Greg Vanney is cool, calm and collected as he walks through the doors at Toronto FC's training grounds. Surrounded by the familiar faces of his coaching staff, Vanney is a man swimming in ideas, theories forged over decades of playing and studying the game.
Fully aware that this is his chance to turn those ideas into actions, an opportunity as fraught with risk as it could be filled with reward, he is nonetheless serene.
But on the drive in, Vanney, a father of four, pumps house music through the speakers of his family-sized Kia Sorrento. It's an uncharacteristic, private ritual to get him amped up for the day’s work.
“The thing about Greg is he is the ultimate student of the game,” said Robin Fraser, Vanney’s assistant coach at TFC. “He’s one of the brightest young soccer minds in the country, for sure.”
Vanney is no stranger to MLS. Drafted out of UCLA at 21 years old by the LA Galaxy in the league’s inaugural 1996 season, he played for a number of teams in the league. He spent three years in France playing with Ligue 1 side Bastia, before returning to FC Dallas in 2005. With 36 US national team caps to his name, Vanney was one of the league’s finest left backs.
It was in Los Angeles that Vanney met Fraser and Dan Calichman. The former would be his partner at the helm of Chivas USA, where Vanney was his assistant coach – roles that are now reversed. The latter was his captain at the LA Galaxy and is now on Vanney’s coaching staff as an assistant, too.
The student has become the teacher at Toronto FC.
Fitting, really.
Growing up, Vanney was always surrounded by teachers. His mother and her parents were educators; his father, a high school administrator and a footballer, too. Between them, they helped spark a fire within Vanney, not just for playing the beautiful game, but imparting it onto others.
“When you meet Greg, you’re dealing with someone who has a very smart soccer mind and gets the game,” Calichman told MLSsoccer.com
That soccer mind made Vanney a bit of a nightmare for his youth coaches, though.
“Most of my coaches probably hated me because I argued with them about something in the game,” Vanney told MLSsoccer.com, laughing. “They had one view, and I had a different view, and I would argue with them and they’re like, ‘who is this kid arguing with me?’”
Even then, it was obvious where Vanney’s future would be.
“I always knew he would transition into coaching,” said Ante Jazic, his teammate with the LA Galaxy in 2008. “As a player he was always involved in youth soccer. I recall rooming with him in Hong Kong; he spent the entire time off the field creating a training curriculum for the club he was affiliated with at the time.”
That wasn’t a new development. Vanney had started his own club in Arizona at only 21 years old, baffling his teammates at the time.
“Robin and Dan were like, ‘don’t you think you should be concentrating on your career, and not so much on this soccer club that you’re starting?” Vanney said. “But this vision, these ideas… they’re things I’ve been thinking about for so many years.”
Vanney continued developing these ideas during his playing days in France, with Bastia from 2002-2005. It was an experience that changed his life in a noticeable way. Calichman and Fraser often joke that there was “Vanney” and then there was “Euro-Vanney,” a new man with newer, more refined tastes.
“I was a very, very simple person before when I went, just as simple as the foods I ate,” Vanney explained. “Hamburger, ketchup only. Hardly any vegetables. Never fish.”
Years later, French football still has a profound influence on his mind.
Vanney, who holds a USSF “A” Coaching License, recently underwent the Elite Formation Coaching License course, a joint venture between MLS and the French Football Federation. Vanney called the program the “master’s degree in teaching soccer,” one that helped shape his coaching style.
It’s a style born of many influences. Vanney credits Sigi Schmid, Bruce Arena and Bastia head coach Gérard Gili as some of his own teachers, but his signature style revolves around the clarity and understanding of roles, something he learned from his head coach at Marcos de Niza High School, Jack Smythe.
Now, Vanney is applying those same lessons at Toronto FC. His video-to-field lessons and use of analytics technology provide the data behind the madness, but it’s not maddening for the players. Jonathan Osorio described Vanney as “a good teacher, very patient, and a player’s coach.”
“Everyone is very comfortable with him,” Osorio said. “It’s not that difficult learning from him, as long as you have a clear picture of what he’s talking about in the classroom. When he needs to be a motivator, he is a motivator, and when the team needs to be calm and relaxed, he can be that person too.”
Those two traits – calm and relaxed – define Greg Vanney, the coach.
“He’s got ice in his veins,” Fraser said. “Nothing seems to ruffle him.”
“He’s not the rah-rah guy,” Calichman added. “He’s the kind of guy that comes in and does his job. That’s what makes Greg great.”
Well, calm and relaxed everywhere but on the golf course, where Vanney is most animated, according to Calichman. But at his core, Vanney’s patience comes from his family,
“I love having my kids come to the training complex,” Vanney said. “They love the game and they love being around the other kids at the facility. They have 200 big brothers because of the TFC Academy. My family and their support for me, I wouldn’t be in this place without them.”
His journey to the helm of an MLS franchise saw Vanney take over as director of both Real Salt Lake’s and Toronto FC’s Academy systems, though Vanney revealed he did come close to taking over at Chivas USA, when other teams were courting Fraser. But Fraser stayed on, and so Vanney waited and worked, envisioning a spot under the spotlight from academy to first team, a la Pep Guardiola at Barcelona.
But when Ryan Nelsen was let go near the end of 2014, Toronto FC general manager Tim Bezbatchenko turned to Vanney, and has now entrusted him with the keys to the most expensive roster in Major League Soccer, set to guide Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco to glory.
It doesn’t faze him one bit.
“I’ve known Greg a long time and I knew that the keys to the Ferrari weren’t going to scare him,” Fraser (pictured at right) said. “A lot of guys would probably be content to be in a situation where you have lesser players, which brings less pressure, but we dare to be great. We want to bring in good players and see what we can do with them.”
Said Vanney: “I’m grateful that they’ve entrusted me with this and I don’t take that lightly. All those steps along the way were opportunities for me to try to build things. Each place is a new place to learn and to build on those ideas, to learn what works and what doesn’t work. I do feel I’m ready for it and I’m excited for our prospects.”
