After Greg Vanney announced the end of his six year spell as head coach of Toronto FC, the club is in the search for his replacement. One person whose name may be in the running? Former D.C. United head coach Ben Olsen.
The Athletic's Pablo Maurer and Joshua Kloke reported Wednesday that Olsen is on Toronto's list of candidates to succeed Vanney. Olsen has been without a job since October, when D.C. announced his departure from the job after 10 years as the head coach and 11 years before that as a player for the team. The club said at the time that they were in discussions for him to take up a different role within the organization.
Sources on both sides of the border tell @joshuakloke & I that former #DCU head coach Ben Olsen is on TFC's list of potential candidates to fill their head coaching vacancy. Will be interesting to see how Olsen's career progresses after 20+ years at DC United.
— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) December 2, 2020
Whoever ends up with the Toronto job, they will have big shoes to fill. Vanney was an instrumental part of the club's transformation from one that missed out on the playoffs to one of the best in MLS, coaching the first team in the league to win the treble when Toronto won the MLS Cup, Supporters' Shield, and Canadian Cup in 2017.
Olsen's lone piece of silverware in charge of D.C. was the 2013 U.S. Open Cup, but he and Vanney are both winners of the Coach of the Year award; Olsen won the prize in 2014, and Vanney won it in 2017.
