MLS-Cup Winning Coach Reveals Secret to Champion Mentality

Wilfried Nancy did not seek to become a transformative force in the landscape of American sports, yet the head coach of the Columbus Crew SC has been instrumental in heralding a new era for the once imperiled club. His leadership guided them to the 2023 MLS Cup, followed by the CONCACAF Champions Cup Final, then the Leagues Cup trophy.

Columbus are ensured a second place finish in the MLS Eastern Conference while setting a club record in points. They are formidable contenders for a second consecutive MLS Cup and Nancy is on the shortlist for Coach of the Year for a third-straight season.

His journey, his rise to greatness, his mentality and his ability to inspire everyone around him are all reasons why the Frenchman could and should be awarded with the MLS Coach of the Year. Yet his greatest accomplishment may be in bringing visibility to a reality that plagues professional sports in the United States - the lack of diversity in the coaching tier.

Nancy's Path in MLS

Frenchman rose through CF Montréal before moving to Columbus Crew

Nancy meteoric rise began merely three years ago when he succeeded Thierry Henry at CF Montreal after being his assistant coach, unexpectedly exceeding expectations, and leading Montréal to a new club record (20W-9L-5D) in 2022 that remains their best season in history.

That year, Montreal finished second in the Eastern Conference and third overall in MLS, just two points behind the Supporters’ Shield winners. Nancy was ultimately voted runnerup for the 2022 Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year award.

His controversial departure the following year amid reports of conflict in the ownership group fueled an even more impressive start to his new role as the head coach of the Columbus Crew, a club that resonated with his own spirit of reinvention and underdog achievements.

In his first season with the Black & Gold, he led them to their third MLS title, became the first Black head coach to win the MLS Cup and was also named a finalist for the 2023 Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year Award.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2024, the Frenchman whose own playing career was a footnote in his life, is well aware his name was mentioned alongside some other greats in the most recent search for USMNT head coach which concluded with the hiring of Mauricio Pochettino.

"For sure, this is something that I would like to do one day," Nancy said earlier in July at a press conference. "To represent your country, this is something huge. I have the pleasure to have friends who coach for a national team, they tell me that this is not the same job because it involves the country and it takes a lot of pressure, but this is also a really nice challenge.”

Representation Matters

Not just a coach, also a role model

The most often discussed component of Nancy’s path is that he stands tall in a world with few role models. He knows he represents minorities in a sport with immense disparities, not just in the United States, but in the world. He is the only current Black permanent MLS manager. His healthy perspective sees it as a responsibility, not as an external pressure.

Rather than dwelling on the realities of being in a class of his own, Nancy views the glass as half full. While MLS is lagging behind the hiring practices of other mainstream sports in the United States, it does surpass the current state of affairs across the Atlantic.

A report by the U.K.-based advocacy group Black Footballers Partnership (BFP) in 2022 pointed to the disparity between players and coaching jobs – 43 percent of English Premier League players were Black, but only 4 percent of coaches (across all levels in EPL) were. Currently, there are only two Black managers in the league.

“I have many friends in Europe, and sadly they cannot do their job because there are many restrictions for them. But I'm really proud to tell them that in MLS and in the United States it's getting better,” Nancy commented. “And this is not enough, obviously, because I am, I think, the second black coach now with Peter Luccin in Dallas. And we have Rumba Munthali, in Nashville.*

"But is he going to change the coach? So this is not enough in MLS, but I know that there is a lot of work behind the scenes. There is a lot of work also to give the possibility to everyone to become a coach, to become leaders when they have the competency to do it. So I'm really proud to be here.”

*Note: B.J. Callaghan is the current head coach of Nashville SC. Munthali serves as Player Development Coach since his role as interim head coach ended on July 22.

Under-representation extends into Europe where there are two Black head coaches in France's Ligue 1, one in Serie A, and none in the top tiers in Germany or Spain. While building on his legacy, Nancy has focused on living in the present, not allowing the bigger picture to override his responsibilities.

His attention has always been on building his teams’ abilities to play their game, their style, their mindset, almost in a blindfolded way akin to a meditative act. Seamless connectivity and relentless energy are hallmarks of Columbus, who are in third place in the Eastern Conference with two matches in hand against both Inter Miami and FC Cincinnati. Another MLS Cup or Supporters Shield are still very much in play for his club.

Yet, he doesn’t focus on direct results. Nancy’s focal-point is on the overall individual, in a holistic fashion.

“I cannot dissociate the brain and the physical part, because for me, the brain is controlling everything,” he said. “You know, to make an execution, to execute something, the brain has to be fresh and the brain has to be really important to do everything. So that's why for me, we've been trying to balance between the professional aspect of the game, but also with the human being. And we work a lot to size up and to balance with the human being, because I believe that if my players feel good, we're going to be able to produce what we want to do.”

Regardless of what transpires with the remainder of Columbus Crew's year, ultimately, Wilfred Nancy has raised the bar for the quality and expectations of coaching in MLS and the nation in the larger sense of bringing an often hidden issue surrounding lopsided representation between athletes and coaches.

For Wilfried Nancy, no challenge is too steep or lonely of a mountain to climb. His rapid rise to levels that take most decades to achieve stands as testimony to what makes him a worthy candidate for a coaching career anywhere he chooses. As he said to his players before they won the MLS Cup in 2023, "impossible is an opinion," and he lives that moniker with every cell in his being.