Impact sign new head coach - Marco Schällibaum

The last team this guy managed was a 3rd division Swiss side in 2009. But hey, he speaks French! Priorities.

What kind of experience does he have in Italy? Lol

I look forward to seeing Mtl crash and burning this season.

At best, this looks like a Hans Backe signing

Saputo had very set requirements for his new manager. Sounds like he found them. From TSN...

When I spoke with Saputo at the MLS Cup in Los Angeles in early December, he told me he wanted someone with European experience but said that man wouldn't be an Italian. He wanted someone who agreed with the footballing philosophy that the club has and also someone who could speak both English and French. But one of the key aspects of the appointment was the desire to teach. Saputo wanted his new coach to mentor players but also develop the younger coaches currently at the club.
Schallibaum arrives in Montreal having spent the last couple of years as a FIFA coaching instructor so he has the teaching abilities that Saputo was looking for. He also speaks four languages, including English and French, and has almost a decade of experience managing in the Swiss top flight.
None of that means that he will be a success in MLS, but in a unique market, Saputo has managed to find someone who meets his requirements.

Well, we'll see how this works out since Saputo seems to have the meddling Serie A Italian team owner syndrome. Even money that MS will last 6 months in Mtl? lol

Wileman: Impact's hiring of Schallibaum causes quite a stir
TSN

You mean he'll guide them to three straight playoffs? Whew...good thing Toronto didn't try and sign him.

Schällibaum - fear the umlaut!

You guys still don't understand shit about the footy even after 6 seasons with a MLS club. Cute.

best of luck to him

The last team he managed was a 2nd division side in Switzerland you ignorant.

And btw he was fired even if his team was in first place. So yeah, stop bullshitting please.

Plus he's no Paul Mariner or Hans Backe, we haven't signed him because we are wannabes (like TFC who tries to act English) or he has a big coaching experience in Europe. In fact we only signed him because he has a very deep knowledge of the game. Hopefully he'll be able to adapt in North America (and I'm sure he will with the advice of a guy like Matt Jordan).

He also previously worked with Felipe and Iapichinno, who describe him as a coach who ask a lot of involvement from his players. Perfect for a MLS side imo.

at a guess, i'd say tfc was more interested in what mariner accomplished with new england than in england england.

I wonder how long he's going to serve as head coach...it almost seems as though he's been brought on to work with the entire organization and not just the players. Maybe a year or two before moving up in the organization/supervise the coaches?

I am not familiar with Schällibaum but results will ultimately tell if he's the right hire or not. I've read where people are concerned about the number of clubs he's managed in a short amount of time. There could be a myriad of reasons. Players, good ones, switch clubs left and right and they don't get scrutinized as a coach when he does the same. Fair of unfair, that's the way it works. Not having any MLS experience is more of a concern and historically doesn't bode well but if Suppuato is smart he'll flood him with resources to help the transition --- i.e. keeping Sorber and Hamlett on staff.

If he is willing to adapt to MLS and not be stubborn like Backe was starting in his second year or like Winter and Gullit was he will have a chance at success.

Backe did have some success because in year 1 he turned around one of the worst teams in MLS history. Then the front office turmoil plus expectations led to his firing. But he was given 3 years and he failed. But RB did have one of it's best regular seasons in 2012 and he had one of the best Metro winning percentages. (insert joke here about Metro incompetence)

A big part of this is what are Saputo's expectations. If he is willing to shell some money out for some DP's and expects MLS cup with a coach that needs to adapt to MLS while filling his team with random Serie A guys this guy is not being set up for success. This is a guy you bring in with a long term plan. You have to manage your expectations with an expansion team heading into it's second season. And he is going to have to lean on his assistants and guys within the front office to help him with the transition. Needless to say, but if this coach is stubborn like Gullit he will fail.

I don't get this hiring.

The learning curve will be steep indeed.

One reason why they are targeting a "teacher" who can communicate well is to help the Academy. The Academy is run by 2 french(France) coaches and most players are local and mostly french as well. The idea is for him to create a cohesive organisational system to help the team develop players top to bottom.

Who knows how successful they will be, but good luck!

Why is it that MLS teams can never bring in foreign coaches who were unambiguously successful coaching overseas before coming to MLS? The majority of the foreign coaches that have been hired as head coaches in MLS have either had little/no head coaching experience, or they have achieved relatively poor results and came to MLS because teams at the level where they were coaching before are not longer interested.

Since the salary cap limits how effectively teams can spend money on players, it seems like it would be a reasonable course of action for ambitious owners to try to get a competitive advantage by instead spending that money to attract the best coaches that they can get. However, it does not appear as though teams are doing this. Also, I question why most foreign coaches in MLS have come from Europe, even though better coaching talent can probably be had at cheaper prices from South America (similar to how you can often get good players on cheap salaries from South America).

When I made my comment wikipedia had AC Ballinzona (3rd division) listed as his last managerial position. It appears it was updated since then. Yeah, sometimes wikipedia is out of date.

Bellinzona is currently in the 2nd division and was in the 1st division and UEFA Cup in the 2008-09 season, just for the record.

I think it's a strange hire. Schallibaum hasn't lasted at a club for more than a season since his stint at FC Basel from 1999-2003, which was seven clubs ago. But you never know.

Seems like he should be the hire to run the youth academy and maybe coach the reserve team.

Players like Nesta and DiVaio are just going to order this guy around. In Italian.

Sounds like a nice guy, Felipe likes him, he won't rock the boat, and the Serie A vets are going to run the team by committee.

Also--when you hire a European coach like NYRB are about to, he's going to immediately want to bring in the European players he's familiar with from over the years, and then he'll run into the realities of the salary cap, same as any Mexican coach. Same as Backe did.

The South American coach (like Guille), would actually be able to leverage their home-field advantage in player acquisitions to a much greater extent because of the relative value of said players.

Maybe unambiguously successful foreign coaches aren't willing to come to MLS for any reasonable amount of money.

How many unambiguously successful coaches are out there, anyway?