New York City FC to name Ronny Deila as head coach, ending long search

Nearly two months after New York City FC and former head coach Dome Torrent mutually agreed to part ways, the 2019 Eastern Conference regular-season leaders are reportedly set to name Valerenga manager Ronny Deila as their fourth head coach in club history.

Pablo Maurer of The Athletic outlines that Deila, 44, could be formally announced as early as this coming week. The development, should it come to pass, would fill the final head-coaching vacancy in MLS after Inter Miami CF (Diego Alonso) and Chicago Fire FC (Raphael Wicky) both recently made hires.

Deila, a defender during his playing days, has been with Valerenga in Norway’s top flight since 2017, and previously also managed Stromsgodset in his home country from 2008-14. He was in charge of Scottish powerhouse Celtic from 2014-16, where he won a pair of Scottish Premiership titles.

Deila would enter a formidable squad that earned the East’s No. 1 seed in the 2019 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, though was bounced in the conference semifinals by eventual finalist Toronto FC. They registered a club-record 64 points, and now await their Concacaf Champions League debut Feb. 20 at Costa Rican side AD San Carlos. Meanwhile, NYCFC open their MLS slate March 1 at Columbus Crew SC.

The move would continue a busy offseason for NYCFC, at least from a front-office perspective, as Claudio Reyna left to become the sporting director of 2021 expansion side Austin FC. As a result, David Lee was promoted from technical director to sporting director.

Aside from Deila, NYCFC have been most prominently linked to Dutch manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst this offseason. However, he's landed with Chinese club Guangzhou R&F.