though he’s not on expiration this year, I think we see Saba make a return to form under him and he ends up staying a while. I’ll be curious to see what he does with Miranchuk if he truly is not being moved on – does Tata force him into the lineup even if it hinders the tactical approach?
I guess it depends on formation. During our 2018 championship run, we ran a 5-3-2/3-5-2 in the finals, but Tata ran a variety of formations during the whole season. We definitely don’t have the depth to run 3 CBs with the current roster.
If we go 2018 3-5-2 shape, I think we’re actually not too far off from players that could work with that, we just need more CBs. You might even be able to salvage Miranchuk. All assuming Tata can get their heads out of their butts and have a return to form, and more ambition.
LL – Miranchuk
Almiron
Amador – Slisz – Alzate/Fortune – Lennon/Saba
Berrocal – Gregersen/new CB – Mihaj
Compared to maybe stereotypical 2018(?)
Josef – Barco/Villalba
Almiron
Garza/McCann – Big Red/Remedi – Nagbe – Gressel
LGP – Parky – Escobar
If we go with more 2017 4-2-3-1, I think there’s more work to be done on the wings/FB, could probably use another 6, and Miranchuk is out of a spot, but there’s still promise.
LL
new Asad – Miggy – Saba/Lennon/new Villalba
Slisz – Alzate
Amador? – Berrocal – Mihaj – ?Edwards?
What I loved about Tata, is his creativity in assigning positions and recognizing skills to put a team together. He transformed Josef into a striker (he was a winger before 2017), he transformed Gressel into a wingback (was a midfielder in college). And benched DP Barco because he knew his skillset was redundant for what the team needed and reportedly didn’t want the signing.
In that 2018 final he put Miggy up top with Josef in that 3-5-2, put gressel in the CAM to allow Escobar to push up higher on the right and then dropped Larentowitz as the 3rd CB. But the positions, and formation were only successful with the right tactics where the CBs played very high and aggressive (see parky’s brilliant tackle and assist to Josef for the 1st goal), and by having the fullback/wingbacks bomb forward on each side for additional goal threats in the box (see Escobars 2nd half final goal).
It’s what we have been missing through the Pineda and Deila years, (though Deila tried a little more, he ultimately failed and was to slow on seeing it) by playing players to their strengths for the team as a whole, not necessarily their positions on paper.
I’m very interested in how he evaluates what we have in our group because on paper we have talent. And what he suggests we upgrade to compliment our core. I trust him for that evaluation more than anything.
I’m really curious how he rates Alzate who’s here because of Deila.
He always seemed to be in a position to collect passes for the wingers/backs as well as from the backline. A hybrid 8/6, which we seemed to miss from our other midfielders. I think he was solid enough to keep around.
Alzate is our Nagbe … Press resistant, secure on ball, quality dribbler who carries ball forward AND can pass the ball forward … I think he’ll be the key to moving back to front with 1-2’s into wide areas that break lines and allow him top move forward. He and Slisz/Fortune will be incredible next year.
Should we expect this to be the silver bullet that cures all of our problems? Absolutely not.
Is this change good? Only time will tell.
Will this renew faith in the fans? At least in the interim it will. We all had that same amount of faith watching Miggy step out of Hartsfield but it didn’t turn out as well as we hoped.
Short answer here is let’s be optimistic but also keep your guards up because we can’t expect everything to turn around. He had the ability to build his roster from the ground up last time, now he has a fairly set roster with changes here and there that will need to be considered.
Where this becomes interesting is Josef leaving the Earthquakes early. He’s had a bad taste in his mouth since leaving here but that front office is gone. And now you have Garza commenting on ATL posts about “well maybe some of us should come out of retirement”. It’s tongue-in-cheek, but what if it isn’t?
Let’s just say ATL are going to be building a lot of hype this offseason.
Guaranteed for me to be overly optimistic about next year, just like I end up being every year. But I absolutely need it, after this year’s disaster.
[…] Tata Martino returns to Atlanta United as head coach […]
Now sign Josef.
We may not win the MLS Cup, but now we have hope for 2026!! I can’t wait to see what the moves are over the offseason, and I now am glad I renewed my season tickets!!
Still pretty skeptical about how effective Tata will be this time around. Hopefully he proves me wrong. As much as I like Miranchuk, he definitely does not fit Tata’s profile player and Henderson already said all 3 DP’s will be returning, so something has to give in that respect. We will definitely need better FBs and a true DM for Tata’s system.
I think they will trade Miranchuk away (and you are right, he doesn’t fit the profile), and bring in a winger, a defensive mid, and probably a CB.
We need wingers and fullbacks more than we need d-mid and CB. If he is keeping his attack minded short pass structure, he has to have that supporting cast. A 7 man centerback setup like Deila always had is why we had so few goals and wins this last season.
Well Tata had Nagbe and also Larentowicz to shore up DM.
Bienvenido de vuelta Tata! Te extrañamos un monton!