Columbus Crew manager Wilfried Nancy has been named the 2024 Sigi Schmid Major League Soccer Coach of the Year.
Nancy beat other top MLS coaches like Gerardo 'Tata' Martino and Chris Armas to the award after another impressive season on the touchline for the Crew at Lower.com Field. Nancy guided the Crew to a second place finish in the Eastern Conference table in 2024 with new club records set with 66 points and 72 goals scored.
While the Crew did suffer an early exit in the MLS Cup playoffs to New York Red Bulls, the award is based of a coach's performance during the regular season. Only Miami's Martino managed more points than Nancy during the regular season with the historic 74-point tally, but having the game's greatest ever player in Lionel Messi perhaps adds an asterisk to Miami's performances.
After all, the Herons did get away with several unconvincing showings throughout the season while the Crew remained steady for the most part with Nancy at the helm. Nancy's Crew finished in second place in the Supporters' Shield standings behind Miami and two points ahead of rivals FC Cincinnati and LAFC.
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In the regular season, Nancy's Crew amassed the second-most wins in the league (19), scored the second-most goals in the league (72) and conceded the fourth fewest goals in the league (40). The Crew also averaged 2.1 goals-per-match, the third-most in MLS behind Miami and LA Galaxy and conceded 1.2 goals-per-match, the fourth fewest in MLS.
Columbus also managed the highest average possession in MLS with 59.6% possession to go along with 12 clean sheets. Nancy was able to do all of this with key players like Cucho Hernández, Diego Rossi, Patrick Schulte, Darlington Nagbe and Steven Moreira leading the charge as the Crew remained one of the most entertaining MLS teams to watch.
Nancy is the first Crew boss to win the award since the late Schmid in 2008, when he guided to Crew to MLS Cup glory over Red Bulls. Nancy collected 38.8% of the media vote, 43.03% of the player vote and 38.24% of the club vote to take home the award.
It also marks the first time that Nancy has won the award after being named finalists in the last three seasons after his impressive work in 2023 and 2022, his second and final season at Stade Saputo with CF Montréal when he led the Canadian outfit to 65 points and a second place finish in the Eastern Conference table.
The Crew announced back in April that Nancy signed a new contract with the club, but there will be plenty of interesting from European sides after his impressive stints at both Montréal and Columbus.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Columbus Crew's Wilfried Nancy Named 2024 MLS Coach of the Year.
