Wilfried Nancy looked proud after winning the MLS Cup in his first year with Columbus Crew. This is also a big win for the lessly represented black coaches in the soccer community, as Nancy is now the first one to win the competition. While he wasn’t the happiest about the same, he stated that he would prefer to have more black managers in the business.

Columbus Crew overcame 2022 winners LAFC 2-1 courtesy of two first-half goals from Cucho Hernandez and Yaw Yeboah. Wilfried Nancy’s tactics proved the utmost effective as his side dominated the game with 62% possession. As far as debut seasons go, it couldn’t get any better than this for the French manager.

Wilfried Nancy makes a strong admission after MLS Cup triumph

Following the MLS Cup win, Wilfried Nancy took the time to speak to the reporters. Nancy, who was proud of the unprecedented achievement, added that he was not happy about being the first black coach to win the tournament. Per him, there are other good coaches from the community as well. He also said, “There needs to be more opportunities for Black coaches.”

However, it does look like the situation for black coaches is better now than a few years ago. Back in 2019, former Colorado Rapids manager Robin Fraser was the only black manager in the league. At the start of 2023, he was accompanied on the list by Ezra Hendrickson of Chicago Fire FC and Wilfried Nancy himself.

The creation of the committee for ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ and the ‘Black Players for Change’ are welcome initiatives in this regard. Per Fraser, the hiring of Sola Winley, as the Executive Vice President of MLS and Chief Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Officer is also a heartening move.

While things are slowly improving, there is still a long way to go before black managers have adequate representation in soccer. Hence, let us look at the reasons why they are under-represented.

Why is the representation so inadequate?

Soccer coaches are often appointed through informal networks rather than a clear-cut application process. Delroy Corinaldi, the co-founder of the Black Footballers Partnership makes a good point as he added that black people are generally ‘locked outside’ from such networks.

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Just 1.6% of the people in major executive and ownership positions in soccer are black. There is also the stereotyping of black people, which was captured aptly by West Ham’s recruitment director, who was against signing black players due to ‘bad attitude’ issues. He believed that they could ’cause mayhem’ if not selected for games. From the looks of it, there’s still a lot of work to be done to achieve equal representation, however, the cause has received a major push forward after Wilfried Nancy’s triumph.

Do you agree with Wilfriend Nancy? Let us know in the comments below.

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