When Peter Luccin steps onto the touchline for his new club, he won’t be dwelling on what he left behind. His focus is fixed firmly on what lies ahead.
“I’m very excited for what’s ahead of me. I don’t think about the past,” said Luccin, who will be announced Tuesday as the first head coach in the history of Atlético Dallas, the club set to debut in the 2027 USL Championship season.
The French midfielder arrived at FC Dallas in 2013 after a distinguished career with European clubs. Once he hung up his boots, he transitioned into coaching, working his way through the club’s youth system.
In 2024, he was elevated to interim head coach of FC Dallas following Nico Estévez’s departure, but his contract was not renewed after the season.
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Since then, Luccin has been waiting for the right project, one that offered both ambition and autonomy. Atlético Dallas provides that.
“I’m going to have the chance to build the team from the ground up,” the 46‑year‑old coach explained. “I’ll be involved in shaping the roster, and I’ll bring in players who fit the style of play I want to implement.”
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Atlético Dallas will compete in the USL Championship, a league positioned one tier below MLS, but one Luccin believes is far more competitive than many assume.
The question he gets most often is simple: Won’t you miss the MLS? After all, he has coached at the highest levels, competed in top divisions, and lived inside the pressure cooker of elite football for decades. But Luccin doesn’t hesitate when the topic comes up.
“I’ve watched the games closely,” he says. “There are three or four teams in this league that could easily play in MLS,” Luccin said. “The USL Championship is far more competitive, far more ambitious than most people realize.”
It’s a bold statement, but he stands by it.
The USL Championship comprises 24 teams split between the Eastern and Western Conferences, forming a competitive landscape that stretches from major metropolitan areas to emerging soccer markets where the sport continues to grow.
Although it is a fully professional league, with players who train, travel, and compete like any elite athletes, the economic realities within the clubs are uneven.
Salaries can vary significantly depending on the club, the size of the market, ownership resources and a player’s experience.
Some veterans earn solid incomes, but others, especially younger players, operate much closer to the financial edge.
In some cases, these players take on additional work during the offseason, though this practice is far less common than in lower divisions such as USL League One or League Two.
The league’s visibility has grown thanks to broadcast contracts with ESPN and CBS Sports.
Atlético Dallas will play its home matches at the historic Cotton Bowl. The lease runs for the next three years, during which the organization also plans to establish a restaurant and office space within Fair Park.
In the long term, the club will explore the possibility of having its own stadium.
Over the past year, Luccin has immersed himself in the league he’s about to enter by studying matches, analyzing intensity levels and evaluating the tactical sophistication of the teams.
One game in particular caught his attention: last year’s championship final, won by the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC.
“I saw the intensity, the football they played, the way they competed,” he said. “People underestimate this league because MLS has more visibility and bigger resources. But on the field? The gap is much smaller than people think.”
For Luccin, the conversation isn’t about hierarchy. It’s about perspective.
While many label the USL Championship as a “second division” league, he rejects the term entirely.
“To me, it’s a parallel league,” he says. “Different resources, yes, that’s obvious. But football-wise? Very similar. The quality is there.”
After decades of nonstop work, he notes he hadn’t taken a real break since he was 16.
Luccin spent the past year traveling, observing and reconnecting with the game from a different angle.
He visited clubs across Europe, from Marseille to Atlético Madrid, absorbing ideas and studying training methods.
The time away didn’t dull his competitive edge, but it sharpened his vision for implementing a style of play that is exciting and fun for fans to watch.
Now, as he prepares to lead Atlético Dallas into its inaugural season, he sees opportunity rather than compromise.
The league’s structure and its growing talent pool all appeal to him.
More importantly, he sees a chance to build something meaningful from the ground up.
“This isn’t about stepping down,” Luccin said. “It’s about stepping into a project where I can shape the identity, the style, the culture. That’s exciting.”
Luccin’s talked about establishing international partnerships, creating a recognizable brand and building a team that reflects his football philosophy. But he also emphasizes something deeper, the connection with supporters.
“Fans are the heart of the Atlético Dallas project,” he says. “Without them, nothing works.”
Luccin said he received two concrete offers to coach in Europe, but after discussing them with his family, he decided that staying in North Texas was the best choice.
“For my kids and my wife, it was very important for us to stay here,” he said. “This is a community I know well, and one I love, because in the end, Dallas opened its doors to me. It opened its arms to me.”
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