FC Cincinnati: Yoann Damet being overlooked for Jaap Stam
As MLS slowly rumbles back to action, Jaap Stam leads FC Cincinnati’s hunt for a new head coach. And once again, caretaker Yoann Damet is being overlooked.
FC Cincinnati lost their last head coach over a reported racial slur. Ron Jans resigned just 12 days before this season’s opener. Both the MLS Players Association and league acknowledged that they found a toxic atmosphere. Former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam leads the shortlist to take over after he announced that discussions have taken place.
“It is possible, the interest is there and I’ve had talks,” Stam told Goal. “But because of the situation with coronavirus and everything that is going on in the States, it’s on hold. We just need to wait to see what’s going to happen. But it’s a very interesting league and a very interesting club. So, it looks good, but I can’t say if it’s going to happen or not.”
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He is available after resigning after only five months as head coach of Feyenoord in the Eredivisie. Stam resigned with the team anchored to the bottom of the table. The club would have let him continue, but he felt responsible for their poor form.
Stam was the manager of Championship side Reading before that. He led them to the playoffs in a brilliant first season with the team but then resigned midway through his second year after a terrible run of form threatened them with relegation.
Despite Stam pulling the plug so quickly on his last head coaching job, negotiations look good with FC Cincinnati. Cincinnati’s shortlist also includes former Houston Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear. He is now an assistant coach for LA Galaxy. A third candidate is Dome Torrent, former New York City FC head coach. However, he reportedly hasn’t gotten a formal interview.
The only name left out for the position is the only person still with the team who has actually served as the squad’s head coach before. Although the maiden season of FC Cincinnati wasn’t at all great, their form under Yoann Damet was a brief bright spot. Damet became the youngest MLS coach ever with a win in his debut when the club beat the Montreal Impact in May.
Cincinnati were blown out too often in their dumpster fire of a first season. Yet Damet cultivated trust from the players. Late in matches, they started creating chances to win and showed promise that this core of players could become competitive. After Damet took over and showed what he could do, Nijkamp acknowledged his ability to guide the players to improved expertise and quality.
Nijkamp and the Cincinnati organization had every confidence that Damet would keep the squad moving in the right direction whenever he served as interim head coach. That’s just what Damet did after Alan Koch was fired, and then again when Jans resigned.
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Yet, it is Stam who leads FC Cincinnati’s search for their next head coach. Whether he deserves that mantle or not remains to be seen.