Wilfried Nancy

Last updated

Wilfried Nancy
Wilfried Nancy (cropped).jpg
Nancy in 2023
Personal information
Date of birth (1977-04-09) 9 April 1977 (age 48)
Place of birth Le Havre, France
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position Defender
Team information
Current team
 Columbus Crew (head coach)
College career
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2005 UQAM Citadins
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1995–1998 Toulon 9 (0)
1998–1999 Beaucairois 4 (0)
1999–2000 Raon-l'Étape 3 (0)
2000–2001 Ivry
2001–2002 Noisy-le-Sec 8 (1)
2002–2003 Châtellerault 2 (0)
2003–2005 Orléans
Managerial career
2021–2022 CF Montréal
2022– Columbus Crew
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Wilfried Nancy (born 9 April 1977) is a French professional football manager and former player who is currently the head coach of Major League Soccer club Columbus Crew.

Contents

Early life

Nancy was born in Le Havre to a Guadeloupean father and Senegalese-Cape Verdean mother. His father was in the French navy, and Nancy therefore spent his early childhood frequently moving, with time in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Djibouti and Réunion. At the age of 11, his family moved to Toulon and there he started playing organized soccer before moving to the academy of Toulon at the age of 14. [1] [2]

Career

Nancy played professionally in France as a defender, and began his career with Toulon. He also had stints at various amateur and semi-professional clubs, including Beaucairois, Raon-l'Étape, Ivry, Noisy-le-Sec, Châtellerault, and Orléans before moving to Canada in August 2005 to play with the UQAM team. [1] [3] [4]

Managerial career

In 2005, Nancy became a coach for Collège Stanislas, while at the same time playing for his university team, UQAM Citadins. [1] During his time at UQAM he was voted most valuable player in Quebec, in addition to being named to the first all-star team in Quebec and Canada. He also helped the Citadins finish second in the Quebec conference. [5]

After retiring as a footballer, Nancy became a full-time coach in 2006 and started coaching AAA soccer; the highest amateur league level in Québec. He coached Québec's provincial teams from 2007, and was also assistant technical director of the Association régionale de soccer de la Rive-Sud in 2008. [1] [6] [7]

He was part of the Montreal Impact Academy since its inception in 2011 starting with the U18s, then the U21s in 2014, followed by the U16s from 2014 to 2015. He was promoted to assistant coach of the first team on 7 January 2016. [7] [8]

CF Montréal

On 8 March 2021, following Thierry Henry's resignation, Nancy was promoted to head coach for CF Montréal becoming the club's first coach following their re-branding from the Impact name. [8] [9]

On 28 May 2021, after just seven games as head coach, it was announced that CF Montréal had exercised its option on Nancy's contract for the 2022 season. [10] [11] Nancy led CF Montréal to the 2021 Canadian Championship final, beating Toronto FC to qualify for the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League. [12]

During the 2022 Major League Soccer season, Nancy's CF Montréal lost in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League to Cruz Azul. [13] On 9 July, Nancy and Montréal owner Joey Saputo got into a verbal altercation, with Saputo wanting to voice his frustration with the club's loss to bottom of the table Sporting KC. After that incident, Nancy requested to leave immediately, but changed his mind after discussions with his players. [2] [14] [15]

Nancy finished the 2022 regular season with the second-best record in the East, while setting numerous franchise-records including 20 wins (with an MLS record 11 away wins) and 65 points in the regular season. [16] During the playoffs, CF Montréal would lose to New York City FC in the conference semifinals. [17] Nancy narrowly lost the MLS Coach of the Year award, losing by one-tenth of a percentage point to Jim Curtin. [18] Due to a clause in his contract, Nancy's 2023 contract option was automatically triggered by guiding the club to the 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs. [19]

Columbus Crew

Nancy was announced as head coach of Columbus Crew on 6 December 2022, after Crew were required to compensate Montréal since Nancy was still under contract. [20] [21] In his first season as coach, the Crew finished third in the regular season, with observers describing an attractive style of football. [22]

In the postseason, Columbus overcame rivals FC Cincinnati in the conference finals to defeat defending champions Los Angeles FC in the final which made Nancy the first Black coach to win the MLS Cup. [23] This was followed by the Crew winning the Leagues Cup and finishing runners-up in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in the 2024 season. [24]

For his success with Crew, Nancy won the MLS Coach of the Year award on 20 November 2024. [25] During the 2025 season, under Nancy, the club finished in seventh place.

