Martin Vasquez becomes Real Monarchs head coach
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Jan 22, 2019
The Monarchs also retained assistant coach Jamison Olave and goalkeeper coach Matt Glaeser for the 2019 USL Championship season.
“This fits really well with the progression of young players in our organization and our philosophy of promoting from within,” RSL General Manager Craig Waibel said. “Martin’s resume speaks for itself and he brings a tremendous amount of experience at top levels to the Monarchs to aid in the progression of the players within our organization from the Academy on up to RSL. With all of the youth we have in our organization, this was the right time to promote him to the Monarchs.”
Vasquez, who played internationally for the USA and Mexico, was the Chivas USA head coach in 2010 and worked as an assistant coach under Jurgen Klinsmann at Bayern Munich and with the U.S. men’s national team.
Real Salt Lake's academy program, which relocated from Casa Grande, Arizona, to Herriman, Utah, when the Zions Bank Real Academy training center opened in 2018, has produced more than 50 pro players, including Carlos Salcedo, who played for Mexico at the 2018 World Cup, and five members of the 2015 U.S. U-20 World Cup team, Danilo Acosta, Justen Glad, Aaron Herrera, Brooks Lennon and Sebastian Saucedo.
The Monarchs won the 2017 USL regular-season title but have operated more as a stand-alone team rather than feeder system for RSL. The move to promote Vasquez signals RSL's desire to find a home for its academy signings. The current roster for the 2019 USL season includes 10 players with an average age of 24.5, but only one (Andrew Brody) with former ties to the RSL academy.
RSL has already signed five new players to Homegrown contracts for 2019, but it lost two of the top young American prospects when Sebastian Soto signed with Germany Hannover 96 last summer -- he played so well with the U-19s that he joined the Hannover first team for winter training -- and Richie Ledezma recently inked a pro deal with Dutch champion PSV.
Vasquez, Perez, and Ramos are three US coaches I have kept track of over the years. Vasquez and Perez I followed after they left USSF, hoping for their return. Ramos I follow hoping he too does not leave USSF.
Frank, I am more interested in what Vasquez has to say about the USMNT program than what JK has to say, but I respect that Vasquez has not publicly discussed his time with JK or his leaving shortly before the 2014 world cup finals. I don't expect that circumstance to change.