Nancy<\/a> has become one of the hottest coaches in the MLS in recent times on the back of his work at CF Montreal and Columbus Crew, and it\u2019s taken him to the top of the Hoops wish list.<\/p>\nYet the path has been far from straight forward.<\/p>\n
This is a guy who was a top prospect as a teen but ended up shuffling around the lower leagues in France as a senior, skirting the heights of the second tier before drifting down the divisions to the semi-pro ranks.<\/p>\n
But it was a fortnight\u2019s holiday in America that set him off in an entire different direction.<\/p>\n
Nancy pitched up Stateside with not much more than a backpack full of his belongings \u2013 but had a gut feeling to stick around.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Men in Blazers podcast last year, Nancy said: \u201cI\u2019m laughing, because there’s a word I like to use \u2013 serendipity. I could have stayed in France, having a nice life with friends, at my house, doing some coaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, again, from my parents, because I travelled a lot, I knew one day I would try to live overseas, to discover new things.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time my sister and my mother were living in New York, so my plan was to go to New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it was so difficult for what I wanted to do in terms of the papers and so on, and one of my best friends went to Canada a year before.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me about this desire to get better in football, to improve the quality of the players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018you know what, I\u2019m going to come on holiday for two weeks\u2019 but at the same time I met with some people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a good vibe. I\u2019m the kind of person that needs to feel things in my soul to decide something.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than staying in my comfort zone in France, I said, \u2018let\u2019s try it for a year\u2019.<\/p>\n
That was in 2005. Nancy managed to land a player-coach role at the University of Quebec in Montreal \u2013 taking on the under 14 girls team.<\/p>\n
It was a humble start he described as \u2018amazing\u2019, and he quickly made a name for himself, eventually landing a job in the Montreal Impact set up and by the time the MLS had a rebrand he was an integral part of the top team.<\/p>\n
That initial leap of faith paid off \u2013 but perhaps it was inevitable given his upbringing.<\/p>\n
Nancy’s father was in the French Navy and the family followed him across the seas.<\/p>\n
Travelling is in the blood \u2013 and also part of his coaching DNA.<\/p>\n
![\"Columbus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_SOCCER-SEP-13-MLS-Atlanta-United-FC-vs-Columbus-Crew.jpg\")
Columbus head coach Wilfried Nancy(Image: Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Nancy said: \u201cWithout that, it\u2019s impossible to be where I am now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I wanted to be a head coach, I was thinking I needed to be good tactically. If I am good tactically, it\u2019s going to be okay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so wrong! Because we have to convince and transmit a vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact I travelled a lot gave me the possibility to understand more people and to have more empathy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be a big star, you don\u2019t have to be Thierry Henry, to become a good coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key point for me is, if you didn\u2019t have this life, you have to be good at understanding people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you haven\u2019t played at the highest level, sometimes it can be everything by the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you are not able to understand the reality of how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Henry name drop isn\u2019t by accident. Nancy faced the France legend when the pair of them were teens and years later they were paired up when the Arsenal legend became boss at Montreal.<\/p>\n
Nancy said: \u201cHe had that desire to compete when I was playing against him at 16 or 17. \u201cThe Thierry I saw as a coach had the same competitive spirit. Obviously we had debate and discussion about the tactical view, because we loved all that about each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cThierry is a viber. You can be talking to him and all of a sudden he says, \u2018in 1982 I remember the Spain right back did this overlap after 16 minutes\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say, \u2018Thierry, stop!\u2019 But it would be true.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a lot of ideas but it was this desire to compete, it was extreme, amazing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith work you can achieve something but with mental strength you can overachieve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry headed home during covid and Nancy was offered the chance to take the reins \u2013 while the club was making financial cutbacks.<\/p>\n
He was a specular success and the bags were packed again when Columbus Crew came calling \u2013 where more trophy joy followed.<\/p>\n
Nancy said: \u201cLife is about moments. I had to present my vision. Confident but humble \u2013 this is something I try to teach and the way I am as a person.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was assistant coach I saw all the other coaches were all different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018you have to to take what you see and understand who you are and do you\u2019re own minestrone soup, with a mix of everything\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nancy will be right in the soup at Celtic right now, but he\u2019s not a man to shirk a challenge.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cTo have meaning in life is to have challenge. If you don\u2019t have challenge, it\u2019s boring!<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game is dynamic, and life is an infinite game, it doesn\u2019t stop. Adversity is more complex.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hoops top target has come a long way as a coach since he pitched up in Canada…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2817,18667,218,8058,101,2719,56,54,55,2198,106896],"class_list":["post-267998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-celtic-fc","tag-celtic-transfer-news","tag-football","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sports","tag-transfer-talk","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-universities-and-colleges","tag-wilfried-nancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_Screenshot-2025-11-16-at-165702.png\")
Wilfried Nancy and Thierry Henry <\/p>\n