I'm not sold on ex-players jumping immediately into coaching. I would rather see one that has been an assistant in MLS or equal caliber league for at least ONE year.
Understand your point - but Leo has always coached teammates in skills sets, tactics, and attitudes with phenominal success. He expects and gets respect - he leads by example. His passion, his work ethic, his leadership [both on and the field] have been demonstrated at the highest level. Were you around beck in 96? 97-98? If so, do you remember his impact on the team?
Put in the Leonel camp as well. For what its worth, he is still playing back in Colombia. I am not sure if he is ready to hang up the cleats just yet.
Even more important in my mind is that they'd have at least a one or two years of successful HEAD coaching experience at the A-League level or equivalent Being a good assistant coach doesn't always predict success at the head coaching level (e.g. Dave Campo with the Dallas Cowboys). However, a guy who coaches championship teams in a quality minor league often does very well at the major league level (e.g. Ken Hitchcock with the Dallas Stars).
I missed 1996 but I remember 98-99. No doubt he was THE fiery team leader and capable of fouling anyone on the field at any time. I just see a big difference between being an on-field leader and: Making player personnel decisions Creating Game strategies and line-ups Communicating those decisions to players Designing long term practice schedules and drills Creating in-season and off-season fitness regimens and countless other things. I just think being a coach is a vastly different job than being a player captain who was also no doubt a solid leader. Its a much different thing when you motivate a player as their boss / coach than when you lead them as more or less a peer (player). Bring himn on as an assistant right now - I'll approve that request immediately but I want someone who already has experience in running the show, running the show. And I am ready to give Colin Clarke some slack.
I heard Hugo Sanchez is interested on coming back to Dallas and take charge.. Good news...Can't wait.
Without a lot research, I would say the Hugo sounds more attractive off the top of my head. That being said, if I'm going to pick the one player who had the most impact in a Burn uniform, I would choose Leonel (why did I think he didn't come until '97?). I'd be happy to have him as an assistant at least. Hugo would bring in a lot of interest from the vatos and he has experience. Not sure all the experience was good, but it was experience nonetheless. Plus, he's the greatest player to come out of North America ever. That's gotta be worth something. And he seemed like a cool guy.