Source: Steve Limentani/ISI Photos / Getty
Charlotte Football Club removed the interim tag from Christian Lattanzio on Wednesday, making him the team’s permanent first-team Head Coach. Lattanzio led the club following the dismissal of Miguel Angel Ramirez, shepherding the club to an 8-10-2 record.
Sporting Director Zoran Krneta, who also received a multi-year extension from the club, credited Lattanzio’s commitment to player development as well as his vision as reasons for retaining him.
“It was clarity of his ideas that won me over,” Krneta said. “He has a very clear idea how he wants to train, how he wants to play, how he wants to handle players, how he wants to manage the players. It’s very, very clear, he knows exactly what he wants. That’s pretty unique, that’s already a big bonus.”
The Charlotte FC job is the first head job for Lattanzio, who Krneta said had an offer to join his mentor Patrick Viera at Crystal Palace of the English Premier League that he turned down before the season. Lattanzio, who Krneta said also turned down an assistant’s job during the season at a club “in the UEFA Champions League Tournament”, said in advance of the appointment that he had a heart for sticking with the Charlotte FC project.
“Honestly I was never thinking I must do something to get the job,” Lattanzio said Wednesday. “My focus was to get the best for this club. I was not too worried whether I got the job or not. My worries were to give the best and to try and create an identity to this football group. And after it will be up to them to decide who to go for.”
Lattanzio connected directly with his players starting with the legwork he did at the beginning of the season as an assistant. That was a trait noticed by Brandt Bronico, who spoke to WFNZ’s Will Palaszczuk last week about Lattanzio:
In addition to the new contracts for Lattanzio and Krneta, Charlotte FC issued new multi-year contracts for Director of Scouting Thomas Schaling and Head of Analytics & Technical Scouting Lisandro Isei. Charlotte FC’s roster is frozen until November 7th, after which the MLS Offseason Player Movement Calendar begins.
