Nico Estevez’s appointment as FC Dallas Head Coach brings to an end the interim role for Marco Ferruzzi. An assistant under Colin Clarke, Steve Morrow, Schellas Hyndman, and Oscar Pareja, Ferruzzi stayed in Frisco when Pareja and the Bazan brothers left for Tijuana and later Orlando.
After losing out on the job to Luchi Gonzalez, Ferruzzi transitioned away from day-to-day coaching to Director of Soccer Operations working alongside Technical Director Andre Zanotta.
Now, FCD’s Brazilian TD has confirmed that Ferruzzi will be in a new role in 2022.
Ferruzzi spoke several times last season of his happiness to be back in training and on the FC Dallas bench. A frequent visitor to practices even as Director of Soccer Operations, Ferruzzi clearly desired to have a pair of cleats on, working with the players.
“It was probably after the second possession drill where I felt ‘Okay, I’m in’, and then it starts pulling you back in. Then you start to give instructions, and you feel part of it. That was a that was a wonderful feeling, to be perfectly honest, and I thought it might have taken a little bit longer. But I think those old reflexes still are there.”
Marco Ferruzzi looking back on his first practice as interim coach prior to the season-ending draw in San Jose
In that same press conference, Ferruzzi described the feeling as being reinvigorated and expressed a desire to stay on the FC Dallas sideline, or another sideline. For a coach that had been with the team since 2004, and even stayed after missing out on the Head Coach job, that was the first mention of the importance of coaching in Ferruzzi’s future with FC Dallas.
I asked Nico Estevez about the status of the coaches at FC Dallas during his introductory press conference on Friday. He is due to meet with the current coaches and his new staff will be announced over the offseason, which potentially leaves a door open for Marco Ferruzzi.
The FC Dallas website currently lists Marco Ferruzzi as Director of Methodology, incidentally, the same position Estevez first held with the Columbus Crew. There is no confirmation as to whether that is indeed Ferruzzi’s yet-to-be-announced role.
While the title is vague in its purpose, the Director of Methodology effectively oversees that the methods and culture of the first-team carries throughout the FC Dallas Academy and Youth teams. That may involve guest coaching in practices and working with coaches to help define the organization’s identity.
That would potentially lend itself to something Buzz has spoken about in the podcast and 3rd Degree Burns. FC Dallas is experiencing a shortage of high-level coaches in the Youth and Academy. There is also an increasing load on Chris Hayden after the FC Dallas Vice President of Youth Soccer – and its 230 teams – also took on the duties of Academy Director in the aftermath of Luchi Gonzalez’s hire as Head Coach.
Ferruzzi would likely also work with players, much in the same manner as Chuy Vera, in preparing young players during their professional development. There could also be the possibility of touring FC Dallas’ 11 affiliate clubs in the United States and Mexico, something that Luchi Gonzalez and Francisco Molina – who recently left FC Dallas to resurrect the Avanti Soccer Academy he originally founded in 1994 – did to great success in scouting the likes of Ricardo Pepi and taking the ‘FC Dallas way’ to those affiliates.
Ferruzzi did spend some time in academy practices to shake off the cobwebs prior to taking over the first team in late 2021, and a coach of his experience at both academy and senior level would be a great asset for an FC Dallas development system that is closing in on a gap in quality after a golden generation has passed through to the professional game.