Christian Lattanzio sheds interim tag, signs multiyear deal with Charlotte FC as head coach
Charlotte FC has officially signed its second head coach.
Christian Lattanzio, the interim coach since May who supervised the club’s admirable late-season playoff push, has signed a two-year deal with an option to extend for 2025, the team announced Wednesday.
“I always had — from Day 1, even though the situation was not the easiest — the impression that I was working with a group of players that I had a good connection with, that I liked,” Lattanzio told reporters in a Wednesday news conference. He added, “The feeling was always good. And honestly, I was never thinking that I must do something to get the job.
“My focus — I’ve said it many times and I’ll keep repeating it — was just to get the best for this club in those circumstances. And then I wasn’t too worried about whether I would get the job or not, my worries were to give the best and to try to create an identity to this football group. And then afterward, it would be up to them to decide what they are going to do.”
Lattanzio’s extension had been in the works for a while. News that the 51-year-old coach was in negotiations with the MLS expansion team to return to the club came in late September — in the middle of Charlotte FC’s three-match winning streak that had the team in playoff contention until its penultimate regular-season game ended in a draw to Columbus Crew.
The team notched eight wins, 10 losses and two ties under Lattanzio.
In October, Charlotte FC president Joe LaBue confirmed that the club was in negotiations to bring Lattanzio back and told reporters that news of Lattanzio’s future would come “soon.”
“We want to head into the offseason, like we’ve said, with some consistency,” LaBue said. “That’s big for us. We don’t want this to linger. But we also didn’t want this to be a distraction while we were chasing a playoff spot.”
Consistency at the head coaching position has turned out to be a luxury among Charlotte sports teams.
Charlotte FC fired its first head coach, Miguel Angel Ramirez, only 14 games into the team’s inaugural season. The Carolina Panthers parted ways with Matt Rhule a few weeks into the 2022 NFL season. Hornets coach James Borrego was fired before the 2022-23 NBA season, and Charlotte 49ers head football coach Will Healy was dismissed earlier this month.
Lattanzio proved to be a steadying force in 2022. He preached patience during his team’s midseason slump and relied on routine when his team got hot. He regularly acknowledged fan desires, like when they began questioning Andre Shinyashiki’s dwindling role this summer, but he never made any abrupt changes.
Players said Lattanzio’s overall approach to coaching was understated and exacting and player-developmentally focused — and different than his predecessor: Soon after Ramirez was removed and Lattanzio inherited the interim role, team captain Christian Fuchs said there were “fractures” between the players and the Ramirez-led coaching staff and that there was “relief” at the dawn of Lattanzio’s leadership.
“Everyone likes him, and even fans, I think,” Karol Swiderski said of the coach after the team’s final home game. “It’s a fantastic culture. What he does with our group, it’s crazy because how we play before and how we play now, we’ve improved a lot. And next season, we can be much, much, much better if we give him also time to prepare and compete, and to give him time for the preseason, then I think next season will be much better for us.”
Lattanzio has a shiny resume. The coach worked with now-Crystal Palace (Premier League) manager Patrick Vieira from 2013 to 2020. He also worked under Fabio Capello — a Champions League winner and two-time La Liga champion — when he was with the English national team.
“The reason why we brought in Christian was to be an experienced assistant, especially given the fact that the previous coach was very young,” Charlotte FC sporting director Zoran Krneta told reporters on Wednesday. Krneta also signed an extension with the team this week. “So I thought that this would be perfect kind of balance. And also, he was also a (person who), in case we lost the coach for whatever reason, we had someone who could always step in for the shorter period or obviously now for the much longer period. So if you’d like, it was almost a plan B.
“I think that every responsible club or organization should always have a plan B or even C.”
Other Charlotte FC notes
▪ In addition to the re-signings of Lattanzio and Krneta, Charlotte has also agreed on multiyear deals with its scouting director Thomas Schaling and head of analytics Lisandro Isei.
▪ What’s the future of Christian Fuchs and Harrison Afful? The two had club options heading into the offseason and both had those options declined. Krneta on the defenders’ fates: “We made both of them specific offers that we believe are right offers for their moment in their careers. And it’s up to them and we’re waiting for them to basically come back to us with either yes, or no, or some sort of acknowledgment of that.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2022 at 9:17 AM.
