Luchi Gonzalez, who guided the San Jose Earthquakes to their most recent MLS playoff appearance during his first season as head coach 2023 but was fired midway through the following season, is returning to the organization as Academy Director, the team announced Friday.
Gonzalez, 44, will oversee all aspects of the Quakes Academy, which has teams in the Under-14 through U-18 levels in MLS NEXT, the league’s youth player development program in North America. Gonzalez, who made his MLS debut as a player with the Quakes in 2002, got his start in coaching with the highly successful FC Dallas Academy and served as its director from 2016-18.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Luchi back to the club,” Quakes General Manager Chris Leitch said in a release. “He has a proven track record as an Academy Director with the number of U.S. Men’s National Team players developed under his watch. … I’m eager to see him apply his expertise in this space and take the Quakes Academy from an already exceptional level to an elite one.”
Gonzalez was hired by Leitch as the Quakes’ head coach in August 2022, but because of his commitment to the U.S. national team as an assistant during the World Cup he didn’t join the team until 2023. The Quakes went 10-10-14 and reached the playoffs for the first time in three years by capturing the final spot in the Western Conference. They lost in the wild-card round to Sporting Kansas City.
Eight months later, the Quakes fired Gonzalez when an eight-game winless stretch left the team with a league-worst 3-14-2 record. Ian Russell coached the team for the rest of last season, and in November the Quakes hired Bruce Arena, the winningest coach in MLS history.
While with the FC Dallas Academy, Gonzalez’s teams won four national championships (U-16 and U-18 twice each), the 2016 Dallas Cup U-19 Super Group and made two appearances in the Generation adidas Cup finals. Gonzalez was involved directly with 26 of 32 Homegrown signings for the FC Dallas first team. Eighteen players who worked with Gonzalez in the FC Dallas Academy earned caps with the US men’s national team.
“I’m very excited to return to the Earthquakes as Academy Director,” Gonzalez said in the team statement. “Youth development is a big passion of mine. Northern California is a hotbed for talent, so I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences and working closely together with the staff to maximize the potential of one of the top academies in Major League Soccer.”