Frenchman Wilfried Nancy on Saturday became the first black coach to win the Major League Soccer (MLS) Cup after his Columbus Crew beat the Los Angeles FC 2-1, but said the moment held mixed emotions for him.
The 46-year-old former French lower division player won his first major title at the end of his first campaign in Columbus after joining them a year ago from CF Montreal.
While there have been several black coaches in the past few years in the MLS, including his better known compatriots Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira, Nancy is the only black coach with an MLS club.
Photo: AFP
“Obviously I’m happy. I’m so proud of that [winning the title]. Because there is a lot of work behind that. There is a lot of courage also behind that,” Nancy said. “But I’m not happy at the same time. Because this is not normal. Simple as that. So I’m proud to represent, yes, to be the only black, but I’m not happy with that. So this is something that has to change.”
“I know that MLS tries to do that, but this is not only in MLS,” he added.
The MLS has a number of policy initiatives in place aimed to increase opportunities for black coaches, which Nancy acknowledged, but he said the lack of representation was an issue well beyond the North American league.
“This is everywhere,” he said.
Nancy has won plaudits for the way his Crew team have performed this season with an eye-catching, possession-based style of soccer, and he said he was delighted that his team beat Los Angeles with that approach.
“I am so happy because the most important [thing] for me was not to win, it was to be ourselves and my players did it,” he said. “That’s why we had the possibility and that’s why we won so I’m really proud of that as a coach. Yes, we can talk about tactics. We can talk about a lot of things but the performance that we had tonight was spot on.”
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