The Columbus Crew SC have rounded out their technical staff on Wednesday by hiring former Finnish international and veteran coach Sixten Boström as an assistant coach, Crew SC head coach Gregg Berhalter (pictured above) confirmed to the Columbus Dispatch.
Boström fills the spot vacated by Rob Maaskant, who left earlier in the preseason to take the reins at NAC Breda in the Netherlands.
The 51-year-old Finn has been a head coach at three different club teams, including leading HJK Helsinki to their fifth of an ongoing streak of six consecutive Finnish titles in 2013. Boström was fired early in 2014 after a slow start to that campaign. He also served as head coach at Finnish clubs Ekenäs and Jaro and Swedish club Örebro, where he coached US international winger Alejandro Bedoya.
Boström also coached against Berhalter when Berhalter coached Swedish club Hammarby in 2012 and 2013, and that experience laid the groundwork for the new partnership.
“I liked the way [his team] played,” Berhalter told the Dispatch. “We kept in touch a little bit since I left Sweden, but it wasn’t much of a connection other than I knew it was a guy with similar views about the game and a lot of experience as a head coach.”
An accomplished player with several Finnish clubs, including HJK, Boström represented Finland internationally in the mid-1980s. He joins former US international Josh Wolff and former Canadian international Pat Onstad on the Crew coaching staff.
