CHESTER, Pa. – A few months before the Philadelphia Union’s expansion season began in 2010, Jim Curtin decided to leave Chivas USA after two seasons with the club and move to Philly with his family.
His plan was simple: to play at least a couple of seasons for the Union before retiring with his hometown club.
That plan didn’t work out as Curtin’s playing career ended, harshly and abruptly. But less than five years later, the Philly-area native made good on his risky cross-country move in a way he never could have imagined: becoming the head coach of the team he never got a chance to play for.
“I took a gamble,” Curtin told MLSsoccer.com in a sit-down interview days after he was officially named the team’s permanent head coach last Friday. “It didn’t pay off. But it opened a door in another direction. I could have played two or three more years, I think. But the plan changed, and I’m happy with how it has gone.”
Curtin admitted that it was “scary” once he realized he wouldn’t get a chance to suit up for the Union – under then-manager Peter Nowak, one of Curtin’s former teammates with the Chicago Fire – and that there were many “sleepless nights.”
But, in large part due to the influence that Bob Bradley had on him in Chicago, Curtin quickly figured out he wanted to stay in the game and get into coaching. And shortly after arriving in Philly, the longtime MLS defender hooked on with the Union’s youth academy at YSC Sports, coaching the U-18 team and leading them to the 2012 Generation Adidas Cup.
That led to him getting hired as a first-team assistant in late 2012 by former manager John Hackworth, replacing Hackworth as the interim manager midway through the 2014 campaign and doing enough in the final few months of the season to have the interim tag officially removed last week.
“I wanted to play for the Union,” Curtin said. “But I’m a believer that things happen for a reason. It sped up my coaching process. At a young age, I was thrown into a great environment at YSC Sports with our youth academy. I kind of got a crash course and accelerated learning. I was able to catch on with the first team and kind of run with it from there.
“It’s been a quick process – quicker than I thought. I’m the youngest coach in the league. It happened fast. But it’s one I think I’m ready for.”
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It may not have been the journey he expected, but it’s one the 35-year-old is certainly relishing. And he’s often reminded why it was so important to come back to Philly in the first place.
“Just waking around the neighborhood now – and I don’t know if it’s because I’m 6-foot-4 and have blond hair – but I’m getting recognized a lot,” Curtin said. “It feels cool in your home city where you’re walking with your kids to the park and someone sticks their head out the window and says, ‘Tough one against Seattle’ or ‘Good game the other night beating Toronto’ or ‘Beat New York this week.’ Those things really resonate well. It’s cool. It makes you feel like you’re a part of something in the city you grew up in.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
