New York City FC appointed Patrick Vieira as their head coach more than a month ago and, on Monday, the French legend finally appointed four new additions to his sporting department.
Javier Perez and Christian Lattanzio have been named assistant coaches, Kristian Wilson has been appointed performance coach and Matthew Cook has been named the physical performance coach.
Perez has been the head coach of the US Under-18 national team since February 2012 and has also worked as an assistant coach of the U-20 team. Lattanzio, Wilson and Cook all join NYCFC from Manchester City, where they worked with Vieira for the club's Elite Development Squad.
“I am delighted that Javier, Christian, Kristian and Matt have agreed to join the team. They are high caliber coaches who understand my approach and philosophy and will make a significant contribution to this Club," Vieira said, in a release. "It was important for me to work with people I know and trust, but also, in Javier, to bring in someone alongside Rob Vartughian who has an excellent understanding of US Soccer and MLS."
Vartughian has been with the club since December 2014, and is currently the team's goalkeepers coach.
Prior to Perez's US U-18 appointment, he spent six years working for Real Madrid's development center. He also helped develop the US Soccer coaching curriculum along with NYCFC Sporting Director Claudio Reyna, who previously was the US Youth Technical Director.
"In Christian, Javier, Kristian and Matt, we have added four top-class professionals with tremendous experience in football across the world," Reyna said. "They have learned from some of the best minds in the game."
These appointments were announced prior to the team's friendly against the Puerto Rico national team on Friday night (7 pm ET; YES).
The club participated in an open practice on Thursday night in Puerto Rico, where they took pictures with fans and handed out gift bags. You can see some photos of the event below:
Photo credit: NYCFC.com
Photo credit: NYCFC.com