Managerial statistics

As of match played 8 November 2025
Managerial record by team and tenure
TeamNatFromToRecordRef
GWDLGFGAGDWin %
CF Montréal Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg 8 March 20216 December 202279371725123105+18046.84 [26]
Columbus Crew Flag of the United States.svg 6 December 2022present136693730262179+83050.74[ citation needed ]
Total2151065455385284+101049.30

Honours

CF Montreal

Columbus Crew

Individual

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Duchesneau, Frédérick (16 April 2021). "Wilfried Nancy | Un grand voyageur au gouvernail". La Presse.
  2. 1 2 DeVille, Chris (21 February 2024). "'Impossible is an Opinion': Crew Coach Wilfried Nancy's Unlikely Journey to the MLS Cup". Columbus Monthly. Archived from the original on 11 March 2024. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  3. ↑ Ducharme, Jean-François (8 March 2021). "L'ancien Citadin Wilfried Nancy à la tête du CF Montréal" [At the head of CF Montreal]. Actualités UQAM (in French).
  4. ↑ "Première recrue pour Noisy-le-Sec". leparisien.fr (in French). 27 June 2001. Archived from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  5. ↑ Ducharme, Jean-Francois (26 February 2021). "À la tête du CF Montréal | UQAM". actualites.uqam.ca (in French). Archived from the original on 28 February 2023. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  6. ↑ "MLS : Wilfried Nancy nommé entraîneur-chef du CF Montréal". RDS.ca (in French). 8 March 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  7. 1 2 "Wilfried Nancy named CF Montréal head coach". CF Montréal . 8 March 2021. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021.
  8. 1 2 Bogert, Tom (8 March 2021). "CF Montréal explain why Wilfried Nancy was the right choice to replace Thierry Henry". mlssoccer. Archived from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  9. ↑ "Le Français Wilfried Nancy maintenu au poste d'entraîneur du CF Montréal (MLS) après le départ de Thierry Henry" [Frenchman Wilfried Nancy retained as CF Montreal (MLS) coach after Thierry Henry's departure]. L'Équipe (in French). 8 March 2021.
  10. ↑ Lévesque, Dave (28 May 2021). "Wilfried Nancy gardera son poste en 2022". Le Journal de Montréal. Archived from the original on 28 February 2023. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  11. ↑ Bogert, Tom (28 May 2021). "CF Montréal exercise Wilfried Nancy's 2022 contract option". mlssoccer. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  12. ↑ "CF Montreal defeats Toronto FC to win 2021 Canadian Championship". Sportsnet.ca. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  13. ↑ D'Amours, Tristan (16 March 2022). "Recap: CF Montréal 1, Cruz Azul 1 (1-2 aggregate: CAZ advance)". mlssoccer. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  14. ↑ Laradi, Elias (6 December 2022). "Is Nancy's Exit A Sign Of Bigger Problems At CF Montreal?". Northern Tribune. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  15. ↑ Téotonio, Jean-François (6 December 2022). "" J'ai été loyal envers le club ", affirme Wilfried Nancy". La Presse (in Canadian French). Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  16. ↑ "A record-breaking season for CF Montréal". CF Montréal. 12 October 2022. Archived from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  17. ↑ "NYCFC down Montreal to keep title defense alive". ESPN . 23 October 2022. Archived from the original on 25 February 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  18. ↑ mlssoccer (25 October 2022). "Philadelphia Union's Jim Curtin named 2022 MLS Sigi Schmid Coach of the Year". mlssoccer. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  19. ↑ Bogert, Tom (25 October 2022). "Sources: Columbus Crew make CF Montréal's Wilfried Nancy head coach target". mlssoccer. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  20. ↑ "'There is everything here to do something great': Wilfried Nancy introduced as Crew coach". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  21. ↑ ColumbusCrew.com. "Columbus Crew names Wilfried Nancy as Head Coach | Columbus Crew". ColumbusCrew.com. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  22. ↑ Rueter, Jeff (9 December 2023). "How the Columbus Crew did what others couldn't against LAFC on the MLS Cup winning goal". The Athletic. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  23. ↑ Meyer, Maddie (10 December 2023). "Columbus Crew coach Wilfried Nancy became the first black coach to win MLS Cup thanks to Saturday's win over Los Angeles FC". NBC Right Now. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  24. ↑ Mac Kay, Brianna (25 August 2024). "Columbus Crew wins Leagues Cup title 3-1 vs LAFC behind Cucho Hernandez efforts". The Columbus Dispatch . Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  25. ↑ "Columbus Crew's Wilfried Nancy Named 2024 Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year". Columbus Crew. 20 November 2024. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  26. ↑ "Wilfried Nancy named CF Montréal head coach". CF Montréal . 8 March 2021. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
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