CHICAGO, IL–According to reports, Chicago Fire FC is set to hire Columbus Crew SC assistant Ezra Hendrickson as their tenth head coach in club history. Hendrickson would replace Raphael Wicky who was sacked on September 30th. This was first reported by Patrick McCraney of Hot Time in Old Town. Both sides still need to agree to terms and finalize the paperwork, but discussions are said to be trending in the right direction.
With a focus towards hiring a new coach who has either MLS and/or Liga MX experience, Hendrickson definitely ticks the former. Hendrickson played 12 seasons in MLS with six different clubs from 1997 to 2008. He then became an assistant first with LA Galaxy, then with the St. Vincent and the Grenadines national team, Seattle Sounders, and Columbus Crew. He has worked under three championship coaches in Sigi Schmid, Brian Schmetzer, and Caleb Porter; and is well respected around the league, and has been a candidate for other recent head coaching openings. He was also head coach of Seattle Sounders 2 in the USL Championship.
McCraney also notes that this will be the third successive coach the Fire has hired who has not previously coached in MLS at the time of hiring. In fact, only Frank Yallop falls in that category. However, he has far more experience in this league than Veljko Paunovic or Raphael Wicky which should serve as a plus. What would also be a plus is if Georg Heitz can help him put together a team that can deliver a consistent winner in Chicago.
